Jacksonville Jaguars: 3 remaining free agents to consider after 2021’s draft

The Jacksonville Jaguars could bring competition to the offensive line.

In a sit-down before 2021’s draft took place, head coach Urban Meyer told the local media the team’s brass planned to add competition to the offensive line and that’s precisely what they did in the second round when they used the 45th overall selection to take Stanford offensive tackle Walker Little.

The Jaguars brought back all their starting offensive linemen — they placed the franchise tag on left tackle Cam Robinson and also re-signed reserve interior lineman Tyler Shatley — from last year and expect the group to play better than they did in 2020. However, they should have all of them compete and earn their starting job. As Meyer mentioned in the conference, “competition brings out the best in everyone”, and if they want to push their offensive tackles, they need to sign Mitchell Schwartz.

A second-round selection in 2012, Schwartz has started all 134 games he’s appeared in over his nine-year career. Moreover, he was named First-Team All-Pro in 2018 and was part of the Kansas City Chiefs team that won Super Bowl 54, so why is the right tackle a free agent?  He suffered a back injury in 2020 that forced him to miss ten regular-season games.

Schwartz originally expected to be back for the Chiefs’ 2020 playoff run but his injury was worst than he originally thought. Either way, he announced he was getting surgery in February and added that the recovery process shouldn’t be too long, so Jacksonville should target him if he gets a clean bill of health.

Although Kansas City has expressed interest in reuniting with Schwartz (the Broncos have been linked to him too), he could join the offensive line mix and compete with incumbent Jawaan Taylor for the starting right tackle job.