Quote:Another thing about talent...

 

Does Caldwell have a blind spot for defense?  Is he more confident making the offensive picks, and is letting Gus have a bigger role in influencing defensive picks?

 

Caldwell was there when ATL bet the farm on Julio Jones.  He got a great player.  Bortles was his guy.  He got him.  I don't see a Julio Jones or Blake Bortles pick on the defensive side of the ball.  Fowler seems more like a Bradley influenced pick, one that fits the unicorn "LEO" role.

 

I may be wrong, but it sure did seem like Caldwell did the gushing about Bortles, and Gus about Fowler.

An interesting inquiry...not one to which I have given much thought.

 

I guess there are arguments supporting either side.

 

In the affirmative, the defensive draft picks he has spent, as a general rule, have not panned out as hoped.  Telvin Smith is the one defensive draft pick who looks like he could be a star.  Colvin is probably the next best defensive pick.  The others have either been too injured to really contribute (Fowler, Sample), or too inconsistent to be reliable (Cyprien, Gratz).

 

Negatively, there is the argument the team really hasn't invested too much in terms of draft choices to adequately evaluate.  The overwhelming majority of his draft picks-especially the high picks-have been offensive players.  You could also argue he hs had some pretty good defensive free agent signings.  Though the bulk of his defensive FA signings designed in large part to be stop gap, he has gotten a Pro Bowl out of Senderrick Marks, he got an 8 sack season out of a clearly declining Chris Clemons, and the signing of House has given the Jaguars perhaps their best CB since Rashean Mathis (though Mathis in his prime is clearly better than House).

 

I think ultimately-and unfairly-the one way he can put that to rest once and for all is to have a defensive offseason equivalent to the 2014 class.  Some top tier free agency signings plus a stellar defensive draft that provides the same kind of immediate impact and longer term potential the draft of 2014 did for the offense would provide a definitive answer to that question and ultimately answer the question whether his longer term theory about being easier to build a defense is correct.

---