The rate at which talent has left the Jacksonville Jaguars’ roster throughout the last 12 months has been alarming and somewhat comical in the eyes of the fanbase. The Jags found surprise success in 2017 reaching the AFC Championship game, even sending six players to the Pro Bowl that season, good for a franchise high.
Unfortunately, things have gone nowhere but downhill since then. Of those six Pro-Bowlers, none remain on the Jaguars’ roster. In fact, only two starting defensive players from the 2017 AFC Championship title game in Foxborough are still with the team.
The team’s purge of talent began when Jalen Ramsey forced his way to the Los Angeles Rams last October. Since, the amount of starting players that have left is almost unprecedented. Calais Campbell, A.J Bouye, and recently Yannick Ngakoue have all been traded this offseason/preseason. Additionally, Marcell Dareus, and now Leonard Fournette, have both been allowed to hit the open market and waived, respectively.
Of course, such losses have made many fans question whether the Jags are tanking or not, however, coach Doug Marrone insisted that they weren’t in Monday’s press conference.
“I can’t speak for anyone else, but if [tanking] is the case then the realization is that if that happens I’m not going to be here,” Marrone said. “At the end of the day, if I don’t win enough games, or I don’t do enough with this team I don’t foresee me still being employed. So I’m doing everything I can to make sure that we have the best team to win football games. That’s as simple as I can be on it.”
Marrone also expressed his excitement about the current roster, which has a lot of young talent, but also has some notable veterans.
“I’m super excited about this team,” Marrone said. “I’m excited about the young guys, I’m excited about the older guys, the way they’ve performed and the guys we have on this team.”
Whilst the roster looks markedly different from the only team to bring success to Jacksonville for a decade, perhaps fans shouldn’t give up hope before a ball has been snapped. The front office and staff seemingly believe they have enough talent to win, but time will tell what the results truly are.