It’s been more than a decade since the Jacksonville Jaguars received a compensatory draft pick, but that’s finally set to change after the team lost Jawaan Taylor and Arden Key in free agency.
The Jaguars now face the challenge of shoring up their offensive line depth and bolstering their pass rush, but owner Shad Khan is looking on the bright side. Losing free agents rather than adding them is a change of pace that he says is a sign that the franchise is in a much different place.
“You know, I hated to see [Taylor] leave, but that’s really a measure of success that you can’t hang on to all your players,” Khan told John Oehser of Jaguars.com during an interview at the NFL owners meetings this week. “Obviously, the skill, the trick is to replace them, hopefully, with better players. We’ve got the draft, primarily, to develop players for the future and a system that is sustainable.”
A year ago, the Jaguars spent a record-breaking amount of money to acquire several players in free agency, including Christian Kirk, Foye Oluokun, Brandon Scherff, and Evan Engram.
This year, the team has mostly tried to keep its own players, re-signing C.J. Beathard, JaMycal Hasty, Andrew Wingard, Adam Gotsis, and Tre Herndon. The only outside players added were a trio of cheap additions: D’Ernest Johnson, Michael Dogbe, and Henry Mondeaux.
Khan is correct that it’s usually the NFL’s more successful teams that lose talented players in free agency. Now it’s up to the Jaguars to continue to add talent by drafting well.
