Has Dave Caldwell Given Jaguars Enough Talent?

Dave Caldwell, Jacksonville Jaguars general manager and the leader of a front office desperately trying to right the ship is in a bit of a tricky position.

He’s forced to find talent that can succeed in ambiguity.

It’s tough for the best players in the NFL to win without quality talent around them and without a clear winning formula laid out. It’s even tougher for young players with little to no experience to be successful with questionable talent around them and no clear-cut formula for winning spelled out for them. It’s almost the blind leading the blind.

That starts from the top on down. Jaguars owner Shad Khan owned the team for just one season before making his first GM hire in Caldwell. Caldwell is a first time general manager. Head coach Gus Bradley is a first time head coach. Rookies crowd the player personnel ranks. These people all could be quite good at their jobs. In fact, I think many of them are. But it’s a tough task all the same.

So when we question the talent level of the the Jacksonville Jaguars (as happens from the running backs to pretty much anywhere) we need to keep in mind that sometimes talent just can’t win against a sea of ambiguity and adversity. It’s tough rebuilding a roster, making a plan for success, and then having close to perfect execution.

But this is what Dave Caldwell and the Jacksonville Jaguars have to do.

Fortunately, I think we can answer the question posed in this article with an affirmative. The Jaguars in 2015 may finally have enough talent thanks to Caldwell. There are questions lingering over some big picks like left tackle Luke Joeckel. There are concerns over freakish accidents like 2015 first rounder Dante Fowler’s ACL tear. On the whole, however, I think we can see the pieces in place that can get the Jaguars to move toward wins.

Caldwell isn’t done stocking the team with talent (the job never ends) and he’s going to continue to tweak the roster to find better ways for the team to win every position battle. While they aren’t winning many matchups now, they’re finally in a spot where the team is competitive on a player by player basis. Tom Brady is still going to outmatch Blake Bortles, but Bortles may finally be in a position to succeed against other quarterbacks in the league.

The final step for the Jaguars will be execution, but for now I think it’s safe to say we’re looking at the most talented roster the team has had in four or five years. Hopefully Caldwell and Bradley finally see their hard work pay off in the win column for 2015.

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