3 winners, and 2 losers from Jaguars on Day 2 of the 2024 NFL Draft
Jaguars Loser No. 2: GM Trent Baalke
General manager Trent Baalke did a good job of maneuvering Day 1 of the draft, managing to land Brian Thomas Jr. while getting three extra draft picks. However, he wasn't nearly as successful in the second round.
Baalke tried to move up but wasn't able to find a favorable deal. Had he pulled it off, he might've targeted Cooper DeJean or Kool-Aid McKinstry. Unfortunately, he came empty-handed. The silver lining is that defensive tackle Maason Smith fell to them at No. 48 but they would've surely loved to select a cornerback earlier in Round 2.
"It's the way the board fell. We looked at opportunities to trade up in the second round and that didn't go our way. We're really excited about the player we got," Baalke said about Maason Smith during the media availability session on Day 2. "He was someone that we had targeted. We spent a lot of time with him."
"We sent a couple of coaches to work him out personally on the private workout, which went exceptionally well. He's 100 percent clear from the knee that he suffered two years ago. Like I've always said, you follow your board, you got more than one need, we had a need at that position and we filled it," Baalke said.
You could argue that things ultimately played out favorably for the Jaguars, but that doesn't take away Baalke's failure to trade up and acquire one of the top cornerbacks in the draft.
Jaguars Winner No. 2: DC Ryan Nielsen
After adding yet another weapon to Trevor Lawrence's arsenal in Round 1, the team's brass turned their attention to the defensive side of the ball and got defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen a pair of intriguing pieces to work with. This is huge because he'll be installing a new scheme and both players have the traits to thrive in them.
Nielsen is in his first season in Jacksonville. Maason Smith and Jarrrian Jones won't probably get a big workload early on but Nielsen will have to chance to mold them and get the most out of both.