2024 NFL Draft: Jaguars' Options at No. 17 Already Meshing Well With Team Needs
The 2024 NFL Draft is still two months away, but it isn't hard to see where the strength in this class is.
Up and down the board, two positions consistently pop out when reviewing the draft class: cornerback and offensive line.
When looking at the pre-combine consensus board, 45% of the top 20 consists of cornerbacks and offensive tackles.
Five cornerbacks (Alabama's Terrion Arnold, Toledo's Quinyon Mitchell, Clemson's Nate Wiggins, Iowa's Cooper DeJean, and Alabama's Kool-Aid)and four offensive tackles (Notre Dame's Joe Alt, Penn State's Olumuyiwa Fashanu, Oregon State's Taliese Fuaga, and Alabama's J.C. Latham) currently make up the top-10.
And that is with names like Oregon's Jackson Powers-Johnson, Georgia's Amarius Mims, Washington's Troy Fautanu, Oklahoma's Tyler Guyton, and Missouri's Ennis Rakestraw Jr. all within the next 10 rankings.
That is 14-out-30. In short, half of the true first-round prospects in this class could be either a cornerback or an offensive lineman.
And for a team like the Jaguars, that is exactly what the doctor has ordered.
The Jaguars have already made it clear this offseason where they want to improve. General manager Trent Baalke took to the podium last month to emphasize the Jaguars' need for upgrades in the trenches, along with a desire to develop a more physical mentality overall.
"You’ve got to develop that identity in the offseason and all the way through training camp, the preseason and into the season. You’ve got to stick with it. I think if you ask the coaches, we probably didn’t do that to the level we wanted to," Baalke said.
"At the same token, as I mentioned earlier, we’ve got to get bigger. We got to get stronger and get more physical in the trenches. We’ve got to trust we can do things that you need to do in this league to win games. That’s run the football when everyone in the building knows you’re going to run it. You’ve got to be able to still run it.”
Safe to say, you can mark down offensive line as the Jaguars' biggest need on the offensive side of the ball. Even if Baalke didn't mention improving in the trenches on multiple occasions, the data and film of the Jaguars' 2023 season showed the need to upgrade the offensive line and develop a running game.
The one note of context for the Jaguars is the fact that their biggest needs are along the interior offensive line as opposed to offensive tackle, where they still have, at least, Walker Little and Anton Harrison set to be on the Week 1 roster. Cam Robinson might be on it, too.
But several of these tackles could play guard in a pinch. Drafting a college left tackle to play a different position is a common trend in the NFL, and it doesn't rule out the potential to move back out to tackle.
As for the defense, it is self-explanatory. The Jaguars are shifting to a defensive scheme that asks its cornerbacks to play with their backs to the ball, which isn't the strength of either Darious Williams or Tyson Campbell. And even if it was, both are entering the final year of their contracts.
Then you have to factor in defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen. Nielsen spoke last week about the need for strong play in the secondary, making several comments that seemed to imply he sees cornerback as a significant need.
"The first thing we have to do is affect the quarterback in that we can’t allow the ball to come out of his hand quickly, then the rush doesn’t get there," Nielsen said.
"If the coverage has holes in it or give an easy throw, it doesn’t matter who we’ve got coming off the edge. We’ve got a couple of good edge guys here. We have to get the quarterback to hold it."
In short, the Jaguars are already positioned well for No. 17 overall. They just need to execute.
