The Jacksonville Jaguars had a busy Thursday afternoon, trading WR Christian Kirk and cutting TE Evan Engram as the team begins to overhaul their roster.
The Jags are sending Kirk to the Houston Texans in exchange for a 2026 7th round pick, in a rare intra-division trade. The 7th rounder originally belonged to the Los Angeles Rams, and adds some depth to the Texans WR room which will likely lose Stefon Diggs and Robert Woods this offseason.
Kirk was limited to 8 games in 2024 due to injury, posting 27 receptions for 379 yards, and 1 TD. He figures to slot in alongside WR Nico Collins as Tank Dell continues to recover from yet another gruesome lower body injury.
The veteran wideout is entering the final year of a four-year contract. He was scheduled to have the Jaguars’ highest cap number in 2025 at $24.4 million, but will be paid $15.5 million in actual salary this season.
General Manager James Gladstone continue to revamp the team’s pass catchers, releasing a pair of veterans in TE Evan Engram and WR Josh Reynolds. By releasing Engram, Jacksonville will save just under $6M in cap space for 2025, while cutting Reynolds loose frees up another $4.26M against the cap.
The move also frees up additional targets for breakout rookie Brian Thomas Jr., while opening up roster spots to likely add another impact receiver via either the draft or free agency. As of Thursday night, the Jags wide receiver room looked fairly light with Thomas, Gabe Davis and Parker Washington figuring to be the teams starters following Gladstone’s purging of the Trent Baalke era.
CB Ronald Darby, and WR Devin Duvernay were also cut loose in cost saving moves. When the dust settled, Jacksonville added roughly $25M in cap space Thursday:
-WR Christian Kirk traded ($10.4 million in cap savings)
-TE Evan Engram released ($5.98 million in cap savings)
-WR Devin Duvernay released ($2.73 million in cap savings)
-CB Ronald Darby released ($2.38 million in cap savings)
-WR Josh Reynolds released ($4.26 million in cap savings)
Jacksonville now has an estimated $63.73M in cap space following their roster moves, which is the 6th most in the NFL heading into the new league season later this month. The Jaguars also hold the 5th overall pick in the upcoming NFL Draft which will allow them to go in a variety of directions to address their roster needs.
Photo: All-Pro Reels. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.