A Champions Colossal Collapse

JT: The Story of the 2023 Jacksonville Jaguars

How long until pitchers and catchers report? No, but seriously, how long? Can Jacksonville get us a spring training team, or at the very least a free party bus to and from Ft. Myers? Or better yet some round trips on Jet Blue? It’s their park after all. Pipe dream? Well evidently, so was the Jaguars making the playoffs this year. Where to begin? The Redskins officially parted ways with Ron Rivera (took them long enough). So I was thinking, you know who would make a great new head coach for that team in Washington with the crappy new name? Press Taylor. I think he’s ready. Personally I wish he would head somewhere in the AFC South but those jobs seem to be taken with some fresh new blood. Wellllllll, maybe not in Tennessee. There may soon be an opening there. Either way, Taylor has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is ready for the role of head coach. Why are we holding him back. Let’s not be so selfish, my Jacksonville brethren. Let the man spread his wings and fly…far far away from Duuuval. Parting will be such sweet sorrow, but we will pick up the pieces and try, so very hard, to move on as best we can. Hey, if we can survive losing Arden Key, the man who built this city, then we can survive anything. Why is it that every time I think of Arden the 80s rock song “We Built This City on Rock and Roll” starts playing in my head? And you can’t get rid of that one, folks. Trust me it takes a while. You just have to hope that it plays itself out before the boom box in your brain automatically flips the cassette to rock ballad “Sara,” because then it’s all over. I love the 80s. And you know who else loves the 80s…The Jacksonville Jaguars. So much so that they played the second half of this year’s season much like they played in the 80s (let it marinate). Point being, I for one will not be responsible for holding back the obviously promising career of offensive (you can chose which meaning of this word I am using here) coordinator Press Taylor. He should be released to interview around the league. Good luck to you sir. May the wind be always at your back and your sails take you far…from Jacksonville.

And now we come to the serious part of the column (who are we kidding). The factual part, maybe. The Jaguars have blamed their horrific second half on defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell. Ummm, sure. I mean, some of the blame lies there. We here at JagsTalk have been saying for the past year, to year and a half, that he isn’t using the talent correctly. We have the players to thrive in a 4-3, yet Caldwell loves him some 3-4. Makes sense to me. We have Josh Allen, one of the best pass rushers in the league, so of course we should drop him into coverage more often. We also drafted Travon Walker with the first overall pick, so it would make equally as much sense to move him from his most dominant middle line position to the outside to learn defensive end at the pro level. Oh yeah, and also drop him into coverage as well. When we do decide to pressure the quarterback, let’s not bother with many stunts or disguised blitzes, let’s just bull rush the multi million dollar, best in the world, offensive tackles because that is sure to work…every time. Listen, I like Mike Caldwell, and he may have very well come around to be a great defensive coordinator, but he was extremely slow to adapt to his players talents, and frankly, he couldn’t make game adjustments to save his life…or the Jaguars season. Now, did he and his entire cadre of compatriots deserve the axe? Yeah, yeah they did, but they were also scapegoated (that’s a verb, right?). Someone had to go after such a massive, season ending, bed wetting, and Shad chose Caldwell. It was a good choice but not at all a complete one.

Let’s take a stroll down memory lane shall we. Remember the last draft for the Jaguars? I’m sure we all do because there was so much promise in the land of Jacksonville. The Jaguars had just finished an unheard of season. JAX was riding high after the biggest comeback in their history and third biggest (I think. Again, too lazy to actually check) in NFL playoff history. Al Michaels was peacefully napping through it all. Joseph Anthony Bosa was crying like a beaten step child all off season. The Jags barely lost to the eventual Super Bowl winning, Kansas City Chiefs, and Taylor Swift hadn’t ruined football yet. It was a magical time for the Bold City. We, as fans, had visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads as our savior, Doug Pederson, and the once maligned General Manager, Trent “the clown” Baalke, pulled their seats up to the draft table to feast on fresh talent that would put our great team over the top. Those were the days. Forgive me for a moment as I tear up like an offsides Bosa brother.

