Jacksonville Jaguars Get Orlando Franklin, DeMarco Murray in 2011 Re-Draft

As the 2015 NFL Draft creeps upon us, it’s that time of year when articles crop up speculating on the “what if’s” of previous draft classes. We recently talked about how Blaine Gabbert was the worst draft pick in the history of the franchise, but we didn’t talk too much about how the rest of the 2011 NFL Draft went.

Ryan Wilson and Will Brinson of CBS Sports recently took a look back at the 2011 NFL Draft and made selections for every team with the benefit of hindsight. Originally, the Jacksonville Jaguars traded away a 2nd round pick to move up from 16 to 10 to pick *shudders*… Blaine Gabbert. In this re-draft, the Wilson and Brinson kept the Jaguars at 16, and they each selected different players.

"16. Jacksonville JaguarsOriginal pick: Ryan Kerrigan DE (trade with Redskins).Ryan Wilson’s Redraft pick: Orlando Franklin, G. The Jaguars’ starting guards in 2011 were Will Rackley and Uche Nwaneri, and Franklin upgrades the unit. Again, Dalton or Kaepernick are options (read: reaches) here.Will Brinson’s Redraft pick: DeMarco Murray, RB. Capable of workhorse-level production, Murray earned a haul in free agency this offseason. Someone would certainly gamble on him in the first before he put on all those miles despite injury concerns. Jacksonville wins regardless of who they draft because that person is not Blaine Gabbert."

I’m fine with both of these selections because, as Brinson so eloquently puts it, the Jaguars don’t take Blaine Gabbert. It’s interesting to note that Murray was a target for the Jaguars in the offseason, so it’s not completely farfetched to put him here despite his injury history. Franklin would have slotted right in at guard and likely would still be starting for the Jaguars if he was the pick here.

Interestingly enough, there are a bunch of players still available in this re-draft that the Jaguars could’ve taken. Julius Thomas, who is now a Jaguar in real life, was on the board, and so was Randall Cobb. Either way, it’s pretty painful to see how many good players the Jaguars could’ve had in 2011, but instead… yeah. Let’s move on.

Next: Allen Robinson ready to breakout in 2015.

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