So far, under the current regime for the 2 years they've been totally in charge, we've gone from horrible to above average.  So, if by "future success" you mean winning the Super Bowl, the answer is, not yet.  We still need to keep building the roster.  

But that doesn't make we want to fire anyone.  That would be ridiculous.

See that’s the rub here. Baalke has been here far longer than 2 years. 

The roster is better. That’s true but the Jags will no longer have the most cap space or the best draft positions so long as Trevor is here. They need someone who is a truly good at evaluating talent. The Rams haven’t had a 1st rounder in forever and yet they keep hitting on talent because of McVay and Snead. 

I like some of the stuff Baalke has done but if the decision were up to me, regardless of how the season plays out, I’m firing Baalke.

If we win the SB you're firing Baalke?  How the season plays out definitely makes a difference.  If this team miraculously starts figuring out a way to win while getting healthy and we win a few playoff games I'll keep Baalke. There is about s 1% chance of that happening but the way the season ends absolutely makes a difference on if he stays or not.  They way you finish the season is what matters anyway.

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Balkes inability to protect our franchise QB is in itself a fireable offense. Nobody needs another reason. The piss poor O-line he assembled caused our young star qb to have a sprained mcl, a high ankle sprain, a concussion, and a sprained shoulder. If he wasn't built from elastic I imagine he would have on the IR long ago. Balke had his chance and he failed, it's time to bring in someone else before its too late.

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There was a time earlier in the season when the Jags could've hung with or beaten anyone. What's changed is injuries started piling up and those injuries put a magnifying glass on how bad the interior o-line is/was. When healthy, we could overcome the o-line deficiency with superior skill position personnel and scheme. We've not been able to do that with injuries to key guys that have either kept them out or negatively affected their play on the field. If we can somehow beat these two otherwise very beatable teams on our schedule and get in to the playoffs and get guys like Kirk back and others closer to 100%, then the Browns or whoever coming in don't scare me.

We got very lucky with injuries last year. In retrospect, we should've expected that luck to run out to some extent this year.

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Balkes inability to protect our franchise QB is in itself a fireable offense. Nobody needs another reason. The piss poor O-line he assembled caused our young star qb to have a sprained mcl, a high ankle sprain, a concussion, and a sprained shoulder. If he wasn't built from elastic I imagine he would have on the IR long ago. Balke had his chance and he failed, it's time to bring in someone else before its too late.

If they are going to fire him - this ^  is enough and it should be the reason. 
The only issue is to what degree the HC influenced the decision making around the OL complacency. 

I started a thread back in October of 2022 regarding the bad play at LG and Center only to get bashed by no fewer than 14 different board members who thought those positions were not a problem. 

By the time the thread was nearing its conclusion in February before the draft and free agency I summarized my points from the thread thusly:

posted 2-12-23

If you want general conclusions about what I'm seeing from this OL while reviewing these (2022) games in all-22 and all of the stats associated with them:

• Our QB got hit 36 times last year. More than a third of those appeared wholly unnecessary and strictly due to poor line play and one of them nearly ended his season before we could complete our run to the postseason. 
  
• Our QB was the fourth most hurried QB in the league 
  
• 2.5 seconds is the accepted benchmark for pocket time before release for quality QBs - Trevor is getting it out in 2.2 because he doesn't have a choice on the majority of snaps - he's under pressure well before that time elapses far too often
  
• Our ability to throw deep would have a major uptick if that number went to 2.5 or 2.6  seconds - we rarely even try to do so with our current situation - 21 teams attempted 30 yard passes or greater more often than the Jags last year
  
• Trevor not only rarely has the benchmark of 2.5 seconds to work with, he rarely has a pocket to work within, often forced to move laterally or he's unable to step into a throw without contact with his own lineman or a defender
  
• 27 Quarterbacks in the NFL with 8 or more starts in 2022 experienced more pocket time than Trevor Lawrence. 
  
• What do you think he'd accomplish with league average pocket time compared to what he's getting? 
  

My conclusions are basic and obvious. 
The interior line is not good enough. (neither is Robinson, but that's another thread) 

Not adding competition to compete with Bartch, Fortner and Scherff would be a big mistake. 
Scherff may come around when healthy.
Fortner may get stronger and quicker to read defensive stunts.
Bartch may come back from injury and play significantly better than Shatley did.

Personally - I think we are squandering great opportunity if we just sit back and roll the dice on those things working out well. 

We are also risking the health of the most important piece of the puzzle that represents our current window of repeated postseason opportunity.

