From Super Bowl favorite, to the top of the draft order, the Jacksonville Jaguars season did not go to plan. Here is three moves they can make to get back to the playoffs.
After finishing the 2017 season in a crushing defeat to the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game, all things pointed to the Jacksonville Jaguars being a strong Super Bowl contender in 2018. They had one of the leagues best defenses, a star running back, and a good offensive line that made Blake Bortles good enough to lead a team to a AFC Championship game.
After a 3-1 start in 2018, including a win over the New England Patriots, things were looking on track for the Jacksonville Jaguars. From here on out they would lose 10 of their next 12 games and finish the season 5-11. Luckily for the Jaguars, many of the key pieces of their 2017 season are still on the team.
Much of the blame can be given to Blake Bortles, who was so bad this year he was benched for Cody Kessler. If the Jaguars can get anyone else at quarterback they automatically look like a .500 team again. Here are three things the Jacksonville Jaguars can do this offseason to get back into playoff contention.
Draft a Tight End
The Jaguars could very likely draft a wide receiver in this draft given their lack of a true number one receiver. Guys like Dede Westbrook, Keelan Cole and D.J. Chark all posses upside and are great number two and number three guys but they lack a number one guy.
That being said, one thing that they lack even more than this is a reliable tight end. The Jaguars top tight end had just 214 yards in 2018. Blake Bortles is not going to be the starter in 2019, but regardless of who the quarterback is, having an elite reliable tight end will certainly make their job easier.
The Jaguars have an early second round pick, which could put them in the perfect spot to land either Iowa tight end, Noah Fant or T.J. Hockensen, or Alabama’s Irv Smith Jr. Fant and Hockensen have separated themselves from the rest of the tight end class and each are starting to look more and more special the closer we get to the draft. Hockensen offers the most upside as the group. He is a great blocker, but also can excel as a pass catcher. Fant will need to improve his run blocking in order to take his game to the next level like Hockensen has.
Taking some weight off of Leonard Fournette and who ever may be at quarterback, a tight end would go a long way in Jacksonville and the entire offense. With more and more teams starting to utilize tight ends at a higher rate, don’t be surprised to hear a tight ends name called by the Jaguars early in the draft.