The New Year has arrived and the Jacksonville Jaguars won’t be one of the teams participating in the 2019 postseason. That means it’s officially mock draft season for the Cardiac Cats, who have a lot of needs and are coming up on a big offseason.
To kick off what will be an interesting offseason process, we decided to put together our first mock draft of the year using Draft Network’s mock simulator and came away with the following selections:
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9.) CeeDee Lamb, WR, Oklahoma – We know what you at home are thinking: the Jags have more pressing needs. That’s 100% true but I simply took the best available player here. Additionally, this pick makes a ton of sense when looking at how general manager Dave Caldwell values the receiver position. He was a part of a Atlanta Falcons organization that gave up quite a bit to get Julio Jones and he’s also drafted several receivers high while in Jacksonville, including Allen Robinson, Marqise Lee, and DJ Chark Jr., who the team was on record for saying they had a first-round pick on.
Pairing Chark with Lamb would work wonders for the Jags aerial attack and Gardner Minshew II would be a happy man as the young receiver is as good as it gets after the catch.
20.) Javon Kinlaw, DL, South Carolina – It would be awesome if Derrick Brown fell to the Jags at nine, but that doesn’t look likely at the moment. However, a more likely scenario could be Kinlaw falling to the Jags at No. 20.
In our evaluations on the Jags’ needs (linked above), we mentioned the defensive line as the team’s third most pressing need. The reason for that is because Calais Campbell isn’t getting any younger, Marcell Dareus might not be retained in 2020, and Yannick Ngakoue’s future is in the air, too. That said, Kinlaw was an easy choice.
On tape, Kinlaw times his snaps well and frequently beats his man as a result of his get off. That also has led him to a lot of success disrupting quarterbacks and tailbacks in the backfield, which is something the Jags could use with teams like the Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, and Tennessee Titans in the division.
42.) Shane Lemieux, OG, Oregon – Finally, some help on the offensive line! The play at both guard positions hasn’t been anything to write home about as Andrew Norwell hasn’t played to his expensive contract and A.J. Cann has proven to be a mediocre guard at best.
Lemieux is a player who could help Leonard Fournette tremendously as his best work is in the phone booth. He has the tenacity that may stand out to coach Doug Marrone, who was an offensive line coach before being a head coach.
73.) Troy Dye, LB, Oregon – Although I’m not the biggest on taking a linebacker in the top-10 selections, Isaiah Simmons was an enticing pick for the No. 9pick. However, considering Caldwell’s history, I went with Lamb in hopes to land a similar player to Simmons later.
Dye has some identical traits to Simmons and former Jags linebacker Telvin Smith and would give the Jags speed and percision at linebacker. He also excels at getting skinny when shooting the gap and getting into the backfield, which again, would benefit the Jags when looking at their division rivals.
With our first mock in the books, let us know what you think about our selections in our Jags Wire forum.