I want to protect the kid, and I want him to have a fair shot of reaching his potential. 
Simple.

Given what we've seen this year, I can't imagine that these points would be met with so much disagreement now. 

And, ultimately it falls to Baalke. 
If Pederson was influencing these decisions - then Khan will know. 
We may never know.

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Balkes inability to protect our franchise QB is in itself a fireable offense. Nobody needs another reason. The piss poor O-line he assembled caused our young star qb to have a sprained mcl, a high ankle sprain, a concussion, and a sprained shoulder. If he wasn't built from elastic I imagine he would have on the IR long ago. Balke had his chance and he failed, it's time to bring in someone else before its too late.

If they are going to fire him - this ^  is enough and it should be the reason. 
The only issue is to what degree the HC influenced the decision making around the OL complacency. 

I started a thread back in October of 2022 regarding the bad play at LG and Center only to get bashed by no fewer than 14 different board members who thought those positions were not a problem. 

By the time the thread was nearing its conclusion in February before the draft and free agency I summarized my points from the thread thusly:

posted 2-12-23

If you want general conclusions about what I'm seeing from this OL while reviewing these (2022) games in all-22 and all of the stats associated with them:

• Our QB got hit 36 times last year. More than a third of those appeared wholly unnecessary and strictly due to poor line play and one of them nearly ended his season before we could complete our run to the postseason. 
  
• Our QB was the fourth most hurried QB in the league 
  
• 2.5 seconds is the accepted benchmark for pocket time before release for quality QBs - Trevor is getting it out in 2.2 because he doesn't have a choice on the majority of snaps - he's under pressure well before that time elapses far too often
  
• Our ability to throw deep would have a major uptick if that number went to 2.5 or 2.6  seconds - we rarely even try to do so with our current situation - 21 teams attempted 30 yard passes or greater more often than the Jags last year
  
• Trevor not only rarely has the benchmark of 2.5 seconds to work with, he rarely has a pocket to work within, often forced to move laterally or he's unable to step into a throw without contact with his own lineman or a defender
  
• 27 Quarterbacks in the NFL with 8 or more starts in 2022 experienced more pocket time than Trevor Lawrence. 
  
• What do you think he'd accomplish with league average pocket time compared to what he's getting? 
  

My conclusions are basic and obvious. 
The interior line is not good enough. (neither is Robinson, but that's another thread) 

Not adding competition to compete with Bartch, Fortner and Scherff would be a big mistake. 
Scherff may come around when healthy.
Fortner may get stronger and quicker to read defensive stunts.
Bartch may come back from injury and play significantly better than Shatley did.

Personally - I think we are squandering great opportunity if we just sit back and roll the dice on those things working out well. 

We are also risking the health of the most important piece of the puzzle that represents our current window of repeated postseason opportunity.

I want to protect the kid, and I want him to have a fair shot of reaching his potential. 
Simple.

Given what we've seen this year, I can't imagine that these points would be met with so much disagreement now. 

And, ultimately it falls to Baalke. 
If Pederson was influencing these decisions - then Khan will know. 
We may never know.

The only way Baalke should be able to stay is if Doug was the guy making all the draft picks and Khan should already know if that's the case. However even that on its own shouldn't be enough, for Baalke to stay he'd need to be able to show he'd have taken good players the last couple of drafts, somehow. I'll not sure how he could show that, but that's what he should need to show to keep his job.

The lady two drafts have been masterclasses on how to evaporate draft value.

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What I see  is a lot is people already hated Balkee before Pederson got here, I remember people [BLEEP] on him because Leftwich didin't accept a job here, so, no matter what he do the negative will always  weigh more than the positive, it looks like people prefer the team to be bad just so they can say " I was right!".
To me Balkee is doing a ok to good job, lets look at the draft, a lot of people saying he can't draft, but is this true??? Let's analyze:

        2022 Draft:
Walker and  Lloyd: Everybody was talking [BLEEP] about this duo, people said that they where a bust, bad picks, and using them as a prove that balkee can't draft, but look at them now, they made a huge jump: Walker is second in sacks just behind Josh with 7, and Lloyd is second in tackles behind Oluokon...so this duo, right now, are good picks

Fortner and Muma: In Fortner case he's been playing bad football and right now is a bad pick; and Muma is not playing a lot of snaps he is a backup, I would like a guy who would contribute more, picked in the 3rd round, so bad pick: 2 bad picks  and 2 good picks

Snoop and Gregory:  Snoop is cut so he is a bust; Gregory was injured  this year and is playing more this past weeks, I can't say he was BAD, but I can't say he was GOOD either, he's been ok so far and 5th round is where you want to find quality back ups, so to me he is a ok pick: 3 bad picks, 2 good picks and 1 ok.

