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JagJohn
Journeyman
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Posts: 1,464
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Who has watched 'The Hunt', the new video on the main site following the Jags throughout the offseason? It's mildly interesting, but one part stood out to me; Doug giving what sounds like a motivational speech to Jaguars staff (not players). It's interesting because you almost never hear a coach admit so openly that they are under so much pressure to win now: "When we don't win football games I've screwed everyone in this room, not only everyone in this room, but all their families and everyone there. But I promise you this, I am gonna get after it this year. We gotta win or... that's it. Ok... That's the truth... But I'll tell you this, we're going down swinging."
The question now is: How will this extreme win-now philosophy shape our off-season actions?
First of all, it worries me for many reasons. If you are blinkered towards only thinking about how competitive you can be in the upcoming season, and not thinking about 2,3,4,5 years down the line, you can make decisions that actively hurt your team in the long-term. Examples of this could be:
- trading away future draft capital (of which we have plenty) to try to fill immediate needs.
- giving out / restructuring contracts that push big cap hits into the future
- reaching for significantly less talented players in the draft because they fill an immediate need
There are, of course, examples of all of these things working out well for teams, but generally speaking these things are hallmarks of badly-run franchises who are destined to spend year after year facing the same problems.
Over the next month or so we will get a clear idea of just how far Dave and Doug are willing to push this win-now mentality, with re-signings and the start of FA being particularly revealing.
Based on this win-now philosophy, here are a few vague predictions for the offseason:
1. We will find a way to be active in FA and spend more than people expect.
2. Our two first rounders will be players at postions of need that can immediately hit the ground running. Controversially (maybe) I think this might mean they don't go LT early, because rookie LTs do not usually equate to immediate success, especially paired with a young QB. CB, WR, S, LB might all be more likely positions based on the immediate impact they could make. I think they may go with the devil-they-know in Cam Robinson and hope he can improve on the distinctly average level of play he showed last year.
3. There is pretty much zero chance we take a QB in the draft, especially early.
What are your thoughts on the win-now approach?
