It was a gamble by Baalke and it didn't pay off.

I don't put it 100% on the FO and staff they couldn't find a partner, but it is a failure at the end of the day. 

Baalke has now used a first, a third, a fifth and two sixths in three drafts at RB for a pass first team. 
That third rounder with ball security issues does need to pay off.
We had greater needs.

Baalke has a RB fetish. He has drafted one every year he has been a GM.

I did not know this.  I like it, especially if he often has extra picks.  I think you should draft a RB every single year no matter who is on your roster.

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Will be interesting to see how this draft class is viewed at the end of the season. I fully expect it to be viewed far more positively than it is now.
I’m looking forward to see how these guys develop. Especially interested to see what Strange can do

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Will be interesting to see how this draft class is viewed at the end of the season. I fully expect it to be viewed far more positively than it is now.
I’m looking forward to see how these guys develop. Especially interested to see what Strange can do

Agreed, Strange is the most intriguing pick for me.  If they can get creative with him and he becomes a difference maker on offense I think this draft could end up being great

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The strange pick makes me wonder if engram maybe is not gonna be here long term.

I wonder what Engram is asking for, and how far apart the negotiations are.

That is what I’m wondering too. Seems like maybe there is some trouble there if we are picking a TE so high.

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A lot of darts were thrown, so let’s hope some of them hit the target. Harrison will be the key to this draft though.

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Baalke has a RB fetish. He has drafted one every year he has been a GM.

I did not know this.  I like it, especially if he often has extra picks.  I think you should draft a RB every single year no matter who is on your roster.

I strongly disagree. 

In three years time we've burned a first rounder, a 3rd rounder, a fifth rounder, and two 6th rounders on RBs and we've signed a very good looking FA player this offseason. 

That is a LOT of expense when your defense has a struggling pass rush and no one whatsoever to play the nickel corner position. 

Unwise allotment of offseason expense IMO. 

If you're gonna draft one every year, do it in the fifth or sixth. Not the first and the third. We are a passing team in a passing league and RBs are a dime a dozen in free agency every year compared to other positions. 

I'm not losing my mind over it, and I won't make a Baalke or Shad clown into my avatar, but I think this team would have been better served addressing a position of greater value with that third round pick.

Had they spent or packaged that 3rd rounder to get a pass rusher and then used the remaining 4th round pick or picks on a nickel, I'd feel like they would have ultimately done more for the win/loss column in 2023. A short yardage RB there feels like a luxury we couldn't really afford.

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I feel like they ignored positions of need like they have the luxury to do so like we've made it already. They have a plan I guess we'll see.

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No Fun

what did the darft say to me?

<-- see subheading below username

I think we took a few guys earlier than we should have, passed on others who were still available and more likely to be productive, but this may just be what a darft is like when you don't need plug and play starters across half the roster. Hopefully these seeds bear fruit in the coming years.

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My take. 

The first 3 picks were offense.

I agree

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Yeah, i mean, i can't hate on making the offense better.

These additions
+
Ridley
+
Year 2 in the system

Should add up to a high scoring offense

Only downside is that it may HAVE to be in order to win big games after neglecting glaring holes defensively

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Yeah, i mean, i can't hate on making the offense better.

These additions
+
Ridley
+
Year 2 in the system

Should add up to a high scoring offense

Only downside is that it may HAVE to be in order to win big games after neglecting glaring holes defensively

Tbh I'm just looking forward to seeing what year 2 walker and lloyd can produce

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The strange pick makes me wonder if engram maybe is not gonna be here long term.

I wonder the same thing.  The contract talks may not be going well.  The Strange pick makes much more sense if Engram is just a one year rental.

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The failure to move back up really bit them in the backside 

Baalke has said 15 teams turned down his attempts to trade back up. 

We have a glut of longshots and spent low capital in places we needed real help. 
Not ideal.

Do you get the sense that people don't want to work with Baalke?  Or maybe he just doesn't have a great understanding of how to value picks?

Just out of interest, everyone going on about not trading back into the 3rd? I'm interested to know what exactly you're expecting to give up?

I scrolled through all the trades done and the cast majority were late round picks to move up 3-5 spaces so you'd still lose the 3rd round pick?

Is the idea that we should've traded up to the top of the 3rd and gave up our 3rd? Or are you expecting an extra 3rd?

There are a ton of pick value charts out there.

