So far most of the Jaguars draft talk revolves around Jack, Ramsey, Bosa and Tunsil with DeForest Buckner generally as an afterthought.   He's widely seen as redundant and not a position of need for the Jaguars.  But the Jaguars have dropped hints IMO that he's possibly more in play than we think he is.  

 

The first hint was signing Malik Jackson.  Many people didn't see that as a position of need with Marks on the roster, and some general depth there already.  But they signed him nonetheless.  The second hint was going after Robert Ayers, who by all accounts that I've heard would have played as an inside rusher similar to Jackson.  The only other pass rusher they went after that I know of is Olivier Vernon, who is very similar in size at least to Dante Fowler and likely would have played similar roles.  

 

So it's not as much that they didn't sign an edge rusher, but more that they only really went after one guy.  This can be interpreted in many ways.  You could argue there wasn't anyone to sign, or that Caldwell just simply screwed up.  But I think it means something different.  

 

It almost seems they are valuing inside rush over outside rush, and possibly have some defensive scheme in mind that focuses more on players of that type.   I don't know what it is, or how, but I'm starting to think the people who think they couldn't get Buckner on the field enough to warrant the pick may be wrong.  

 

The fact that they didn't sign a single outside pass rusher in FA is peculiar with Dave Caldwell himself speaking in press conferences about the dire state of the pass rush and the idea that there would be "an influx of pass rushers".  Is he really relying on rookies and Dante Fowler coming off an injury to turn around the pass rush from the LEO position?  Or is the LEO position not as important as we're making it out to be?  Are they implementing a new scheme?  One where LEO isn't nearly as important in the pass rush as it used to be?  If so, maybe they value Buckner over Bosa.   Maybe Buckner is the only pass rusher they like in the first round.

 

I'm going to quote Alfie from BCC here who I'm pretty sure is against drafting Buckner.   But this quote is relevant:

 

Quote:I would expect, based on hearing Caldwell speak on the pass rush issue, the Jaguars to sign at least one upper tier free agent at the position, another mid-tier player and then someone in the upcoming draft in the first two days. I don’t think "pass rusher" is limited to just LEO either, as Caldwell continuously just stated pass rusher. That could be a linebacker, a big end who can rush, or even an interior lineman.

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