(08-11-2021, 04:19 AM)Bullseye Wrote:

(08-10-2021, 09:18 PM)TheO-LineMatters Wrote: With Henderson, there is just too much surrounding this kid. It was the poor tackling red flags that he had coming into the draft, the body language he showed when he was drafted, the great first game he had and then the terrible play which followed, the injury and then the rumors which have been swirling around his supposed mental health issues. There's just so much. Usually when there is this much smoke, there's a fire. Trust me, I'd love to be wrong about him. I HATE wasting 1st round draft picks. It drives me insane! I want Henderson and Chaisson both to succeed, even though I was vehemently opposed to both picks. Worse than anything else, I hate seeing my team constantly losing, because of a lack of talent. I want to draft talented, young players which can pull this team out of the depths of despair that we've been in for decades. If that means admitting I was wrong about a player, so be it. I'm rooting for Henderson and Chaisson, but I'm also a realist and I just haven't seen anything yet that makes me believe these two were worthy of where they were taken. I sincerely hope they prove me wrong this season. I wanna start winning or at least getting to a respectable .500 record. I'm tired of losing.

I will start by saying my opposition to the pick at the time had nothing to do with any mental health issues on his part.  I did not know of any so I did not include that in any pre or immediate post draft analysis of him.  I saw the clip where he didn't seem happy, but it could have been he was just caught up in the emotion of being drafted.  But I read a subsequent article where he was interviewed and expressed a happiness to be here...so I brushed it aside.  He played incredibly well the first game against the Colts, had a lesser but still good game the following week, but has gone downhill since.

Last year was viewed by most as a referendum on Minshew.  He was coming off an incredible rookie year where he exceeded all reasonable expectations would would have for a rookie late round pick thrust into action the way he was.  I felt in order for the franchise to make the right decision at the most important position on the field, we needed to give him all the tools necessary to succeed.  Accordingly, my advocacy focused on talent on the offensive side of the ball that seemed to merit first round consideration in all of the pre draft speculation-the offensive line and WR.  My main three candidates for that #9 overall pick were Wirfs, Ruggs and Jeudy, with additional consideration given to Jedrick Wills, whom I dropped because I was uncertain if he could play LT.  The only other thing I had against Henderson is that he represented a temptation to chase need in the aftermath of the Jalen Ramsey trade, and that he would not help definitively answer the question about Minshew.  His UF pedigree played no role whatsoever in my analysis.

Sadly, I find myself echoing completely the sentiments expressed above.  My desire to be right about any pre draft analysis I offer pales overwhelmingly in comparison to my desire that the Jaguars get each and every pick right in the most spectacular way imaginable.  I cannot imagine any Jaguars loving fan who is not simply beaten down by the staggering, overwhelming, oppressive stretch of losing.  I know that being older than most here and being a football fan for some 44 years now, I understand that as a rule, losing seasons are inevitable and part of the NFL cycle that has and will hit every team.  But having no Super Bowls to our credit (trophies or even appearances), in addition to having only ONE (1) winning season since 2008 strains beyond measure the patience I have developed while learning those realities.  I am ready for this team to have an extended bout of winning.  Having that one winning season in 2017, being less than five minutes away from reaching our first Super Bowl, only to completely waste the considerable array of talent accumulated only makes that period even worse.  Knowing that we may have missed on Henderson and Chaisson trying to replace two prominent members of that 2017 team at two premium positions is pouring salt in the wounds.

The only conceivable solace I take in this is the team's poor performance last year led to us getting Trevor Lawrence.  But as great as I think Trevor Lawrence will be for us, that insane rationalization for bad draft picks absolutely MUST STOP!  That won't be a justification any longer because we have our franchise QB.  It's time for the arrow to point straight up.  After this season, there is zero reason that playoff contention should not be the reasonable expectation...but that level of expectation cannot be realized if we continue to miss on draft picks.

Well said. Like you, I am one of the older fans on the board. I've been a fan of this team from the beginning. I still remember sitting on the aluminum bleachers in Canton, Ohio in 90+ degree weather watching the Jags face off against Carolina in our very first exhibition game. I still have my ticket. I framed it and its hanging on the wall above my computer. In those early days, we found success pretty quickly. It was the best feeling. We were a nightmare match up for many of the powerhouse teams in the league. We came very close at times, to getting to the Superbowl and back then, we expected it to happen sooner, rather than later. We got spoiled. Instead, we fell on hard times and things never got better. We've been a losing team so long, I almost forget what success feels like. It sucks! I desperately want the Jags to become a winner again. 

After decades of failure, there is now hope. The main ingredient in the recipe for NFL success is a franchise QB. We've never really had that. Now, it feels like we do. That is huge. We cannot waste this opportunity. With QB salaries skyrocketing, the ability to put good players around a franchise QB is getting harder and harder. We must be aggressive in fielding a great team around Lawrence, while he is on his rookie deal. We may never get this chance again. Like you said, we cannot afford to make the same mistakes in the draft and free agency that we have in the past. We have to get this right.

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