They had ammunition to get back into the third by packaging two fourths and a sixth - and a number of scenarios to get back into the 4th
Baalke admittedly tried and failed to make it happen.

It's a tough break.
Wasted value on players of low probability to make the team.

I know in theory you could offer value but that doesn't mean there's a bunch of teams willing to do it. If everyone is aware there isn't value further down it implies the teams value the 6/7ths even lower than the models.

There's not many if any examples this year of teams trading into the 3rd round from miles back.

o  No. 56 overall (Round 2) 340
o  No. 88 overall (Round 3) 150
o  No. 121 overall (Round 4) 52
o  No. 127 overall (Round 4) 45
o  No. 130 overall (Round 4) 42
o  No. 160 overall (Round 5) 28
o  No. 185 overall (Round 6) 18
o  No. 202 overall (Round 6) 11
o  No. 208 overall (Round 6) 9
o  No. 226 overall (Round 7) 3
o  No. 240 overall (Round 7) 1

So if we wanted to make an approximately fair offer, we're saying we'd need all three 4ths just to get into round 3 again. Worth it? Were we really willing to give up that much and were other teams still not interested. 

Obviously none of us know but you can get an idea of how difficult it is to try and create another 3rd rounder without giving up your own one.

We could've gone up from 88, 10-15 places perhaps but would've likely been giving up a lot still. 

I kind of think taking a bunch of dart throws/role players is a better strategy personally.

Everyone keeps harping on the "not trading back up" as a huge Baalke failure, and bring up the teams that traded up.

This completely forgets that the teams trading down have to believe they can still get they guy(s) they are targeting by trading back to the Jags pick. That just may NOT have been case. Plus in a draft where some of those teams didn't value the late round picks, it may not have happened without blowing them away with a 2024 pick overpay.

For example, the Jags had options to trade back even further from #27 but did not take them because they knew or thought Harrison would no longer be there after #28. 

There is basically nothing Baalke could have done to fix that. Unless he was supposed to 2-3 trades in a row ahead of time to keep moving up, but that is nearly impossible to do because of the same issue where teams don't want to trade their pick 10-15 picks prior to being on the clock because they don't know if their guys will be there or not.

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I did not know this.  I like it, especially if he often has extra picks.  I think you should draft a RB every single year no matter who is on your roster.

I strongly disagree. 

In three years time we've burned a first rounder, a 3rd rounder, a fifth rounder, and two 6th rounders on RBs and we've signed a very good looking FA player this offseason. 

That is a LOT of expense when your defense has a struggling pass rush and no one whatsoever to play the nickel corner position. 

Unwise allotment of offseason expense IMO. 

If you're gonna draft one every year, do it in the fifth or sixth. Not the first and the third. We are a passing team in a passing league and RBs are a dime a dozen in free agency every year compared to other positions. 

I'm not losing my mind over it, and I won't make a Baalke or Shad clown into my avatar, but I think this team would have been better served addressing a position of greater value with that third round pick.

Had they spent or packaged that 3rd rounder to get a pass rusher and then used the remaining 4th round pick or picks on a nickel, I'd feel like they would have ultimately done more for the win/loss column in 2023. A short yardage RB there feels like a luxury we couldn't really afford.

Although I generally agree with not wanting to spend too much high end draft capital at the running back position, the past draft capital expended is a sunk cost at this point.  If you’ve gotten guys in your building and determined they aren’t what you’re looking for, better to move on quickly than cling to your misses.

Please elaborate on the bolded above.  You’re not the only one saying this but I’d like to know what you’re basing the opinion on. What I think it’s based on isn’t confidence inspiring to me and I’m not necessarily writing him off, I just don’t have a problem at further attempts to address the need.

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It was a gamble by Baalke and it didn't pay off.

I don't put it 100% on the FO and staff they couldn't find a partner, but it is a failure at the end of the day. 

Baalke has now used a first, a third, a fifth and two sixths in three drafts at RB for a pass first team. 
That third rounder with ball security issues does need to pay off.
We had greater needs.

Baalke has a RB fetish. He has drafted one every year he has been a GM.

I don’t know if that’s necessarily a bad thing. The shelflife of running backs is so short compared to other offensive weapons. And to listen to so many valuators, talk about the quality of the one he drafted, you have to believe this is a starting quality running back that can really be effective for us behind and alongside ETN. So I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing to get a running back every year.

