Jacksonville Jaguars 3 best moves of the 2023 offseason

1. The Jacksonville Jaguars let RT Jawaan Taylor walk in free agency

Right tackle Jawaan Taylor, a second-round pick in 2019, struggled early in his career but managed to put it all together in 2022. This isn't surprising though. Some players simply need more time than others to hit their stride and the former Florida Gator is a prime example.

Although the Jags would have liked to re-sign Taylor in free agency, they had just given Cam Robinson a long-term deal last year and didn't have much cap space left. The good news is that they had a plan in place and things ended up working out just fine for both the team and Taylor.

The Kansas City Chiefs gave Taylor a four-year deal worth $80 million while Jacksonville drafted Oklahoma offensive tackle Anton Harrison with the 27th overall pick. You could point out that Taylor was a proven commodity and keeping him would have given stability to the offensive line.

On the other hand, the team's brass would have needed to invest a significant amount of money in Taylor to retain him. And if they had done it, they wouldn't have been able to re-sign Roy Robertson-Harris and DaVon Hamilton.

It's also worth noting that Taylor was good but not a core player and that's the thing. Good things consistently let good players walk and build around their franchise building blocks. That's precisely the approach the Jaguars are taking with Trevor Lawrence and if that means letting Taylor walk away, so they can pay their star players, so be it.