Jacksonville Jaguars remain near the bottom in post-draft Power Rankings
By Daniel Lago
Despite putting together a fairly solid draft and addressing some needs, most pundits aren’t convinced the Jacksonville Jaguars are better enough in 2017.
Objectively, the Jacksonville Jaguars are a more talented team after the 2017 NFL Draft.
You can make that claim for essentially every team so it might not mean much, but for the Jaguars it’s a perennial occurrence that has yet to lead to wins in the regular season.
Sure, Leonard Fournette might be a generational talent at running back, but the Jaguars still have Blake Bortles at quarterback and many people can’t get past that.
I think a discussion about Bortles is warranted and his prospects in 2017 will be addressed several times on the site in the coming months, but for the time being it’s safe to assume no one is going to on the Jacksonville hype-train the way they were last offseason.
This is evident when you look at the post-draft power rankings.
Here’s a small collection of where a few analysts slot the Jaguars in relation to the rest of the teams in the NFL:
"27. Jacksonville JaguarsIt’s the offseason so the Jacksonville Jaguars are doing extremely well. All kidding aside, this is the time of the year when we applaud the work being done by the organization. Unfortunately, it hasn’t translated into wins as of late. Since making their last playoff appearance in 2007, the franchise has gone through a few head coaches and owns a dismal 42-102 win-loss record.Last offseason, the team was extremely proactive in free agency and seemingly nailed its first two draft picks in cornerback Jalen Ramsey and linebacker Myles Jack. By the end of 2016, there were only three victories and head coach Gus Bradley was out before the season concluded.However, there’s an old sheriff in Tom Coughlin, the newly-hired vice president of football operations. There have still been more than your fair share of free-agent additions such as defensive end Calais Campbell and safety Barry Church, to name a few. With the fourth overall selection in this draft, the Jaguars selected LSU running back Leonard Fournette. One round later, they moved up to grab 6’6”, 322-pound tackle Cam Robinson from the University of Alabama. Now Coughlin and head coach Doug Marrone have to figure out a way to get quarterback Blake Bortles on track.There’s plenty of promise here but we’re not willing to take the bait. Simply put, the Jaguars must prove they have turned things around – meaning on the field and not on paper."
"26. Jacksonville Jaguars"
"The Jaguars finally have an identity on offense thanks to the addition of Leonard Fournette. He can be the bruiser Jacksonville desperately needed, while Cam Robinson can compete at left tackle, right tackle and guard. The Jaguars had a good weekend in Philadelphia, but they still have Blake Bortles at quarterback, which is a big issue."
"26. Jacksonville JaguarsIs this finally the year the Jaguars become respectable? On paper, it sure looks like it.The Jags underachieved dramatically with a three-win 2016 campaign. Football Outsiders assigns teams “Pythagorean wins,” which, as the site explain it, “represent a projection of the team’s expected wins based solely on points scored and allowed.”If that metric is any indication, Jacksonville should have won nearly twice as many games (5.8) as it did. So the law of averages was likely to help the Jaguars regardless of offseason improvements.But they didn’t sit on their hands. A defense already loaded with young talent added top-tier free agents A.J. Bouye at cornerback and Calais Campbell at defensive end, and then general manager David Caldwell went out in the draft and added arguably the best offensive player in this class, running back Leonard Fournette. One round later, they grabbed monster Alabama offensive tackle Cam Robinson, whom many expected to be a top-15 selection.Those two should immediately toughen up the offense while making life easier for flawed young quarterback Blake Bortles, who continues to be a talented team’s Achilles’ heel.With a better track record and a better quart.erback, the Jaguars would be listed a lot higher. On paper, they’re superior to a lot of teams yet to be ranked, but Bortles was a mess last season, and we’ve been fooled before.For now, they’re at least a few steps removed from the basement."
"27. JaguarsThey have a running game now with Leonard Fournette and the defense should be good. So, as usual, it’s all on quarterback Blake Bortles."