Jacksonville Jaguars need to prioritize extending Allen Hurns
By Daniel Lago
The Jacksonville Jaguars came into the 2016 offseason with the most salary cap space of any team in the entire NFL. While quite useful in terms of luring in players in a cash-rich NFL landscape, the copious amounts of cap room is a direct result of not have good players on your roster. The Jaguars haven’t had to re-sign very many of their own players over the last decade or so because they just haven’t been very good.
Former general manager Gene Smith systematically destroyed the Jaguars roster from 2009 to 2012, drafting only two (!!!) players whom the Jaguars eventually gave a contract extension to – wide receiver Mike Thomas and defensive tackle Tyson Alualu.
Think about how ridiculous it is for a team to not draft more than two players worth keeping over a 4 year stretch. Even with those 2 guys, Thomas was run out of town almost immediately after signing his extension and Alualu is a decent, not great player.
Well the tide has turned somewhat under general manager David Caldwell and the team now has players they are expected to sign to lucrative contract extensions in the coming years. Blake Bortles, Allen Robinson, Allen Hurns, Telvin Smith, and a handful of other rising stars are expected to anchor the roster for the next several years.
One player who can sign an extension right now is former undrafted free agent wide receiver Allen Hurns.
Caldwell said #jaguars will look at possible Hurns extension post draft. If they did deal, would be before season.
— Ryan O'Halloran (@ryanohalloran) March 21, 2016
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The Jaguars should absolutely make giving Allen Hurns a contract extension a priority after the draft. This is what good teams do, they keep their own guys without letting them get to free agency and allowing the market to inflate their value.
Hurns is arguably one of the best number two wide receivers in the league and he is the pivotal counterpart to Allen Robinson in what is perhaps the most potent wide recevier duo in the NFL.
Of all the players on the Jaguars roster, there probably isn’t one more deserving of a raise than Hurns ($601,668 cap hit in 2016, one of the lowest on the team).