Winners and losers from Jaguars 2024 draft 

This year’s draft including plenty of fun memories and tear-jerking moments for future Jaguar stars.

It took so long to get here, and now it is already gone.

The 2024 NFL Draft was seemingly a large success for the Jacksonville Jaguars, highlighted by first-round pick Brian Thomas Jr. out of LSU. The national media has been relatively high on who the Jags picked up this year, furthering the idea the team is in its Super Bowl window.

There were plenty of highlights from the weekend, so let’s relive one of the most influential days of the NFL calendar.

WINNERS

Trading back

In the draft, your team is not obligated to pick where it is slotted. As we saw for yet another year with general manager Trent Baalke, he traded back at the last possible second from 17 to 23. The benefit, however, was the Jags got the guy they were going to draft anyway in Thomas Jr., plus extra picks. While the team wasn’t able to parlay those picks into moving up in the second round, they never hurt to have on hand. Baalke’s Round 1 execution was a good precursor for the rest of the weekend, and a savvy move regardless of what you think of him.

LSU fans in Duval County

Lets geaux Jaguars.

As Howie Roseman has done with Georgia players and John Schneider with Auburn players, Baalke decided to fill his 2024 draft class with players from Baton Rouge.

Thomas was the first of three Bayou Bengals to be drafted by the Jags, including second-round DT Maason Smith and fourth-round DT Jordan Jefferson. It is not unheard of to load up on players from one school, and clearly, the Jags saw something they liked down at LSU. Of note, former LSU defensive coordinator Matt House is the current Jags inside linebackers coach.

Trevor Lawrence

The Jaguars needed to get their franchise quarterback some help, and absolutely did so with their draft class.

Thomas Jr. will be an instant starter and a guy who can take the top off of defenses, running over 85% of his routes at LSU from the outside. He also had 12 touchdowns last season on throws over 20 yards. That will certainly work.

With question marks at the left tackle position moving forward, the Jags seemingly got the heir apparent in the fourth round with Missouri tackle Javon Foster. Since 2022, Foster was the fourth highest graded tackle by Pro Football Focus, grading out at 87.9. He might even get some burn this year as a swing tackle if needed, before likely becoming the left tackle of the future once Cam Robinson’s time is over.

In the fifth round, the Jags sniped running back Keilan Robinson out of Texas, who is a big play waiting to happen.

Along with free agent signings like center Mitch Morse, the Jags are setting up an explosive offense around Lawrence. He should be pleased.

Players wanting to get drafted by the Jags

There was a time, not too long ago, when 25% of all league complaints came from one organization: Jacksonville.

Now, college players are stating in the pre-draft process they have teams they want to play for, one of which being Jacksonville.

Third-round corner Jarrian Jones had one of the purest reactions to being drafted to Jax. His whole draft party seemed so in love with going to Duval– not too far from where he played at FSU– and he even said at the combine that he wanted to come here.

Smith also was a guy proponent of landing in Jacksonville and had a real visceral reaction to being drafted.

Sixth-round kicker Cam Little, who isn’t even old enough to drink, thought all along a 904 area code might be calling him. Lo and behold it did, and he seems more than ready to make his potential mark.

While it may be small, and relatively insignificant in the grand scheme of things, it is a positive sign for the organization that players want to come here. Urban Meyer was kicking guys not too long ago. Look how far we have come.

LOSERS

Drafting EDGE help

Getting some depth behind Josh Allen and Travon Walker was seemingly a no-brainer for the Jags in the later rounds. However, the team went with helping the inside instead.

Baalke drafted just one outside pass rusher in Myles Cole, who was taken in the seventh round. Cole tested well and has the longest arms of any draft-eligible EDGE player, but he was the only guy they picked up. Not a huge issue, but a slight shift on the draft plans for the team. Also, they didn’t draft a corner until the third round. Things change quickly on draft day.

Drafting “value”

I am sure you have seen the chart, but here it is if you haven’t.

According to Sharp’s metrics, the Jags had the second-worst draft class in terms of total value (ahead of only the Michael Penix Jr.-drafting Falcons). Many of the picks were “reaches” in the sense they were mocked further down the line than where they were drafted, thus creating less value. The thought process from the Jags was to get explosive athletes in the building, regardless of where they were predicted to go. I wouldn’t worry too much about this chart, but it is something to think about when assessing where these guys might wind up on the team’s depth chart.

Autocorrect

There is no earthly way anyone spells Maason Smith’s name with two As every single time. He made the naming scheme clear when on his draft call, but that will be misspelled by people all season. Just remember, it has two As because it was an A+ pick!