3 reasons to be optimistic about the Jaguars in 2022

1. The Jaguars have put together a well-rounded roster

If anything needed to be improved upon for the Jaguars, it’s the overall talent on the roster. Sure, it’s easy to say that every team needs to improve upon its overall talent level each and every offseason. But this could not ever be more true than for the Jaguars in 2022. The talent level on the team was exposed like an open wound once injuries and losses started mounting up last season, pushing the Jags further and further down the aforementioned self-dug hole.

Once the depth started deteriorating due to injuries with the likes of running back Travis Etienne Jr. (entire season), wide receiver D.J. Chark (13 weeks), guard A.J. Cann (13 weeks), and center Brandon Linder (6 weeks), it became obvious to anyone tuning in on Sundays that the Jaguars seriously lacked the depth and overall talent level required to have any chance of winning consistently.

Even injuries aside, having players such as Andrew Wingard starting at free safety, who seemed to lack the athletic traits required to defend the deep ball or ever have any chance of making an acrobatic play in the defensive backfield showed that the Jaguars were very limited in who they could insert into the lineup.

This season, however, major talent acquisitions such as guard Brandon Scherff, wide receiver Christian Kirk, linebacker Foyesade Oluokun, and tight end Evan Engram have injected new life into the starting lineup. Having an athletic tight end who can stretch the field they way Engram can is surely something Jaguars fan have been craving since the franchise’s very beginning. You could make the argument that the best tight ends to ever put on a Jaguars uniform have been Kyle Brady and Marcedes Lewis, both of whom don’t exactly inspire or portray dominance or athleticism, though both certainly held their own in their own right.

With vast experience and high-end and proven talent, these much-needed additions in free agency alone could go a long way towards helping to usher this Jacksonville franchise into sustained success once and for all.