Jacksonville Jaguars have 27th best roster in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus
By Daniel Lago
The Jaguars made numerous big-time additions this offseason, but it wasn’t enough to impress Pro Football Focus too much.
The Jacksonville Jaguars have objectively been a bad football team for the better part of a half decade now. After a horrific 2-14 season under former head coach Mike Mularkey and former general manger Gene Smith, the Jaguars gutted their roster and effectively started from scratch. Since 2013, current GM David Caldwell has slowly added talent, but the development of some of those guys has been painfully slow.
Consequently, it isn’t surprising that Pro Football Focus ranked the Jaguars roster dead last in 2014 and 2015. But given the leap made by some of the young players during 2015 and the addition of several high-ceiling players this offseason, PFF surely moved the Jaguars up considerably in the 2016 rankings?
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"27. Jacksonville JaguarsTop five players: DL Malik Jackson, WR Allen Robinson, OT Kelvin Beachum, CB Prince Amukamara, RB Chris IvoryStarters who should be upgraded: LB Paul Posluszny, S Johnathan Cyprien, OG Mackenzy Bernadeau, OG A.J. CannThe Jaguars were No. 32 on this list a year ago, but they have made major additions to the roster since then. They could soar up the rankings over the next few years, but because much of the added talent is in the form of rookies or unknown quantities — such as former No. 3 overall pick Dante Fowler Jr. — we simply can’t credit them for the improvement just yet. If Fowler, Jalen Ramsey, Myles Jack & Co. all play to their potential, the Jaguars have added a series of dynamic studs to complement free-agent acquisitions Malik Jackson, but right now that remains a big “if.”Whether that group reaches its potential, the team has not done enough to improve the offensive line. Its best player, Beachum, is coming off a torn ACL."
I understand being tentative about some of the additions, particularly the rookies since they are complete unknowns, but contextually this is borderline ridiculous. Somehow, Pro Football Focus thinks the Tennessee Titans (comically ranked 20th overall) has a much better roster than the Jaguars. I think you would be hard-pressed to find a general manager in the NFL who would emphatically take the Titans’ roster over the Jaguars right now.
PFF doesn’t go into too much detail on how these rankings are put together, but one can surmise it relies heavily on their pseudo-subjective player grades. Hence why Kelvin Beachum is the “best” offensive lineman (not Brandon Linder) and A.J. Cann needs to be “upgraded.”
Pro Football Focus generally is not a fan of many players on the Jaguars roster, particularly high-variance producers like Blake Bortles, but this is a bad look. The Jaguars have one of the highest upside rosters in the league right now and it should play into these rankings.
Thankfully, these are just the musings of a few writers and the Jaguars win column shouldn’t really reflect these rankings in 2016.