What Was the Jaguars' Biggest Mistake This Offseason?

Do you agree with The 33rd Team's assessment of the Jaguars' offseason?

The Jacksonville Jaguars had one of the most aggressive offseasons of any team in the NFL, spending big in free agency and making several bold moves in April's NFL Draft. 

Like any team that spends big or makes draft decisions that go against the grain and consensus, the Jaguars have naturally drawn their fair share of criticism for how they have attacked the offseason; primarily with how they spent in March.

In a list compiled by The 33rd Team on the biggest mistake made by each NFL team this offseason, the Jaguars' spending is exactly what they got dinged for.

"The Jaguars have struggled in each of the last two seasons largely thanks to a roster that is devoid of talent. The clear solution was to improve through free agency and the draft, as those are the best ways of getting better quickly. However, Jacksonville may have gone a little overboard," The 33rd Team wrote. 

"Historically, teams who spend as significant of an amount in free agency as they did, rarely have success. Not to mention, many of the players that they gave big-time contracts to were not household names such as Christian Kirk, Foye Oluokun, Zay Jones, etc. These moves could pay dividends if Trevor Lawrence takes a big step forward, but if not, they may have just dug themselves a deeper hole."

Is this an accurate account of the Jaguars' biggest misstep this offseason? 

In our opinion, it isn't. The Jaguars did pay out several contracts that are unlikely to age well, but the Jaguars had to do something to raise the floor of the roster. If the Jaguars stood pat and didn't spend big, they would have gotten criticized for not building a more complete roster around Trevor Lawrence.

The caveat, of course, is the Jaguars spent big in a below-average free agency class. Most of the top available players were either franchise-tagged or traded, leaving the Jaguars as big players in a market that was full of B and C-tier free agents. 

So, yes, the Jaguars did spend big and potentially even unwisely this offseason. But the Jaguars were not the kind of team that was in a position to not make bold upgrades. They already wasted Lawrence's rookie season on one of the NFL's worst rosters, so why try to repeat it in 2022?

"Last year was a little different in the approach in terms of we had targeted more players. We felt we had more needs. This year we got a little bit more specific," Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke said in March. 

"We learned the team a little bit better, what we had, what we didn’t have, what we needed in this division to plow forward. So I think there’s always a lot of factors that go into the plan that you put together. This was the second year of a build, right. Next year’s going to be totally different than this year in terms of how we approach things based on the needs that we have on the team. All those factor into it.”

So, what was the Jaguars' actual biggest mistake this offseason in our opinion? 

To us, it comes down to one move/non-move: the failure to re-sign DJ Chark this offseason.

Chark, who signed with the Detroit Lions on a minor one-year prove it deal this offseason, likely didn't have a ton of interest in re-signing with the Jaguars due to the Jaguars themselves seeming to pivot their focus away from Chark. 

But is there any argument the Jaguars can make for giving Zay Jones a three-year deal with $14 guaranteed when Chark isn't even making that much money this year? Based on the past production and skill set of each player, there isn't one -- at least not a good one.

Jones is a solid underneath and intermediate target, but the Jaguars' roster now completely lacks a long, tall, speedy vertical threat on the outside. Jones can't replace what Chark brought to the roster, even if he is getting paid more. 

The Jaguars are going to hope Jones can produce more than Chark did the last two seasons, but the smart money would have been to give Chark the contract they gave Jones. Jones has played in 79 career games to Chark's 43, but Chark has more yards, just 24 fewer receptions and four more touchdowns.

The Jaguars will have to hope their bet on Jones over Chark pays off, but it is hard to look at the Jaguars roster today and not think Chark would have rounded out their receiver room nicely following the additions of Christian Kirk and Evan Engram.