Quote:Monroe was a very good left tackle in 2012. He was not very good for the first few games in 2013 playing in an unfamiliar scheme that didn't fit him. If your point is that Caldwell made a good deal for Monroe after Gus ruined his trade value then I still disagree. His trade value hadn't been ruined to that degree. It was a poor trade value-wise. Caldwell didn't try to trade Monroe, he just accepted a sub-par deal from the first team that called.


 

Why do you keep bringing up Robinson and Telvin as if they were the other end of the trade?
 Caldwell got draft picks. Two low draft picks. The picks were used for Colvin and Chris Smith, not Robinson and Telvin. I'd rate Chris Smith as a warm body, and Colvin as the CB equivalent to Monroe, so Caldwell basically broke even. And either or both could have been drafted before Caldwell got the chance, there was no guarantee at the time of the trade that those players would drop to the middle of the 4th round.

 

An additional second to drop down to the 11th pick (what Miami offered for the very next pick) while keeping Monroe would have been a better deal. The Jags keep the LT equal to Joeckel and basically add a 2013 1st and 2nd.


And since you are arguing, based on the picks he got for Monroe, that Caldwell had foresight to know that the 2014 draft was going to be great, then he could have traded the pick used for Joeckel to (say) Baltimore for their 1st, 4th, and 5th round picks in 2014 (I'm sure he could have gotten a lot more, but for arguments sake ...). That would have resulted in the Jags having Monroe and C.J. Mosley instead of Joeckel, as well as whatever two players you want to claim we got for Monroe.

Finally, how do you know couldn't we have drafted Bortles in 2014 even at a lower slot? I hadn't heard of any other teams at the top of the draft wanting Bortles.


 

Monroe in 2012 was, in his best year, still a middle of the pack at best starting LT.

 

I keep bringing up Telvin and Robinson because even if they didn't spend those picks on Telvin and Robinson, the extra picks gave them the flexibility they needed to move up.  They received 4th and 5th round picks from Baltimore for Monroe, and used 4th and 6th round picks to move up to get Brandon Linder and Allen Robinson, and allowed them to pick Telvin Smith.  Do you think that was a coincidence?

 

Why do you assert he could have traded down with Baltimore, much less gotten what you suggested in that 2013 draft?

 

Finally, it's possible Bortles would have fallen past three if we had a lower pick in that 2014 draft.  But how far does he drop?

 

One more win would have had us at 5-11, could have us picking as low as 8th, just above Minnesota who finished 5-10-1 in 2013, and this is ignoring other teams that might have moved up in the draft order had they lost to us.  But let's stick with the 8th spot.

 

The 2014 draft order actually looked like this pre trades:

 

1.  Houston

2.  St. Louis

3. Jacksonvlle

4.  Cleveland

5.  Oakland

6.  Atlanta

7.  Tampa

8.  Buffalo

9.  Minnesota

10.  Detroit

 

Of that list, Cleveland, Oakland, Tampa, Buffalo and Minnesota needed QBs. Cleveland has claimed they wouldn't have taken Bortles if he lasted until four, but we don't know for sure, considering they took Manziel later that round.  Oakland wound up taking Carr in the 2nd round.  Might they have taken Bortles at 5?  Tampa was a year removed from Winston.  No guarantee Bortles gets past them or Buffalo, though in fairness, it isn't likely Buffalo takes a QB then with them just recently taking Manuel.  Also consider, that while teams may not have traded into the top 5 to get Bortles, consider teams like Tennessee and the Rams might have traded up into the top 10 if Bortles fell far enough.  Bottom line is that that assuming the guys Jacksonville got rid of cost the team at most one win, that may have been enough to cause them to miss out on Bortles, or possibly even have caused the Jaguars to spend picks to trade up themselves to get him.

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