The Jacksonville Jaguars surprised quite a lot of people when they decided to spend a second-round pick on tight end Nate Boerkircher. The Texas A&M product was the Jaguars' first pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, and considering that Boerkicher had just 198 yards receiving and three touchdowns for the Aggies last year, yeah, the pick was quite the surprise.
That pick is what prompted Bill Barnwell of ESPN to list "Repeatedly overdrafting players relative to consensus" as the Jaguars' worst offseason move. Where it pertains to Boerkircher, Barnwell wrote:
"There's a significant gap between where Miller and Reid ranked the vast majority of Jacksonville's draftees and where the Jags took them. Second-round pick Nate Boerkircher came off the board at No. 56. Miller had him as the 129th-best player in the class, and Reid had the tight end at No. 148 on his board. If we take the average of those rankings and say that Boerkircher ranked 139th in the class, the Jags took Boerkircher 83 picks ahead of expectation."
Jaguars fans won't be shocked by offseason criticisms
This isn't anything that Jags fans aren't used to seeing at this point. The Boerkicher pick was a bizarre one for a multitude of reasons. His stat line from his 2025 season at Texas A&M was underwhelming, and again, he was seemingly going to be available well into Round 3 of the draft. Why spend a second-round pick on him?
The good news, however, is that Boerkircher made a positive impression at rookie minicamp and can build off of that at OTAs. Moreover, his separation rate in 2025 proves that he may not have been targeted enough despite the fact that he was routinely open.
Boerkircher won't be the starting tight end in Jacksonville, as Brenton Strange has that role locked up (another reason why the pick was so perplexing), but he can work his way up the depth chart and hopefully be an integral contributor in 12 and 13 personnel packages.
It's no surprise to see the Jaguars continue to get dunked on for this pick. Hopefully, Boerkircher proves them wrong and can show what James Gladstone saw in him to take such a big risk in the second round.
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