James Gladstone Knows Importance of Nailing 1st Pick With Jaguars

The late Ted Thompson threw a lifeline to Aaron Rodgers in 2005, after the quarterback plummeted in the first round. Twelve years later, Brandon Beane consummated the trade that allowed Kansas City to draft Patrick Mahomes. Josh Allen arrived the following spring.

In 1996, Ozzie Newsome used his first-ever selection at the reins of the Ravens on future Hall of Famer Jonathan Ogden. Fast forward 25 years and Brad Holmes, the previous GM to branch out from the Les Snead tree, added another left tackle -- Penei Sewell -- to protect newly acquired quarterback Jared Goff.

The newest branch from that tree, James Gladstone, is well aware of how a general manager’s first pick can set the tone for an entire generation.

“I think, naturally, that's absolutely where your mind goes,” Gladstone said Tuesday at his first pre-draft press conference. “We've had discussions on that subject a number of times. Certainly feel really good about the pot of players right now that we're discussing. And that would align with all the messages that we would like to send to the locker room, to our fanbase, to the greater football landscape about who the Jacksonville Jaguars are going to be moving forward.”

Who they are moving forward, if Gladstone and head coach Liam Coen have their way, is tougher in the trenches. On offense last year, the Jaguars were just 15 of 28 on third-and-1 conversions (53.6 percent), tied for 30th in the league. On defense, they were only slightly better, allowing 16 conversions on 22 third-and-1 attempts (72.7 percent), tied for 18th in the NFL.

But simply adding one player like Mason Graham with that historic first pick won’t be enough, Coen acknowledged.

“I think that's something that, ultimately, you look at last year in the NFL, we were first in Tampa in short-yardage,” Coen said Tuesday. “Although I'd love to say that we just ran down everybody's throat, I can't say that. There was some misdirection, jet sweeps, whatever it was, different ways of getting that yard.

“Ultimately, yes, you'd love to say, ‘Man, we just have to gain a yard; we should be able to do this,’ with the most simple plays in football. But it just depends on how you're built and what those matchups look like, obviously. It is on us as coaches to hopefully put those guys in better positions to be successful that way.”

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