The Jacksonville Jaguars dove deep into the free agency pool in 2022. General manager Trent Baalke dished out $175.3 million in guaranteed money to add several players to an underwhelming roster. It’s hard to argue that it was anything other than a huge success.
With veterans like Christian Kirk, Zay Jones, Evan Engram, Brandon Scherff, Darious Williams, and Foye Oluokun among those added to the starting lineup, the Jaguars improved from the NFL’s worst team to a division champion.
Now Jacksonville enters 2023 with a much different looking offseason to-do list. And it’s clear that the Jaguars need to shift gears from spending big in free agency to patiently building up the roster through the draft.
“I think it has to be that moment,” Baalke told reporters Tuesday. “First of all, we’re up against the cap a lot more than we were the previous two years. We feel really good about the nucleus of young players that we have on the team. I believe we’re the fifth or sixth youngest team in the National Football League right now. We have a lot of young players on their first contracts, a lot of players overall on their first contracts.
“As you transition into more guys that are on their second deals, it becomes more and more difficult to use free agency as a strong vehicle to improve your team, so we’ve got to look to the draft. We’ve got to look to developing the guys that are currently here and obviously retain as many of these guys as we can.”
The Jaguars are currently projected to be around $22 million over the salary cap in 2023, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to clear room by parting with a bloated contract or two and restructuring others. Still, the future could get pretty pricy for the team when young cornerstones like Trevor Lawrence and Tyson Campbell are eligible to receive contract extensions.
Don’t expect Jacksonville to splurge like it did in 2022 any time soon.