By now, you know that the Jaguars made a lot of moves. Some made more financial sense than others, and I was a fan of the Foley Fatukasi, Darious Williams and Evan Engram contracts for their risk-to-reward ratio.
The same wasn’t true with their wideout contracts. For the amount of money that Christian Kirk and Zay Jones received, I want difference-making potential. Kirk is getting paid like a top-10 wideout and profiles as a decent No. 2 receiver or a better No. 3. Jones has averaged under 400 yards per season as a pro and will make $14 million guaranteed over the next two years and $24 million over the next three if he gets to the end of that contract. Which he probably won’t.
The same is probably true about the Brandon Scherff’s deal. While he’s been an All-Pro guard when healthy, Scherff missed more than five games per season on average for the last four years. Paying him a premium at age 30 feels similar to Jacksonville’s 2018 contract for Andrew Norwell that didn’t pan out.
Guard is a position that good coaching should be able to develop. The same is true about off-ball linebackers, where Foye Oluokun signed with Jacksonville for $28 million guaranteed. Before last season, very few general managers would have taken Oluokun over Myles Jack, whom the Jaguars just cut. Even in a breakout year with a bunch of huge plays, Oluokun ranked No. 65 out of 87 qualifiers in Pro Football Focus’ grading because he also gave up big gains.
