The Jacksonville Jaguars raised eyebrows when they hired Urban Meyer as the head coach in 2021. Lost in the shuffle was their puzzling decision to promote Trent Baalke to general manager full-time the same year.
Baalke joined the Jags in 2020 as the vice president of player personnel and became the interim after Dave Caldwell got the boot later that year. Surprisingly, he outlasted Meyer, and for a brief moment, it looked like he was going to stick around even though head coach Doug Pederson got the boot after the 2024 season.
It wasn't until the organization realized how much Baalke was hurting their search for Pederson's replacement that they moved on from the embattled general manager. To fill their vacancy, the Jaguars hired James Gladstone, who quickly got to work and did a good job of addressing key needs in free agency.
But as encouraging as Gladstone's work has been so far, he'll need to keep replenishing the roster with depth and talent in the draft. This would be easier if it weren't for a handful of puzzling decisions Baalke made last year.
Trent Baalke spared no expense during his time with the Jaguars
On one hand, you have to give credit to Trent Baalke for doing a good job of keeping homegrown players from leaving, having given extensions to Josh Hines-Allen, Trevor Lawrence, Tyson Campell, and Walker Little. On the other hand, some of the contracts he handed have aged rather poorly.
Last year, perhaps in an effort to save his job, Baalke gave deals to left guard Ezra Cleveland, defensive tackle Arik Armstead, wide receiver Gabe Davis, and DaVon Hamilton (back in 2023). It's fair to say that the play of the aforementioned players wasn't on par with their salary.
Granted, players tend to have down seasons, and there's a chance all of them could bounce back in 2025. That said, the Jags didn't get enough bang for the buck last year. But the biggest issue is probably that the Jags would've probably moved on from all four if they could. However, it's not possible because it would generate a massive amount of dead money because of the way their contracts are structured.
You could also throw left tackle Walker Little into the mix. He got a three-year deal worth $45 million in 2024 but may be on shaky ground ahead of the draft. But because of his cap hit, Jacksonville is stuck with him.
By now, you may be wondering how this affects the Jaguars in the draft. The answer is simple, all these players will get chances that wouldn't probably get if they didn't have big cap hits. And if they had been released, the Jaguars would prioritize finding their potential replacements in the draft.
General manager James Gladstone showed early in the offseason that he's not afraid to cut ties with prominent veterans, moving on from the likes of Christian Kirk, Evan Engram, Ronald Darby, and Devin Duvernay.
The silver lining is that nobody James Gladstone will be granted more than just one offseason to fix the roster, but it's fair to say that some of the questionable decisions his predecessor made could have a negative impact on the Jaguars' draft strategy.
That is unless the current regime doesn't take salaries and cap hits into account. If that's the case, and the Jaguars look for the best players available regardless of who's already in place, they might get back on their feet sooner than they expected.
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