Jacksonville Jaguars Draft: Grading the picks made on Friday night
On the first night of the 2023 NFL Draft, the Jacksonville Jaguars made a very nice selection. They traded back twice and landed on pick 27 where they took Anton Harrison out of Oklahmoa. He is an offensive lineman that will fill a huge need for them.
Now, day two came and went and the Jaguars made more selections as rounds two and three were completed. It is rounds like this that moves are made where teams become Super Bowl contenders.
The Jaguars would love to be a team like that. With some improvement following the great year that 2022 was for them, they believe they can be one of those elite teams.
In the second round of the draft, the Jaguars made another selection. They allowed Fred Taylor to be the legend that makes the pick for the second-round selections.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are hoping that their Day 2 selections work out.
With their second-round pick, they selected Brenton Strange. He is a tight end that comes from Penn State University.
Obviously, a tight end is a future need for the Jaguars. Evan Engram is going to play in 2023 on a franchise tag so his future is unclear. Trevor Lawrence loved having a very good tight end in 2022 though so it is important that they always have one.
They missed out on Dalton Kincaid (Utah) and Michael Mayer (Notre Dame) who were the top two at that position in the draft but they clearly believe that Strange can be a good one.
It might not be the one that fans wanted but he has the tools to become a good one in the NFL. Having at least one year to learn from Engram should be very good for them.
Pick Grade - B
In the third round, they went the route of a running back which was a strange (no pun intended) selection. They took Tank Bigsby with the 88th overall pick.
They saw Travis Etienne have a huge season in 2022 so this was a bit of a surprise pick this high in the draft. Now, however, Bigsby and Etienne can form a very dynamic duo to help Trevor Lawrence move the ball.
He seems to be all in on doing whatever he can to help the team which is always nice. The grade that the Jaguars are going to get for this pick has nothing to do with his talent or character.
It has all to do with the fact that they drafted a running back on the early side. Hopefully, he helps the offense score so many points alongside Etienne in the run game that people don't question the pick long.
Pick Grade - D+
The Jacksonville Jaguars didn't address the defensive backfield at all which is a major need on the roster but there is four more rounds to address those picks.
In those four rounds, Jacksonville has a remarkable 10 picks. We will see if they are willing to use them all as they try to step forward again in 2023.
After taking a solid offensive lineman in the first round on Thursday night, they took two skill positions on the offense. Trent Baalke has been a good GM in the last 18 months so people will trust him for right now. It would be nice to see all these picks work out in their favor.