Jaguars podcast: Trent Baalke presser and Marshon Lattimore trade idea

Gus and John return to the JaguarReport Podcast to discuss Jacksonville’s recent media availability for general manager Trent Baalke. Plus, what would a Lattimore trade look like?

Check out Episode 88 of the JaguarReport Podcast, hosted by Gus Logue and John Shipley.

You can listen to the JaguarReport Podcast on Megaphone, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and more.

John and I discussed Jacksonville Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke’s end-of-season press conference (read more about that here) and answered listener questions.

I also gave out a fresh hot take: New Orleans Saints four-time Pro Bowl cornerback Marshon Lattimore will be a Jaguar in 2024.

I actually expect Darious Williams to play in Jacksonville next season. It’d seem silly to release him before the start of the new league year in March — while the move would save $11 million in cap space, per Over The Cap, and he isn’t a perfect scheme fit for Ryan Nielsen’s defense (ahem, Lattimore), it’d also deepen an already-present roster hole.

And if the Jaguars don’t waive Williams by March, they won’t at all. Teams don’t just cut good players in June, especially with free agency and the draft in the rearview mirror.

Maybe the Jaguars will take that $11 mil and walk into the offseason with Tyson Campbell, Montaric Brown, and Christian Braswell as its top cornerbacks. It’s clearly a stubborn franchise. BUT. One option to upgrade over Williams before free agency is to trade for Lattimore.

Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football wrote an article titled, “Will the Saints trade Marshon Lattimore? What could they get for the star CB?” That’s all the information I can provide because it’s behind a paywall, but Underhill is a respected beat reporter who wouldn’t just write that for clicks. The Saints re-structured Lattimore’s contract so that he’d be paid a bonus at the start of the season instead of the start of the new league year; general manager Mickey Loomis said at his end-of-season media availability, “Yeah, there’s a purpose, but I’m not going to tell you what the purpose is.”

New Orleans would owe Lattimore over $30 mil in dead money in 2024 with a trade before June 1, but as John Sigler of Saints Wire wrote, “If the draft pick compensation is strong enough it might make sense.” For context, Jalen Ramsey was acquired for a third-round pick last March.

On the surface, the Jaguars would simply be promoting a premier position by adding Lattimore and cutting Williams. But the connections go much deeper than that: Jacksonville’s newly-hired defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen and secondary coach Kris Richard (not yet official) each spent multiple seasons in New Orleans helping coach Dennis Allen’s defense, including Lattimore. Several Saints players followed Nielsen to the Atlanta Falcons last year. Plus, Loomis and Trent Baalke made a deal during last year’s draft.

I think I hit all my main points. Get your Lattimore “23” jerseys now, folks.

Jags fans, do you have any Pepe Silvia-esque takes to get off your chest?