Jacksonville Jaguars: 6 worst draft picks under former GM David Caldwell

The two worst picks the Jacksonville Jaguars made under David Caldwell.

2017 was a great year to select a quarterback. That draft class produced arguably the most electrifying player in the NFL right now, Patrick Mahomes. Deshaun Watson, who gives the Houston Texans a chance to compete week in and week out, joined the league in the same year. Having a chance to select a franchise player, whom did the Jaguars select? Running back Leonard Fournette.

The LSU product had a solid rookie season, but he wasn’t even the best running back in that draft. The Jaguars could’ve drafted Mahomes or Watson with the fourth overall pick and chose a playmaker such as Delvin Cook, Joe Mixon, or Alvin Kamara in a later round. Having a chance to select a franchise quarterback in 2017, David Caldwell opted to choose a running back, and not even the best one in that class.

When the Jaguars drafted Blake Bortles in 2014, they thought they had found their quarterback of the future. Instead, they got a marginal player that held the franchise back for a few years. Bortles put respectable numbers in 2015 but didn’t win any meaningful games with the ‘Black and Teal’. Although the team reached the AFC Championship in 2017, they got there on the strength of their ferocious defense and in spite of the quarterback.

The team’s brass got mesmerized nonetheless and gave Bortles a three-year $54 million extension in 2018, a decision they quickly regretted and prompted them to release the quarterback the following season.