Why Drafting Jeanty at 5 Makes Sense for Jaguars

Entering the 1984 NBA Draft, the Portland Trailblazers already had Clyde Drexler and Jim Paxson. They didn’t need another shooting guard, so they drafted center Sam Bowie at No. 2 overall. One pick later, the Chicago Bulls took a shooting guard named Michael Jordan.

James Gladstone looks down at his roster and sees Travis Etienne and Tank Bigsby at running back. Would he draft another running back with his historic first selection as Jaguars general manager?

Draft for need or draft the best player available. That’s the dilemma teams face when they’re on the clock, and they never want to pass on the next Jordan. Even Aaron Rodgers -- once drafted by a team that had Brett Favre -- told Pat McAfee on Thursday that Jeanty passes the eye test after meeting the running back in Los Angeles. If Gladstone takes Jeanty at 5, Jacksonville will be taking the best player available.

“Everybody's saying the party starts with the Raiders at 6,” draft expert Daniel Jeremiah said Wednesday on NFL Live. The party might be over at 6 … To me, I look at Jacksonville at 5. James Gladstone, his first draft as general manager, first pick.

“This is a statement pick. This is not only one of the three best players in the draft, in my opinion. This is elite, elite character that you're adding into the building, and bringing to help Trevor Lawrence earn that money that they paid him. So, I would not sleep on that.”

Be confident that Gladstone is consuming a lot of coffee. And if the Jaguars shock the NFL world by taking Jeanty Thursday night, the team obviously has something in mind for Etienne and Bigsby, if either are still on the roster in the fall. Head coach Liam Coen said Tuesday his plans include using multiple personnel groupings to take pressure off Brian Thomas.

“How do we use our two running backs to be able to supplement some of that usage,” Coen said, “get more people involved in the game? Especially early on, so defenses can't just cloud BT and be all over him, that we have other guys that can go win and be explosive with the ball in their hands, ultimately share that wealth, share that playmaking ability?”

Jeanty had more playmaking ability than any player in the country last year. The most mind-bending fact that plants him firmly in the category of best player available was that he had more yards after contact (1,970) than any other player’s total rushing yards. Arizona State’s Cam Skattebo finished second in the nation with 1,711 total rushing yards to Jeanty (2,601).

The 5-8, 211-pound back also established single-season records in missed tackles forced (164), 100-yard rushing games (14) and touchdown runs of 70-plus yards (five).

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