Montaric Brown: Who expected him playing as good as he has been playing this year, he's a hit, especially for a 7th rounder, before the losing streak people where talking about let him be our CB2 next year:

We finished the 2022 draft with 3 bad picks, 3 good picks and 1 ok...is this the best draft ever? Nope. But is this the worst draft ever? Nope. We had 4 players making a second year leap,and other 2 of our bad picks still on our roster, so they can make a third year leap who knows, thats why in my opinion is not fair to say that Strange and Tank are bust.

This year of 13 picks 8 are on our roster, with 2 more on IR, so you can't say that balkee only build our roster via FA. And yes he cleary undervauled our OL, but the coaching staff cleary though they had enough OL to compete and they made a mistake, yes, but I think some people are overreact to this, they talk like we are 0-16 and only our QB is hurt, look around the league, a lot of QB's are hurt right now, OL play in the league has been bad this year; Trevor was sacked 35 times this year, Jalen hurts with the best Oline in this league has been sacked 34( and he is also banged up)...

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For the record, I said last offseason that I thought they really liked the two late CBs even though they didn't play last year. Both were very raw and both seem to have found their wind this year, though Junior did miss time with injury. I think they work in with Campbell next year and Darius Williams is on tht bubble because of salary.

The problem is and continues to be that the one guy Baalke took to help Trevor, Fortner, looks bust-tastic at this point. Most of us felt that the entire offseason should've been about boosting the offense around Lawrence and they just didn't do it.

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“An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.”. - Plato

It’s not pretty, but you need the big bullys up front in the draft and maybe bring in a free agent bully.

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What I see  is a lot is people already hated Balkee before Pederson got here, I remember people [BLEEP] on him because Leftwich didin't accept a job here, so, no matter what he do the negative will always  weigh more than the positive, it looks like people prefer the team to be bad just so they can say " I was right!".
To me Balkee is doing a ok to good job, lets look at the draft, a lot of people saying he can't draft, but is this true??? Let's analyze:

        2022 Draft:
Walker and  Lloyd: Everybody was talking [BLEEP] about this duo, people said that they where a bust, bad picks, and using them as a prove that balkee can't draft, but look at them now, they made a huge jump: Walker is second in sacks just behind Josh with 7, and Lloyd is second in tackles behind Oluokon...so this duo, right now, are good picks

Fortner and Muma: In Fortner case he's been playing bad football and right now is a bad pick; and Muma is not playing a lot of snaps he is a backup, I would like a guy who would contribute more, picked in the 3rd round, so bad pick: 2 bad picks  and 2 good picks

Snoop and Gregory:  Snoop is cut so he is a bust; Gregory was injured  this year and is playing more this past weeks, I can't say he was BAD, but I can't say he was GOOD either, he's been ok so far and 5th round is where you want to find quality back ups, so to me he is a ok pick: 3 bad picks, 2 good picks and 1 ok.

Montaric Brown: Who expected him playing as good as he has been playing this year, he's a hit, especially for a 7th rounder, before the losing streak people where talking about let him be our CB2 next year:

We finished the 2022 draft with 3 bad picks, 3 good picks and 1 ok...is this the best draft ever? Nope. But is this the worst draft ever? Nope. We had 4 players making a second year leap,and other 2 of our bad picks still on our roster, so they can make a third year leap who knows, thats why in my opinion is not fair to say that Strange and Tank are bust.

This year of 13 picks 8 are on our roster, with 2 more on IR, so you can't say that balkee only build our roster via FA. And yes he cleary undervauled our OL, but the coaching staff cleary though they had enough OL to compete and they made a mistake, yes, but I think some people are overreact to this, they talk like we are 0-16 and only our QB is hurt, look around the league, a lot of QB's are hurt right now, OL play in the league has been bad this year; Trevor was sacked 35 times this year, Jalen hurts with the best Oline in this league has been sacked 34( and he is also banged up)...

I've been pretty neutral on Baalke until this late season collapse largely centered around the offensive line's talent level. 

His 2021 draft was fine except for the two 4th rounders. 
The 2022 draft looks like a whiff on Fortner, wasted value on Muma, and a whiff on Conner. Otherwise fine. 
The 2023 draft - it is way too early accurately pass judgement on these young players, but the picks at #61, #88, and #121 all appear (as of now) to be squandered value. 

