2022 NFL Draft: Jaguars Clinch No. 1 Overall Pick

The Jacksonville Jaguars will pick No. 1 overall once again.

After a year in which the Jaguars stacked loss after loss and had the inside track to the No. 1 overall pick for the better part of the last two months, it took both the Jaguars and Detroit Lions winning in Week 18 to officially clinch the top pick for the Jaguars yet again.

Jacksonville has ended the season with a 3-14 record and even a 26-11 win over the Colts couldn't keep the No. 1 overall pick from the Jaguars after the Detroit Lions upset the Green Bay Packers in a 37-30 bout during the very same 1 p.m. kickoff slate.

As a result, the Jaguars have become the latest team to have the No. 1 overall pick in back-to-back years, with the Jaguars selecting Trevor Lawrence with the franchise's first-ever No. 1 overall pick last year.

After the Jaguars went their first 25 years without ever picking first overall, the Jaguars will now have the No. 1 pick for the second year in a row, the result of a 3-14 record and a season that saw Urban Meyer get fired after 13 games and countless on and off-field embarrassments.

The latest team to have back-to-back No. 1 overall picks is the Cleveland Browns, who held the top pick in 1999 and 2000, then again in 2017 and '18. The former occurrence saw them shoot their shot with quarterback Tim Couch—who eventually led them to a playoff appearance—and Courtney Brown, who was plagued with injuries.

In 2017, the Browns took defensive end Myles Garrett before taking quarterback Baker Mayfield the next season.

The NFL has held 86 drafts and in that span, there have only seven occurrences of the same team having back-to-back No. 1 picks. The first time it happened was in the first two years of the draft with the Philadelphia Eagles holding the honor.

In 1939 and 1940, the Chicago Cardinals drafted first overall in two straight years, a part of a 10-year streak of losing seasons. In 1976 and 1977, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had the No. 1 pick, drafting Lee Roy Selmon and Ricky Bell.

Tampa Bay received back-to-back No. 1 picks again a decade later in 1986 and 1987, while the Cincinnati Bengals selected Dan Wilkinson first overall in 1994 and Ki-Juna Carter first overall a year later.

The Jaguars currently look to be favorites to follow the Browns' strategy, though in reverse order. The Jaguars took Trevor Lawrence at No. 1 overall last April while the consensus top-two players in the 2022 NFL Draft so far are Oregon edge defender Kayvon Thibodeaux and Michigan edge defender Aidan Hutchinson, though Alabama's Evan Neal also finds himself in contention.

The question for the Jaguars now is who will be making the selection. Meyer and general manager Trent Baalke pulled the trigger on Lawrence with the top pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, but the Jaguars are now looking for a new head coach while Baalke himself has come under intense scrutiny from the national and local media and the fan base.

Will Baalke be the man who makes the No. 1 overall pick? All signs point to that being the case, but the next few days and weeks will clear up who is navigating the Jaguars' pivotal offseason.