The Jacksonville Jaguars may have won 13 games in the first season of the Liam Coen and James Gladstone era, but that doesn't mean this franchise is completely done when it comes to getting rid of some NFL Draft mistakes Trent Baalke saddled this roster with. One of them is defensive tackle Maason Smith.
Smith was widely considered to be a reach at No. 48 overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, and he played like it during his first two seasons in the NFL. The Jaguars have given up on trying to make Smith a long-term contributor, as they agreed on a trade that will officially make him someone else's problem.
The Jaguars agreed to trade Smith to the Atlanta Falcons for former Clemson star and No. 35 pick in the 2024 Draft, Ruke Orhorhoro. After adding another defensive tackle in Orhorhoro, this is a swap of two defensive tackles who never managed to fully take off in the first two seasons of their respective careers.
This is likely going to have some ramifications in the 2026 NFL Draft. A Jaguars team that may have been locked into taking a defensive tackle now has the flexibility to target multiple positions in the second round.
Jaguars NFL Draft strategy changed after Ruke Orhorhoro trade
This defensive tackle class has some stars at the top end, but there is a sizable gap between the top-tier players like Ohio State's Kayden McDonald and Florida's Caleb Banks and the rest of the class. If a name like Georgia's Christen Miller or Texas Tech's Lee Hunter doesn't fall, they could have been in dire straits.
This trade gives the Jags a higher upside playmaker than Smith, which gives Gladstone the flexibility to either find a Travis Etienne replacement at running back or add one more playmaker to the secondary. A defensive tackle can be a target with one of their three third-round picks as they try to take advantage of the depth in this class.
Orhorhoro himself is not a lost cause by any stretch. While he has been very poor at defending the run, his 30 pressures last season, despite the fact that he was not playing in a scheme that was tailored to his needs, show that the right coaching staff might be able to fix him up.
Considering that Orhorhoro managed to show some flashes last season as a rotational player for Atlanta, the Jaguars may have gotten the better end of this swap, especially if this trade was made with an emphasis on improving their interior pass rush next to Travon Walker.
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