The Jacksonville Jaguars have steadily replenished their roster over the last two seasons and if Trevor Lawrence and Travon Walker turn out to live up to their draft billing, they will have a young building core on both sides of the ball. Meanwhile, the man responsible for leaving the cupboard bare has recently resurfaced.
That’s right, former Jaguars general manager Dave Caldwell was promoted to senior personnel director/advisor to the general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles after joining their front office last year. While this is great news for Caldwell, it’s important to remember that he left Jacksonville’s roster in shambles, which ultimately cost him his job. In fact, his inability to draft and evaluate talent played a big role in the Jags going 12-36 from 2018 to 2020.
And while it’s been more than a year since Caldwell was given the boot, it’s a good time to revisit some of his biggest blunders. After all, teams that don’t learn from their mistakes are doomed to pick in the top 5 of the draft.
No. 5 Jaguars biggest bust of the Dave Caldwell era – Taven Bryan, DT
Defensive tackle Taven Bryan is one of Dave Caldwell’s most recent blunders. The Jaguars got good grades for his selection with the 29th overall pick in the 2018 draft and it’s easy to see why. At the time, Jacksonville was coming off an AFC Championship appearance and the former Florida Gator was expected to improve an already dominant defense.
Alas, Bryan failed to live up to expectations throughout his tenure in Jacksonville. His playing time progressively decreased and was benched in favor of then-rookie Doug Costin in 2020. The defensive tackle had a few solid performances every now and then and he did have an outstanding performance against the Buffalo Bills in Week 9 of the 2021 season. However, he didn’t do much to justify keeping him around after his rookie contract expired.
The Jags didn’t make an effort to bring back Bryan this past offseason and he went on to sign a one-year deal with the Cleveland Browns, where he’ll get a fresh start.
No. 4 Jaguars biggest bust of the Dave Caldwell era – Luke Joeckel, LT
It’s always easy to pan past decisions with the benefit of hindsight but it’s kind of hard to blame the Jaguars for selecting left tackle Luke Joeckel with the second overall selection in the 2013 draft. The Kansas City Chiefs had just taken offensive tackle Eric Fisher with the top pick and without any enticing quarterback prospects on the board, Dave Calwell went with the ‘safe choice’ at No. 2.
The problem with the Joeckel pick was that instead of getting their left tackle for the next ten years, the Jaguars got a player that was overwhelmed in the pros and was a liability in pass protection. The fact that he struggled to stay healthy didn’t help matters.
The former Texas A&M Aggie suffered a high ankle fracture that forced him to sit out a good chunk of his rookie campaign. He went on to make 30 starts the next two seasons but got injured again in 2016. He then signed with the Seattle Seahawks and moved to guard. However, switching positions didn’t help him and he was out of the league the following year.
Looking back, the Jaguars could have drafted a franchise cornerstone in offensive tackle Lane Johnson, who went to the Eagles two picks later. The silver lining is that the 2013 draft was one of the worst ones when it came to talent at the top in recent years, and Jacksonville wasn’t the only team that selected a player that turned out to be a bust.
No. 3 Jaguars biggest bust of the Dave Caldwell era – Marqise Lee, WR
The draft is a crapshoot and even the clubs with the best track record have had their fair share of misses. Having said that, Dave Caldwell’s tenure as the general manager of the Jaguars was full of subpar picks. Back in 2014, he chose quarterback Blake Bortles (more on him later) in the first round and selected wide receivers with back-to-back picks in the second round.
One of those picks was Allen Robinson, who went on to become the team’s top receiver. The other was Marquise Lee, better known as the albino Tiger because of how difficult it was to find him. There’s a whole debate whether the Jags should have let Robinson walk away in free agency after his rookie deal expire but the Jags at least got two pretty good seasons out of him. Meanwhile, Lee didn’t make much of an impact and was even surpassed by undrafted free agent Allen Hurns on the depth chart.
In Lee’s defense, he did have a somewhat solid stretch from 2017 to 2018, hauling in 119 receptions for 1,553 yards with six touchdowns. However, his production dipped in 2019 and he went on to catch a measly three receptions for 18 yards. That was the last year he played a regular-season game in the NFL.
The Jaguars moved on from Lee in 2020 and although he tried to continue his NFL career, he hasn’t had much success. He signed with the New England Patriots that year but he opted out of the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was released in 2021, and joined the San Francisco 49ers but was given his walking papers again just four days later.
No. 2 Jaguars biggest bust of the Dave Caldwell era – TJ Yeldon, RB
On paper, using the 36th overall pick in the 2015 draft on T.J. Yeldon wasn’t a bad idea. Instead of reaching for a running back in the first round, the Jags waited until the second to land the Alabama product. Of course, the decision in practice didn’t turn out to be a good one.
Yeldon had an adequate rookie campaign, toting the rock 182 times for 740 yards with two touchdowns. However, that was his most productive season in the NFL, and by 2017, he had become an afterthought in the Jags’ running back room. The fact that Dave Caldwell kept drafting running backs the subsequent years showed the team’s lack of confidence in Yeldon.
Looking back, it’s fair to wonder what was the Jags’ thought process at the time, or maybe they simply made a mistake and instead of moving on, they kept Yeldon on the roster until the expiration of his rookie year.
All things considered, Yeldon wasn’t a bad NFL player. More than anything, he was unremarkable, which is what you expect from a late-round selection, not the 36th overall. During his sixth-year career, he had 492 carries for 2,005 yards with six touchdowns, which wouldn’t be a bad output coming from a backup running back. Sure, he wasn’t able to cut it in the NFL but the Jags also deserve some of the blame for drafting in the second round, and not in the fifth or sixth.
No. 1 Jaguars biggest bust of the Dave Caldwell era – Blake Bortles, QB
You could make the case that cornerback C.J. Henderson and edge rusher K’Lavon Chaisson deserved a spot on this list but the truth is that they’ve only been in the NFL for two seasons and there’s still a chance they’ll turn the corner. Sure, the Jags already traded Henderson but that was because Dave Caldwell was no longer in charge and his successor, Trent Baalke, didn’t see him as a part of the team’s long-term plan.
Meanwhile, quarterback Blake Bortles has come crashing down since Jacksonville made him the third overall pick in the 2014 draft. The UCF product put some solid stats early in his career and became a fantasy football darling in the process. However, most of his production came in garbage time and when he needed to make plays and lead the Jags, he fell flat on his face.
The Jags had the fifth-best scoring offense and had a 10-6 record in 2017, with Bortles completing 60.2 percent of his passes for 3,697 yards with 21 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. However, context is necessary, as the Jags’ defense often gave their offensive counterpart a favorable field position and often got them the ball back, giving the quarterback more chances to score.
What makes Bortles the biggest bust in the Caldwell era is that instead of looking for an upgrade at quarterback, the team’s brass doubled down on their mistake and gave him a three-year extension worth $54 million. But wait there’s more. Just a year after rewarding Bortles, the organization released him, making him the source of two blunders. In retrospect, that’s when owner Shad Khan should have cut ties with Caldwell. But he allowed him to keep making questionable decisions and depleting the roster for three more years.