The first pick was solid. A necessity, especially due to the fact that Cam Robinson spent his offseason hanging with A-Rod, McGuire and Sosa, because PEDs worked out so well for them. Well, maybe they did for A-Rod, though he did lose Jenny from the block, so it wasn’t all puppy dogs and ice cream for that Yankee Doodle. Either way, Robinson screwed us over with a four game suspension, forcing a first round lineman draft pick, and starting the year long lazy Susan that was our O-line. Turns out Anton Harrison was a great first pick. No issues there. We were improving and everything looked good. Then the trade downs occurred, necessities like DB and edge were ignored and competitors swept up excellent, talented and worthy players that would have filled our team’s holes very competently, if not more so. Strangely, with the Jags second and third pick of the draft they took a tight end, Brenton Strange (the play on words was on purpose so please pretend like you noticed) and a running back out of Auburn. Neither were needed. Jacksonville had a very strong tight end room and were in talks to re-sign Evan Engram (one of the best in the league) and the running backs were solid. ETN, DJ, and JaMycal were fantastic. These two picks were head scratchers as fans watched defensive back out of Alabama, Brian Branch, go to the Detroit Lions (they are in the playoffs this year btw). Yes, the Lions traded up to grab him but the Jags certainly could have used that man. Also on our board was Penn State’s Joey Porter Jr., now a Pittsburgh Steeler, and the list goes on. It’s long and distinguished like Slider’s (you fill in the blank, this is a family site. Also, any opportunity to include a Top Gun quote just makes my day). As the Jags continued to trade their picks away to amass a plethora of near worthless sixth and seventh rounders, fans on the first coast watched division foe Houston trade up to grab not only the best QB in the draft (JaguarsTalk has been repping CJ since Bryce Young sat out of the combine) but also the best defensive player in linebacker Will Anderson Jr. Did this at all rattle the Jaguars GM? I guess not. It also didn’t phase Baalke when DEs and CBs were flying off the board, as he continued to trade away Jacksonville’s higher picks for his collection of bottom of the barrel selections. I can write an entire column on how the Jacksonville Jaguars talent evaluators seem to be focused on bad talent instead of actual good football players, but you guys get where I am going here.

Trent Baalke did absolutely nothing to improve the Jags from last year to this. They fielded the exact same team in terms of starters minus Arden Key (damn you Starship), and Anton Harrison who was forced into a starting role while Cam Robinson got swole. Then come trade deadline time, when we all knew what was needed for Jaguar improvement, Baalke sat back, kicked his feet up on his desk, put his hands behind his head and gave fans the big middle finger, as he thought he could ride a 6-2 start into the playoffs with no issue. We all knew though. We knew our deficiencies and where we could improve. The thing of it is, so did Baalke, but he didn’t care. I'll tell you who did care, San Francisco. They have one of the best defenses in the league and they went out and got Chase Young to help improve their D on their way to a Super Bowl run. Guess who everyone is choosing to be in the big game from the NFC? Yep, the 49ers (or maybe the late surging Cowboys, but that doesn’t fit my narrative here). Speaking of, their GM (John Lynch) was good enough to use a bottom of the barrel pick for Mr. Irrelevent. A Purdy good decision wouldn’t you say (the puns are endless today, folks). Why isn’t our GM good like that? I can’t believe I’ve wasted this much time and effort to say simply this. Trent Baalke needs to be fired yesterday. He needs to be fired well before last years draft. If Shad Khan doesn’t have the wisdom to see that, then Jacksonville is in for another crap draft and 9-8 season (if we are lucky). I just can’t believe that a man smart enough and ballsy enough to create a billion dollar fortune lacks the gumption to fire a bad general manager. So it must be that he just doesn’t care enough about winning. But again, that makes no sense at all either. The man is doing nothing but winning at life. He’s got tiger blood in his veins.

To sum up. Yes, Mike Caldwell needed to be fired. But he shouldn’t be the scapegoat for all Jaguar issues. Press Taylor is awful and should be fired as well. Holding the door for Press, and getting his very own pink slip, should be GM Trent Baalke. Those are the three main problems with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Caldwell and Taylor are green and their lack of ability to win demonstrates their newness. GM Trent Baalke continually refuses to provide the coaches with the necessary players to advance. Might be why he was removed from the Niners and now SanFran has traded for Christian McCaffrey (the best running back in the league), drafted Brock Purdy (a top five quarterback who makes less money that the zero dollars I make for this website) and also got themselves Chase Young (a beast of an edge from Washington) for their Super Bowl push. Hey Trent, make sure to put that “motivational” clown face you speak so much about in your moving box as you exit Miller’s Electric…and don’t let the door hit you where the good lord split you. Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.