Free agency has been a mixed bag. I don't think that area is his Achilles heel, though. 


All in all it's not protecting the young QB that is the most egregious error. Gotta just see if ownership thinks Baalke's the guy to fix that problem or not. How long is the leash?

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There was a time earlier in the season when the Jags could've hung with or beaten anyone.  What's changed is injuries started piling up and those injuries put a magnifying glass on how bad the interior o-line is/was.  When healthy, we could overcome the o-line deficiency with superior skill position personnel and scheme.  We've not been able to do that with injuries to key guys that have either kept them out or negatively affected their play on the field.  If we can somehow beat these two otherwise very beatable teams on our schedule and get in to the playoffs and get guys like Kirk back and others closer to 100%, then the Browns or whoever coming in don't scare me.

We got very lucky with injuries last year.  In retrospect, we should've expected that luck to run out to some extent this year.

Yep, this is true sometimes we lose sight of the fact that this team is a MASH unit. Losing Kirk was a huge blow not just on the field but his leadership was right up there in the team hierarchy. The OL was borderline even when it's healthy. With all the injuries they aren't much beyond a practice squad/special teams group. At least Baalke should know where to focus next year. I hope.

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I'm condescending. That means I talk down to you. 
Check out the Jag's Forum Alternative: Duval Football Fans.

What I see  is a lot is people already hated Balkee before Pederson got here, I remember people [BLEEP] on him because Leftwich didin't accept a job here, so, no matter what he do the negative will always  weigh more than the positive, it looks like people prefer the team to be bad just so they can say " I was right!".
To me Balkee is doing a ok to good job, lets look at the draft, a lot of people saying he can't draft, but is this true??? Let's analyze:

        2022 Draft:
Walker and  Lloyd: Everybody was talking [BLEEP] about this duo, people said that they where a bust, bad picks, and using them as a prove that balkee can't draft, but look at them now, they made a huge jump: Walker is second in sacks just behind Josh with 7, and Lloyd is second in tackles behind Oluokon...so this duo, right now, are good picks

Fortner and Muma: In Fortner case he's been playing bad football and right now is a bad pick; and Muma is not playing a lot of snaps he is a backup, I would like a guy who would contribute more, picked in the 3rd round, so bad pick: 2 bad picks  and 2 good picks

Snoop and Gregory:  Snoop is cut so he is a bust; Gregory was injured  this year and is playing more this past weeks, I can't say he was BAD, but I can't say he was GOOD either, he's been ok so far and 5th round is where you want to find quality back ups, so to me he is a ok pick: 3 bad picks, 2 good picks and 1 ok.

Montaric Brown: Who expected him playing as good as he has been playing this year, he's a hit, especially for a 7th rounder, before the losing streak people where talking about let him be our CB2 next year:

We finished the 2022 draft with 3 bad picks, 3 good picks and 1 ok...is this the best draft ever? Nope. But is this the worst draft ever? Nope. We had 4 players making a second year leap,and other 2 of our bad picks still on our roster, so they can make a third year leap who knows, thats why in my opinion is not fair to say that Strange and Tank are bust.

This year of 13 picks 8 are on our roster, with 2 more on IR, so you can't say that balkee only build our roster via FA. And yes he cleary undervauled our OL, but the coaching staff cleary though they had enough OL to compete and they made a mistake, yes, but I think some people are overreact to this, they talk like we are 0-16 and only our QB is hurt, look around the league, a lot of QB's are hurt right now, OL play in the league has been bad this year; Trevor was sacked 35 times this year, Jalen hurts with the best Oline in this league has been sacked 34( and he is also banged up)...

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There was a time earlier in the season when the Jags could've hung with or beaten anyone.  What's changed is injuries started piling up and those injuries put a magnifying glass on how bad the interior o-line is/was.  When healthy, we could overcome the o-line deficiency with superior skill position personnel and scheme.  We've not been able to do that with injuries to key guys that have either kept them out or negatively affected their play on the field.  If we can somehow beat these two otherwise very beatable teams on our schedule and get in to the playoffs and get guys like Kirk back and others closer to 100%, then the Browns or whoever coming in don't scare me.

We got very lucky with injuries last year.  In retrospect, we should've expected that luck to run out to some extent this year.

Yep, this is true sometimes we lose sight of the fact that this team is a MASH unit. Losing Kirk was a huge blow not just on the field but his leadership was right up there in the team hierarchy. The OL was borderline even when it's healthy. With all the injuries they aren't much beyond a practice squad/special teams group. At least Baalke should know where to focus next year. I hope.