I also think you should always be churning your number three spot in the quarterback room. You should always have a jar on the shelf that you were developing. Obviously, we have one of the best quarterbacks in the league who is only going to get better. But what if he gets injured? you want to have competent back ups behind him. And you want to develop future trade capital with developmental quarterbacks.


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The strange pick makes me wonder if engram maybe is not gonna be here long term.

Possibly, but nothing wrong with having two good TEs of he does stay long term.

Yes. And strange is a more traditional tight end with Engram being a move, receiving tight end. I like it.


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Yeah, i mean, i can't hate on making the offense better.

These additions
+
Ridley
+
Year 2 in the system

Should add up to a high scoring offense

Only downside is that it may HAVE to be in order to win big games after neglecting glaring holes defensively

To me the biggest gamble of this draft was not getting a high quality CB. Maybe one of these late round picks can beat out Herndon. Lord knows he ain’t nothing special.


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The strange pick makes me wonder if engram maybe is not gonna be here long term.

I think it's more about replacing Manhertz with a guy who is more of a viable receiving threat - but can still block well enough.  His H-Back experience is a plus as well. If Bigsby actually works out as a short yardage back, then versatile blocking ability is likely part of the plan. (drafting a late round fullback points that way as well) 

While I don't necessarily love the pick and especially value, I feel pretty good about this kid being a good thing for our offense. 

If Strange carves out a role early on and the RB proves worthy of touches, it will be really fun to see the new wrinkles in the playbook.

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Dimson

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Yeah, i mean, i can't hate on making the offense better.

These additions
+
Ridley
+
Year 2 in the system

Should add up to a high scoring offense

Only downside is that it may HAVE to be in order to win big games after neglecting glaring holes defensively

To me the biggest gamble of this draft was not getting a high quality CB. Maybe one of these late round picks can beat out Herndon. Lord knows he ain’t nothing special.


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Yeah, I'm praying to the football gods that Braswell or Johnson end up being an upgrade at nickel-back. 
Would be amazing for such late picks to immediately step in and do that, but I'm holding out hope...

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Draft done, for the most part somewhere in the group of players we have is a team. Now the coaches need to get to work.

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A new broom always sweeps clean.

"Trevor is going to be expensive." - The Jaguars Draft, 2023

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

"Trevor is going to be expensive." - The Jaguars Draft, 2023

Exactly. This draft and next year's draft will be about making some nice, safe base hits in the earlier rounds and then attempting to find "steals" or "gems' here and there in the later rounds to raise the talent level of our depth chart. It's not a bad idea, in practice? Difficult to achieve. 

On paper though it's really hard to dislike quite a few of this year's choices. Harrison, Strange, Abdullah, Lacy, Johnson, Braswell, Washington & Parish all make a ton of sense for this football team. The two biggest head scratchers, as it's been said ad nauseam here already, is, Bigsby and Miller. 

We'll just have to wait and see how all of these guys play. I can tell you as a fan though that this is the first time in a very long time that I'll actually give a damn about hearing every little bit of information around training camp and positional battles.

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"What do I know of cultured ways, the gilt, the craft and the lie? I, who was born in a naked land and bred in the open sky. The subtle tongue, the sophist guile, they fail when the broadswords sing; Rush in and die, dogs - I was a man before I was a king."

Baalke has a RB fetish. He has drafted one every year he has been a GM.

I don’t know if that’s necessarily a bad thing. The shelflife of running backs is so short compared to other offensive weapons. And to listen to so many valuators, talk about the quality of the one he drafted, you have to believe this is a starting quality running back that can really be effective for us behind and alongside ETN. So I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing to get a running back every year.

I also think you should always be churning your number three spot in the quarterback room. You should always have a jar on the shelf that you were developing. Obviously, we have one of the best quarterbacks in the league who is only going to get better. But what if he gets injured? you want to have competent back ups behind him. And you want to develop future trade capital with developmental quarterbacks.


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I agree with this sentiment. Tank is here to push guys like Hasty and ofEarnest off the roster.

Keep the position young, cheap, and improving. It's odd considering how few people were confident in our RB not named Etienne this offseason, but there seems to be a bunch of huff about trying to make the room better.

I won't say take an RB every year just to say you did, but by no means should we be complacent about the RB that we had on the roster.

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