The Jacksonville Jaguars wanted to keep general manager Trent Baalke around despite the fact that he failed to put together a Super Bowl team. Fortunately, they came to their senses and ended up giving him the boot earlier this year. To replace him, the Jags hired James Gladstone, who's quickly filled the front office with executives that will help him steer the ship in the right direction. Of the bunch, Jake Temme stands out the most because of his work with the Los Angeles Rams.
Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic has covered the Rams in recent years and was able to see Temme's work firsthand. During a recent appearance on 1010 XL, she talked about how brilliant he is.
"And it's like you're talking about like Superman, right?" Rodrigue said. "Like he's that rare case of somebody who, not only is and I don't cover him anymore, so I could say this fairly, without bias, like he's brilliant, and I feel like it's so hard for people in that world to cross over into analytics, from analytics into football, and find a way to marry the two roles together together. And I would call Jake, sort of a pioneer of being able to do that in the instance where we're seeing it more and more, and 10 years ago. He's one of the first people to start doing that when working with the Rams."
Rodrigueu continued, "It is going to be really interesting, because he walked with a foot in the football side, and he walks with a foot in the analytical side, and the math and the programming and the coding. And it's interesting because I think he's brought James way further into that world as well. So I think he's going to have, be a resource and have a hand in every part of that building, sort of quietly and also kind of in a similar fashion to what James used to be."
Temme joined the Rams front office in 2018 and was one of the first hires Gladstone made once he became the general manager in Jacksonville. With the Rams, the duo put together the Joint After-Action Review System, which helped the team sort out and evaluate players.
As Rodrigue noted, Temme has expertise in programming but is also acquainted with the football side of things.
Jake Temme and James Gladstone will reshape the Jaguars front office
Trent Baalke had several talented executives, but they no longer fit James Gladstone's philosophy, so it wouldn't have made sense to keep them around. Among those who left was assistant general manager Ethan Waugh. Senior personnel executive Tom Gamble and director of college scouting Michael Davis also got the boot.
Along the way, Gladstone brought in former Denver Broncos general manager Brian Xanders, who worked with him in LA. On top of that, Josh Scobey was promoted from college scout to senior personnel executive, while Regis Eller became a senior personnel executive after previously serving as the director of player personnel.
Gladstone realized that the Jaguars needed to do things differently if they wanted to turn things around. Bringing in executives who share his philosophy and vision will most definitely help.