Jacksonville came away with the most important player on the board during the 2021 NFL draft in quarterback Trevor Lawrence. But according to Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer, there are two players the team missed out on that he wishes it could have selected: Florida receiver Kadarius Toney and Ohio State linebacker Baron Browning.
Toney would have been an obvious fit in an offense run by Meyer. A speedy, playmaking slot receiver, he’s drawn comparisons to Percy Harvin throughout his college career. Many expected Toney to be available for pick No. 25, but the New York Giants made a bit of a surprising move selecting him at 20th overall, making him the highest receiver off the board after the clear top three in Ja’Marr Chase, Jaylen Waddle and Devonta Smith.
Meyer said that Toney falling off the board before Jacksonville’s selection “broke his heart.”
“I’ve got to know him over the last couple weeks and obviously with my connection with Coach Mullen and those guys,” Meyer said. “I just think, if you watch him play, he’s a human highlight reel.”
However, Meyer seemed to shoot down the idea that Toney would have fit the same role as the player the team eventually picked at 25th, Clemson running back Travis Etienne. He said the staff didn’t think Toney had the ability to run the ball in the NFL.
This would seem to indicate Meyer hoped the Jags could grab Toney at 25th and then Etienne at 33rd (given how highly they’ve spoken of him), a selection they ultimately used on Georgia cornerback Tyson Campbell.
Browning, meanwhile, was one of Meyer’s former players when he was the coach of the Buckeyes, and he went in the third round to the Denver Broncos at pick No. 105, right before the Jaguars’ pick. Meyer said that the selection of Browning, who he hoped the team would be able to snag in the fourth round, at the end of Day 2 was the cause for the sense of urgency which led the team to trade up for UAB edge rusher Jordan Smith.
“That was the one area we had a need list and I saw (Smith) sitting there and that was one of my first experiences of ‘what if we lose him?’ because we did, we lost, everybody does, you see Baron Browning the night before and I said we’ve got the next pick, can we — boom, he’s gone, I really wanted him. So we’re sitting there and we have our defensive coordinator sitting with us and here’s this really raw, talented guy who can rush the passer. Very raw, has a long way to go, but that’s why we did it.”
These sentiments help give us a sense of how the Jaguars’ board looked, and it seems that while they were pleased with the haul in general, there are a few picks they would’ve liked to go differently.