JACKSONVILLE – Senior writer John Oehser wraps the week around the Jaguars, focusing on highlights from Thursday's 2026 pre-draft luncheon at the Miller Electric Center featuring General Manager James Gladstone and Head Coach Liam Coen…

1. Good spots. While the Jaguars do not currently have a Round 1 selection in the April 23-25 2026 NFL Draft, Gladstone said he likes their position in what analysts believe is a deep draft – though not a great draft early in Round 1. "The good part is, based off where we're mapping things out, there's a lot of depth at positions we feel like we're going to address," he said. The Jaguars hold 11 selections in the draft, with the No. 56 overall selection – No. 24 in Round 2 – their earliest selection. They hold three third-round selections, a fourth-round selection, two fifth-round selections, a sixth-round selection and three seventh-round selections. "We've got a really intimate and detailed understanding of who and what we want, those types of elements," Gladstone said. "It trims the list a good bit. While there are 250-plus picks, it's nowhere close to us saying these are our priorities, 250-plus. It's a lot fewer and farther between. It allows us, even if we were picking earlier, to focus that conversation a little bit."

2. Experience and continuity matter. A theme when Coen and Gladstone spoke to the media Thursday – that the second offseason with Coen, Gladstone and Executive Vice President of Football Operations Tony Boselli as the team's leadership regime has been smoother than the first – with a major positive being that coaches and personnel officials are now familiar with the roster after a 13-4 AFC South Championship season in 2025. "That's the most helpful piece, being able to accelerate a lot of the conversations where at this point in time last year we were in true discovery mode," Gladstone said. "We were learning on the fly. Now, we get to leverage all the information and experiences we've had with everybody on our football team up to this point as part of our decision making. It allows those conversations to be a bit deeper, get a little bit further into it in a more efficient manner." Coen, Gladstone and Boselli were in their first seasons in their current roles last offseason – and had been working together a little more than two months during the '25 draft. "A little less frantic," Coen said of this offseason. "Some of the familiarity has helped the flow in the way that we operate on a day-to-day basis, the schedule, the routine, what the coaches expect. That's been very clear and concise throughout the process. It's just allowed us to maybe get to different or deeper dialogue maybe a little bit quicker on some of the guys that we're really honing in on."

3. Talking strategy. Gladstone on Thursday discussed multiple aspects of the Jaguars' draft approach, including the level to which they study other teams' draft tendencies. "All teams, just like offenses and defenses throughout the year, have typical tendencies they lean into," he said. "They break those tendencies, which is always fun. We try to do the same and be aware of our own so that they can't totally be leveraged against us. That is a very, very important piece to our mapping of where we might need to get ahead of somebody or be able to jump in the draft or feel comfortable if we were able to move back a certain amount that we're not at risk for losing out on a couple players that we want to target. That's an important piece to that strategy, is being in tune with a lot of those elements from each club or even trees of decision-makers."

4. EVP influence. The Jaguars in Coen's first season as head coach established themselves as one of the NFL's toughest, most-physical teams – something Coen cited as a goal throughout his first offseason with the organization. Coen on Thursday cited Boselli – a Pro Football Hall of Fame left tackle and the first player inducted into the Pride of the Jaguars – as a major factor in the franchise holding true to that approach. "If they don't play hard, it's hard for Tony to get around that – regardless of position," Coen said. "I appreciate that about Tony because it's our culture. It's what we want to be, is physical and tough. That can't be something that we sacrifice." Gladstone indicated during the same exchange that if a player can't block or tackle it's hard to fit with the organization.

5. BAP? Gladstone on the concept of drafting "best available player" versus drafting for need: "I think you'd like to say it's going to best player available. It's always going to come with a little nuance. You're going to compare across positions. Where there's a clear visual for contributions and a vision from our coaching staff to see that player's skillset come to life, you would typically appreciate that fact that could come to life sooner than later. All that stuff has to be weighed against each other. When you have two like players and one position allows maybe an earlier runway, you lean towards that direction. But it's not so black and white all the time. That's the type of dynamic you would want to be able to walk in at each pick point with, the idea that we're not pigeonholed to one or two positions, but we have all of them where we feel comfortable taking a shot if the right or best player presents themselves."

5a. Quotable. Gladstone: "We'll really focus on taking players that we feel have a very clear fit within the way we operate, regardless of what that might mean in terms of the outward perspective. It's what fits us. It's what makes sense to us. At the end of the day if they help us win football games, that's a win for the Jaguars."