The injuries became too much to overcome with scheme and great quarterbacking, but the team was never such that it could be described as able to hang with anyone.

I'm pretty sure the jaguars would have lost to the 49ers even during their 3 game slide.

Even when the Jaguars were winning it never was impressive, it looked more like the team's we played had bad weeks and Trevor was just able to will the Jaguars to a win.

This is a team with a top tier QB and coaching, upper middle tier receivers and starting running back, a very good edge rusher in Josh Allen, and lower tier everywhere else.

When everyone was healthy the Jaguars could compete with a lot of teams, but staying completely healthy is a big ask for the NFL.

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Yep, this is true sometimes we lose sight of the fact that this team is a MASH unit. Losing Kirk was a huge blow not just on the field but his leadership was right up there in the team hierarchy. The OL was borderline even when it's healthy. With all the injuries they aren't much beyond a practice squad/special teams group. At least Baalke should know where to focus next year. I hope.

The injuries became too much to overcome with scheme and great quarterbacking, but the team was never such that it could be described as able to hang with anyone.

I'm pretty sure the jaguars would have lost to the 49ers even during their 3 game slide.

Even when the Jaguars were winning it never was impressive, it looked more like the team's we played had bad weeks and Trevor was just able to will the Jaguars to a win.

This is a team with a top tier QB and coaching, upper middle tier receivers and starting running back, a very good edge rusher in Josh Allen, and lower tier everywhere else.

When everyone was healthy the Jaguars could compete with a lot of teams, but staying completely healthy is a big ask for the NFL.

Before the Tampa game which could be considered baffling, the 49rs game has been the only game where the jags felt outmatched.

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Is Bigsy the worst pick of the 2023 NFL draft?

I think so.....

It's going to be hilarious how Baalke draft picks are going to be out the league within 3-4 yrs max.

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No one is talking about him trading back on almost every top pick to stock pile draft capital that he not only didn’t use to trade up in other scenarios, but used on a dozen late round players most of which didn’t even make the final 53. The guy is just not the one who is going to get us there. Sooner we cut ties the better.

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No one is talking about him trading back on almost every top pick to stock pile draft capital that he not only didn’t use to trade up in other scenarios, but used on a dozen late round players most of which didn’t even make the final 53. The guy is just not the one who is going to get us there. Sooner we cut ties the better.

There were multiple threads after the draft, but yeah, failing to find a trade partner for all those late picks was a gaffe. 

I hated that with a passion since we didn't use any early capital on NB or IOL, but there is some minor consolation in seeing Parker Washington showing promise as a returner, Antonio Johnson looking like he may turn into a solid nickel or safety and I imagine Braswell and Hodges will be worth tracking during camp and preseason this summer.

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Is Bigsy the worst pick of the 2023 NFL draft?

I think so.....

It's going to be hilarious how Baalke draft picks are going to be out the league within 3-4 yrs max.

Jury is still out on this, I don't think you are correct. My guess is this comment will not age well.

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A new broom always sweeps clean.

Is Bigsy the worst pick of the 2023 NFL draft?

I think so.....

It's going to be hilarious how Baalke draft picks are going to be out the league within 3-4 yrs max.

Jury is still out on this, I don't think you are correct. My guess is this comment will not age well.

Maybe Byrce Young might take his spot!

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No one is talking about him trading back on almost every top pick to stock pile draft capital that he not only didn’t use to trade up in other scenarios, but used on a dozen late round players most of which didn’t even make the final 53. The guy is just not the one who is going to get us there. Sooner we cut ties the better.

There were multiple threads after the draft, but yeah, failing to find a trade partner for all those late picks was a gaffe. 

I hated that with a passion since we didn't use any early capital on NB or IOL, but there is some minor consolation in seeing Parker Washington showing promise as a returner, Antonio Johnson looking like he may turn into a solid nickel or safety and I imagine Braswell and Hodges will be worth tracking during camp and preseason this summer.

First, we had 13 total picks (not a dozen late round ones) 9 of those picks made the team. (one additional on IR) Second JagsorDie you do not talk for me so please exclude me from the WE in your statement.

The first round we had pick #24 and were able to get the player we wanted (Harrison) and get a 4th, 5th and 7th round pick. Great moves

Yes, I personally would have preferred an IOL and NB investment but only if it were on players the coaches had confidence in.

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A new broom always sweeps clean.

We can do better than Balkie. Balkie is like that first car you appreciate when you been walking for years. It’s not reliable, so you let it go and get you something a lot better.

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