JAGUARS MAKE MOVES IN FREE AGENCY
The Jacksonville Jaguars have started their offseason diving headfirst into free agency, making them one of the most active teams in the NFL so far. While it’s understandable that the Jags are intent on building around their young quarterback and giving him the weapons he needs to succeed, the team hasn’t shied away from splurging cash in an attempt to change up the Jacksonville roster composition.
The Jaguars spent $229.5 million on free agency contracts on Monday alone, echoing new head coach Doug Pederson’s words when he first came in, “Our goal is to win football games and we’re going to do it one player, one coach, one person in the organization at a time. I’m not going to settle for anything else than a championship-caliber team.”
The Jacksonville front office focused on offense early on, signing former Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Christian Kirk, former Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Zay Jones, former Washington Football Team guard Brandon Scherff, and former New York Giants tight end Evan Engram on Monday.
The Jaguars signed Kirk to a four-year, $72 million contract and Zay Jones to a three-year, $24 million fully guaranteed contract. Evan Engram’s contract is a reasonable one-year, $9 million deal that will ask the 27-year-old to prove himself to earn his next contract. After franchise tagging left tackle Cam Robinson last week, the team also gave 5-time Pro Bowler Brandon Scherff a three-year, $49.5 million deal with $30 million fully guaranteed and $33 million in the first two years, which is somewhat risky considering Scherff’s injury history. Scherff has missed 22 games over the past four seasons but could be a good acquisition as he is still a top-quality guard in the league.
Speaking during the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, head coach Doug Pederson mentioned the talent on the roster but insisted on acquiring players during free agency. He said, “There’s talent on the roster. We know that every year we get to this part of the offseason and there’s going to be changes. There’s always going to be guys that are going to leave, guys that we are going to add through free agency. We want to sign all our free agents and everybody is kinda going through this. Do we need help? Yeah. We need to keep acquiring talent. We need to fill in some gaps. We need to make sure that Trevor has weapons and skill positions around him and the offensive line. We’ve always felt strong about the defense and those front guys. But again, this is why we go through free agency and the draft. To continue to add and bring talent and value to the roster.”
The Jaguars released wide receiver D.J Chark who according to reports, is set to sign a one-year deal with the Detroit Lions. Chark’s deal with the Lions is expected to be worth up to $10 million according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. The Jaguars also released 26-year-old linebacker Myles Jack, who led the team in total tackles last year with 108, and are looking to trade wide receiver Laviska Shenault Jr according to multiple reports.
Jacksonville also added former New York Jets defensive tackle Foley Fatukasi and Atlanta Falcons linebacker Foye Oluokun on Monday. The former Jet will get a massive three-year, $30 million deal while Oluokun will get a three-year, $45 million deal. The Jags then extended linebacker Tyrell Williams last week and will still have to replenish an already depleted secondary.
While they can still do that in free agency, it would be wise to address that in the draft next month considering the amount of money the team just spent. Rounding out the spending spree, the team re-signed OL Tyler Shatley to a two year $6.8M deal ($2.35M guaranteed), and brought in CB Darious Williams on a 3 year $30M deal which could go as high as $39M with incentives.
It certainly appears as though the Jags were watching how quickly things turned around in New England last year after they doled out a record setting figure the previous offseason.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
Photo: Melissa Hillier. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.