Why Three Hypothetical Trades Would Be Bad Moves for the Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars weren't afraid to make a series of trades toward the end of training camp last year, trading away Gardner Minshew, Sidney Jones and Joe Schobert, as well as CJ Henderson at the very start of the season.
But should the Jaguars once again embrace a firesale of their depth and roster ahead of this year's training camp?
In a recent Bleacher Report piece on one trade each team should make, the exercise again depleted the Jaguars' talent pool and added a trio of Day 3 picks. But do any of the moves make sense for the Jaguars and their pursuit of success in 2021?
Not quite.
In short, the article suggests three trades that involve the Jaguars, each with the Jaguars trading away a player for picks as opposed to the Jaguars bolstering their roster with a new player.
The first trade is perhaps the most egregious, with Bleacher Report suggesting the Jaguars deal offensive tackle Walker Little to the Buffalo Bills for a 2023 fourth-round pick -- just one year after spending the No. 45 overall pick on the former Stanford left tackle who is now competing for the Jaguars' right tackle job.
"With the Jaguars re-signing Cam Robinson to a massive new deal and investing into Jawaan Taylor as a first-round pick, there's no room for Little to start in Jacksonville," Bleacher Report wrote. "He could benefit from a move to guard in Buffalo since he's a solid athlete but struggles with dealing with power rushers off the edge."
This is a minuscule point, but the Jaguars of course invested a second-round pick into Jawaan Taylor in 2019, not a first-round pick. Secondly, Taylor isn't even officially slated to be the Jaguars' starting right tackle in 2022.
Despite three years of starting experience and never missing a game, Taylor is set to compete with Little at right tackle this training camp, even though Little has three games of NFL experience, all coming at left tackle. If Taylor was good enough for the Jaguars to trade Little away, it is unlikely the two would be in a tight competition for the position.
Then there is the fact that trading Little would hurt the Jaguars' depth in 2022 and beyond. The loser of the Little/Taylor battle will be the Jaguars' swing tackle this year, a key position that could step in as a starting left or right tackle at any point during the season pending an injury.
Taylor is also a free agent after this season while Little still has two years left on his deal after 2022. If the Jaguars traded Little and then didn't see Taylor take a step forward in 2022, then they would be left with a gaping hole at tackle -- all for a fourth-round pick.
The other two trades were not much better for the Jaguars. In each suggested trade, the Jaguars lost a wide receiver and gained just two 2023 fifth-round picks. The Jaguars need more picks heading into the 2023 draft, but wide receiver is already a position that is a question mark for the Jaguars and trading away two potential impact players would be quite detrimental to Trevor Lawrence's development.
"Considering Jacksonville's crowded receiving room, plucking away veteran Marvin Jones would help erase question marks for both teams," Bleacher Report wrote.
"Jones just turned 32 years old and is coming off a solid season, but he's also seeing his numbers slowly decline. Some of that is the result of playing with a rookie quarterback on a terrible team. However, it doesn't make a ton of sense for Jacksonville to pay Jones' $8.7 million cap hit in the final year of his contract since its roster is far from contention."
Yes, Jones is entering the later stage of his career and perhaps may not be able to put up the same numbers he did with the Bengals and Lions, but the Jaguars' roster moves for the offseason are over. Why would his cap hit come in play in the summer if it didn't come in play in March? If the Jaguars were going to save money on Jones, they would have done so in March when they could have used the savings to add more talent to the roster.
Trading Jones away for a fifth-round pick isn't a terrible idea in theory, but the reasoning doesn't quite add up, especially when one considers the Jaguars' wide receiver room isn't as crowded as many think.
The room becomes even less crowded with Bleacher Report's third trade: trading away Laviska Sheanult for a fifth-round pick in 2023.
"After a disastrous 2021 season filled with drama and disappointing play, the Jacksonville Jaguars had themselves another aggressive offseason. The new Jaguars coaching staff has a handful of new talent to utilize, but now some existing talent, including receiver Laviska Shenault is buried," Bleacher Report wrote.
"Shenault was supposed to be the closest thing to Deebo Samuel, but his usage has not mirrored that skill set. With Samuel's future in San Francisco in question, the 49ers should grab Shenault to bolster their depth and protect against a Samuel departure. There's not a better fit for the unique weapon. Despite catching 121 passes for 1,219 yards and five scores in his first two seasons, Shenault now appears to be the fourth or fifth option in Jacksonville's offense. He's not considered a special-teams ace, so his roster spot is in danger. But if traded to the 49ers, he could be the third option right away."
The issue here is two-fold. For one, Shenault is cheap depth for the Jaguars and is now gaining special teams experience at returner to ensure he isn't wasting a roster spot as a backup receiver. Shenault is just an injury away from starting again, after all, and the Jaguars don't have the depth the depart with a young receiver with talent ... especially if they also traded Jones.
In this scenario, the Jaguars would have traded both Shenault and Jones, leaving their top three wide receivers as Christian Kirk, Zay Jones and Jamal Agnew or Laquan Treadwell. That isn't the kind of room the Jaguars want or the kind of moves a team should make to help their rookie quarterback.
Plus, it would be a stretch to say Shenault's roster spot is in trouble. While Shenault isn't slated to be one of the Jaguars' starting three wideouts, the feeling inside of TIAA Bank Field has not been that Shenault's roster spot is in trouble; instead he is a player they see with a lot of talent and potential that can still be utilized.
In short, the Jaguars could once again be busy with trades this offseason and before the regular-season, but making these three moves would be unwise.
