When looking at the struggles that the Jacksonville Jaguars have had, they need to do a better job of getting the right people in their front office. The task of fixing the present-day Jaguars will fall on Trent Baalke, who may be the most scrutinized general manager in the NFL.
While Jags fans have warmed up to him, it was far from that way early this offseason. Fans wanted him gone alongside former coach Urban Meyer because Baalke hasn’t been the best at seeing eye-to-eye with the coaches he’s been paired with. Additionally, he hasn’t been good at making draft selections, especially with skill positions.
The issues that have been associated with Baalke for years have many outside of Jacksonville doubtful that he’s the answer. Pro Football Network also isn’t high on him and those under him, and as a result, they ranked the Jags’ front office 26th in the NFL in a recent article.
Here is what analyst Dallas Robinson had to say about the Jags’ front office, which spent a league-record amount of money in terms of guarantees:
26) Jacksonville Jaguars
General manager: Trent Baalke
Having somehow retained his job in Jacksonville, Baalke set about lighting money on fire in free agency. The Jaguars gave Christian Kirk an absurd $18 million per year, but deals for Brandon Scherff ($16.5 million), Foyesade Oluokun ($15 million), Folorunso Fatukasi ($10 million), and Zay Jones ($8 million) were nearly as egregious. Trevor Lawerence and Doug Pederson will have to pull this franchise out of the abyss.
While Baalke is far from a perfect general manager, it’s no secret that a team in the Jags’ shoes has to overpay in free agency to get players to want to join them. After a disastrous run under Urban Meyer, which was out of Baalke’s power, that was exactly the case this year.
As for the deals mentioned above, it can’t be stressed enough that Christian Kirk’s deal isn’t as backbreaking as some make it seem. The guaranteed amount on the contract is $37 million, which will be paid out in the first two years (with a little extra). So basically, fans should look at it as a two-year deal if he doesn’t pan out, but if he does, there will be no harm done.
Kirk’s ability shouldn’t be underestimated, either. He very well could be a 1,000-yard receiver when considering he’s not fighting for targets with players like DeAndre Hopkins and A.J. Green. To be fair, he fell just short of doing it last season (982 yards) with both players playing in a combined total of 16 games.
Like Kirk’s deal, a lot of the other deals mentioned above don’t hurt the Jags long-term, either.
As for the front office, it seems Robinson based his ranking on how he felt about the Jags’ decisions as of late. From the outside looking in, they won’t wow anyone when looking at the names they picked up, but that doesn’t mean they won’t pan out and make many people eventually respect them.
While the Jags paid a lot of money to players who aren’t necessarily Pro Bowlers, they got a lot of defensive players who could help them better compete against the offenses in their division, which is one where the run game is emphasized. That said, they could have a low-key free agency class that shines in the end and one that will help them improve their AFC South record by a noticeable amount.