Four Days to Kickoff: 4 Views from Inside the Jaguars
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers will host the Jacksonville Jaguars at noon Sunday. Let’s get to know the foe with John Shipley of Sports Illustrated’s Jaguar Report.
Coach Doug Marrone seemed happy about the play of rookie QB Jake Luton in last week’s loss to Houston. What did you think of his debut and, while it’s perhaps too early to ask, is he potentially an upgrade over Gardner Minshew.
It would be fair to say Luton probably exceeded expectations. His 73-yard touchdown alone was a terrific throw in terms of anticipation, velocity and accuracy. With that said, he was far from a consistent force. He had some negative plays, including three dropped interceptions that didn’t show up on the stat sheet, and a missed deep pass to an open Keelan Cole on a scramble drill. With that said, he led them on five scoring drives and put together a two-minute drill at the end of the game to put the Jaguars within two points. All in all, you can’t ask much more from a rookie sixth-rounder.
A bigger sample size will be needed to know if Luton is truly an upgrade over Minshew, but it’s clear they at least have different skill-sets. One could argue Luton is at least a potentially more advanced pocket passer who is more willing to stick in the pocket against the rush. Luton also has a bigger arm than Minshew. On the other hand, Minshew has a much quicker release and is generally more accurate. Time will tell who is better, but they both bring good traits to the table.
I believe 18 running backs were drafted. None of those were James Robinson, who is 8 yards off the rookie rushing lead. Is this merely a case of a good player getting opportunities on a bad team or did the entire NFL miss something? And if it’s the latter, what did they miss?
It is a mix of both. Robinson said the Jaguars and San Francisco 49ers were the only teams that were in contact with him, so there is a good chance if he didn’t get a shot in Jacksonville this year, maybe he wouldn’t have gotten a chance at all. With that said, some credit should go to Marrone and his staff for making the bold move to release Leonard Fournette in favor of Robinson despite not having seen any live game reps from the rookie back.
But too much credit can’t go to the Jaguars because they passed on Robinson like everyone else did in the draft. While they got lucky and then made the right moves once he was on the team, they still partially missed on him by not selecting him at any point in the draft. The lack of pro days was likely the biggest reason so many teams missed on the uber-productive back. He ran a poor 40-yard dash at the Scouting Combine and wasn’t able to retest due to the cancelation of on-campus testing. Had he been able to, teams likely would have seen he had the power and athleticism to produce at the NFL level.
Defensively, when I look at the names on the roster and all the early draft picks, it seems like it should be a good unit. It’s not. What’s wrong? And is there any prayer of slowing down Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams on Sunday?
The Jaguars can’t blame their defensive issues on a lack of investment. They have three first-round picks on the defensive line, two of the league’s highest-paid linebackers, and a top-10 pick at cornerback. They’ve poured resources into the unit. It just hasn’t worked.
A big part of their defensive downfalls has stemmed from trading their three most productive defenders over the last 13 months in Jalen Ramsey, Calais Campbell and Yannick Ngakoue. None of their replacements has performed to the level of the departed defenders, creating big holes at each level of the defense that are clear each Sunday.
The Jaguars also are not running a scheme that meshes with their talent. They run the classic Seattle Cover-3 scheme, but the last few years have shown this only works when you have top-tier talent on the defensive line and in the secondary. Jacksonville doesn’t have any of that this year, but defensive coordinator Todd Wash has yet to change his approach.
It wasn’t so long ago that the Jaguars were on their way to beating New England in the AFC Championship Game. Now, they’re 1-7 and going nowhere fast. Taking a big-picture viewpoint, are the Jaguars simply awful or are they a few pieces away from being pretty good? So, I’ll make you the general manager. What moves need to be made to get the Jaguars back to being contenders?
As of right now, it’s fair to say the current Jaguars are close to being awful. They have a lot of exciting young talent but they are missing key pieces at several positions, such as quarterback and in the secondary. There is no salvaging the 2020 Jaguars – their bed has been made and the record will be ugly to say the least. But the team does have some room for optimism past 2020, which is maybe what this season was always about.
In 2021, Jacksonville is set to have roughly $100 million in cap space and 11 draft picks. This includes four picks in the first two rounds. The Jaguars should be able find a young quarterback to build around early in the draft and then put pieces around him to succeed. They have the resources. Now, it is just about making the right decisions and evaluations.
