I think we would both agree that our goal should be too keep our defense as one of the best in the NFL while also being able to re-sign our core young players right? 

Even with a 30 million a year QB our cap is specifically designed to be able sign our young stars. 

Take next year for example. Take Dareus's contract off the books and you have 10 million. Add on the cap jump and you have 20 million. Without doing much at all you have enough to pay Yannick an extension. 

Calais Campbell has been outstanding for us this year. Great guy, great player. In 2020 he will be 33 and have a cap hit of 17 million Vs 3 million dead cap if we let him go. Would be a prime candidate for release. A hard convo if he is still playing at an all pro level.


Barry Church will be 32 in 2020 and will have a cap hit of 7 million Vs dead money if we let him go. 

Malik Jackson will be 30 in 2020 , cap hit of 15 million , dead cap 1 million

These are just three examples. Obviously important parts right now but down the line our defense is specifically designed to be able to turnover the old players and sign the new ones.  

Myles Jack is a great talent and one of my favourite prospects ever.  As of right now I wouldn't call him a priority re-sign until we see him bump up to that level. Particularly given we'd have 20+ million invested in two off ball LBs alone. 

A lot with Fowler will depend on this upcoming year. Wouldn't be ready to call him a priority re-sign yet either.

I'm not as eager to move on from Dareus as you are. If the team is able to draft a stud run stuffing NT type this year, then maybe...  Those are some big shoes to fill.   I'd try to restructure him for sure though. 
 I concede that Church and Campbell may be easy decisions by that point due to age. Not sure the two of them are really enough cap clearing to warrant a huge QB contract. 

I see Myles Jack as ascending and expect him to be a very difficult player to move on from talent wise. I think he took a big step this season and will continue to prove he's worth a big contract. I also would not assume he can't become the full time MLB. by the time he's due a new contract. 

The A-Rob contract - should there be one - will also be a factor in all of this. 

I realize there are ways to sign a QB in the neighborhood of $30 mil per year and minimize the negative impact to your roster. I'm just not sold that it would be worth it from a value perspective and I (obviously) would much prefer to see them draft a potential 2019 starter to preserve the cap. 

I wouldn't hate seeing one of the "top tier" free agent quarterbacks behind center in Jax in 2018 at all. I would hate watching young elite defensive talent walk in free agency. That's my chief concern and I feel like getting a few years out of a solid QB playing on rookie-deal-money would be the best fix.

No I'd like to ideally keep Dareus too. It's just if you told me we could cut him and sign Yannick a year before his contract is up that would be ideal.  Ndani would be nice. Also keep an eye out for Tim Settle from V tech. 6'3 340 and move really really well.

Arob's contract can be done this year with Kirk's with little to no moves bar releasing Ivory and Blake. Maybe a Hurns restructure just in case.  

Jack can be the full time MLB no problem. Let's say Fowler is a 10+ sack guy next year. And Jack steps up a notch again..who would you make the higher priority to re-sign?

Thats what I mean by future proofed. Our cap is flexible enough to give all of your key young players contracts AND have a QB on a major deal. With minor loss. 

In an ideal world we have a rookie contract starting for the next few years. I'd say that's most teams dream. We had our best chance last year but still time and resources to get it done..

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LOL.  McCarron.  If he's an answer, I'm not sure what the question is.

Totally... If he's the answer, it must have been a really stupid question.

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I already explained but I guess I can do it again. I just went and looked back at all of the drafts since 2000, and I was pretty loose with what I called a franchise QB, counting guys like Dalton, Garrard, and Schaub since you have already played the next Montana card too. I set the bar low.

There were roughly 8-9 QBs drafted late 1st and later each draft (some drafts like 2004 had half a dozen 7th rounders alone so I didn't count those that would really skew it), and there was on average less than 1 long term starting QB per draft...so ballpark ~10% were long term starters. And a lot of those that did count didn't start in their first two seasons...so less than 10% chance whoever we draft is not only a long term starting QB type but also ready to help us in 2019.

And I'm still not saying don't try to draft a QB, by all means try. It's just not even close to the better than 50/50 proposition you said. If we do hit that's great, but the stick with Blake and replace him with our draftee in 2019 option is far fetched especially with our SB aspirations.

Again. 

No one said anything about a "long term starter." 
I said "better than Blake Bortles."  This team doesn't need a top tier QB to win. They need a marginal upgrade. They may not even need that if they get some better run blocking. 

I look at Bridgewater, Prescott, Carr, Garappolo and even UDFA Keenum and see plenty of reason to be optimistic the Jags can find a 2019 decent starter in this draft.  Nothing in this league is easy - and that includes drafting a decent QB - but I want no part of dismantling this defense in two years to sign a marginal upgrade for way too much money. 

And for the 4th time - stop acting like the team is relegated to choosing a QB at #29 or later. They can move up.

I'd also prefer to keep those SB aspirations you mention intact for a longer window. I think the way to do that is to preserve a championship caliber defense. Not to shoehorn in a makeshift QB.

I'm starting to look at QB options so I just spent some time watching Lamar Jackson. Having done so, I really don't feel that his arm is even as good as Bortles. He's fast on his feet, but his passing is a work in progress, and he's well behind Blake in this regard. He is young tho... only 20. 

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'02

Jackson's arm not as good as Bortles? Yikes, that's gonna be a hard disagree from me. Lamar gets way more velocity from much quicker and more compact release. They both have accuracy issues but Lamar's are probably going to be much easier to fix (narrow, inconsistent base). That's one of the easiest mechanical flaws to work on.

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Jackson's arm not as good as Bortles? Yikes, that's gonna be a hard disagree from me. Lamar gets way more velocity from much quicker and more compact release. They both have accuracy issues but Lamar's are probably going to be much easier to fix (narrow, inconsistent base). That's one of the easiest mechanical flaws to work on.

Jackson may be better coming out of college, but Blake has had a few years in the NFL developing his arm and is well ahead of the learning curve in that regard. Lamar is said to be very inconsistent flat out missing a number of his throws, so I wonder if we really want to go through that again. I do see him developing his arm in time, but if thrown out there as a rookie he'll probably have to depend on his legs more to get by.

That said, I do think he might one day be the next Steve McNair as I can see him surpassing the likes of other running QBs such as Garrard.

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'02