The Jacksonville Jaguars made a few key moves in the first weeks of March, retaining Evan Engram, Dewey Wingard, and JaMycal Hasty, among others. It feels like they haven’t done much of anything, though.
A year after dumping a record-breaking amount of money into the free agency market, the Jaguars are now one of only two squads (along with the Baltimore Ravens) that hasn’t added a single player from another team since the market opened last week. Instead, Jacksonville turned its efforts toward keeping its roster together, but failed to keep offensive tackle Jawaan Taylor and pass rusher Arden Key from cashing in elsewhere.
There’s plenty of time left for the Jaguars to add a veteran who could be a significant contributor in 2023, but they’ve made their long-term strategy clear: the NFL Draft will be the way general manager Trent Baalke puts together the team’s roster.
It’s not hard to see the logic.
The Jaguars have the building blocks to be successful for a long time with quarterback Trevor Lawrence leading the way. But what they currently lack is superstar-level talent. While it’s a roster full of solid contributors, there’s a reason only Lawrence and cornerback Tyson Campbell made Pro Football Focus’ list of the top 101 players of the 2022 season. And even those two were at the tail-end of those rankings.
While Jacksonville had tons of success delving into the free agency market a year ago, it rarely works out so well. And even when it does, there’s only so much a team can find picking through the castoffs from other rosters.
So now it’s up to Baalke to supplement the Jaguars roster with top talent through the draft.
Losing Key won’t matter too much if Travon Walker proves to be worth the No. 1 pick in 2022 and he’s paired with another young pass rusher who develops into a productive player. The Jaguars will be fine without Taylor if Walker Little steps up in his absence and the Jaguars find another young, reliable offensive tackle.
Baalke has a chance to fill a playoff-ready roster with the talent it needs to win a Super Bowl. But by sitting on the sideline during free agency, Baalke also runs the risk of spoiling the team’s wide-open window by failing to find contributors.
There’s a lot of self-imposed pressure on the Jaguars general manager to get the 2023 NFL Draft right, otherwise the offseason will look like quite a waste.
