JACKSONVILLE – Let's get to it …
Fred from Naples, FL
This team's leadership seems to hand out contract extensions rather quickly after one good year or – in wide receiver Jakobi Meyers' case – several games into a good year. For example, offensive lineman Cole Van Lanen was a backup before he showed flashes of being a good left tackle. So, what did the Jags do? They gave him a big contract extension and now he has a torn anterior cruciate ligament – certainly not his fault, but I doubt he would have received one after last year with a torn ACL. Now defensive end Travon Walker gets a new fat contract although his stats from last year perhaps didn't warrant the amount of guaranteed money. I can't help but think that perhaps the youth of our leadership team leads to a quicker trigger than more seasoned front offices?
The Jaguars' leadership team of Head Coach Liam Coen, General Manager James Gladstone and Executive Vice President of Football Operations Tony Boselli is relatively young. And the team in recent months, weeks and days moved quickly to sign Van Lanen, Meyers and Walker to contract extensions. But those extensions were about timing and circumstance – not about age – and they were well within market value. Meyers, acquired by the Jaguars in a trade with the Las Vegas Raiders last season, was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason. The Jaguars knew they wanted to retain Meyers, so – rather than allowing him to test free agency – they signed him to an extension. Van Lanen, who was perhaps the Jaguars' best offensive lineman last season, also was scheduled to become a UFA following the 2025 season. Rather than allowing him to test free agency, they signed him to an extension. Walker is a core player who played through two significant injuries last season. While he had a year remaining on his contract because the Jaguars had exercised his option for 2026, the team knew it wanted him for the long term, so it signed him to an extension. While the trigger may have seemed quick in these instances, the moves were just about extending players at the appropriate time.
Woody from Dunlap
KOAF: Many of our opposition teams with perennially superior offensive lines appear to draft at least one offensive lineman in the late-second to early-fourth round, whether there is a need or not. If these teams have around eight picks or more, these same teams will go back to an offensive line pick in the late rounds. This makes sense in that colleges provide a relatively large crop of offensive linemen to the draft every year, so an NFL team that can evaluate talent well can usually find a promising prospect in the middle rounds – and occasionally a "steal" in the late rounds. Gradually adding a new young talent to the offensive line every year spreads out the salary costs for the position, minimizes impacts from injuries and better allows for the occasional perennial All-Pro to be able to fit within the salary cap. It appeared the Jaguars took this approach in 2025 with Milum and Monheim. Do you see the Jags keeping a similar strategy in 2026 and beyond?
This speaks to a couple of points. One is that good NFL teams view the draft not necessarily as a way to fill immediate needs or get immediate impact, but as a way to draft players that can develop at varying paces. Another is that good teams consider the offensive line a foundation piece of the organization and approach it as such – and the Jaguars indeed are taking that approach. Coen, Gladstone and Boselli made this clear in their first offseason – 2025 – by reshaping the group during free agency, then selecting guard Wyatt Milum and center Jonah Monheim in the draft. I will be surprised if there are many – if any – drafts in which this regime does not address offensive line.
Rusty from New Iberia, LA
After all these years, the IT team finally decided to put the form to ask questions on the same page as you read the questions. Awesome! Now just tell them from now until the end of time I don't want to join The Den and we will be all good.
I am the king of all funk.
Bo from Winter Springs, FL
I like football a lot. I've never understood mock drafts. Seems like a good way to waste brain space.
Mock drafts have a purpose. That purpose is to provide fans and observers a framework to have a general idea of where a player might be selected and what a team might be thinking about the draft as the draft approaches. They provide discussion points during otherwise slow periods of the NFL offseason. They're fun. They're a distraction. They should not be considered much more serious than that.
James from Titusville, NJ
I saw images of Camping World Stadium and see that Lake Lorna Doone is positioned on the north side of the stadium. Is it too early to petition that Jaxson De Ville belly flop into the lake from a bungee drop after a win to simultaneous recreate his entrance into EverBank Stadium and his victory celebration into the pools?
Yes, it's too early.
Kaydie from Riverside, Jacksonville
The current Jaguars roster seems good enough that 11 draft picks may have a difficult time all making the final roster. Do you agree and, if so, do you believe this reduces the likelihood they make all 11 selections?
NFL teams churn the roster annually, and I expect the Jaguars' roster to churn accordingly by the start of the 2026 – and part of why teams churn the roster is to keep it young and affordable. I wouldn't be surprised a bit if the Jaguars have 11 rookies on the roster next season. I also wouldn't be surprised if the Jaguars trade up and selected eight-to-10 players in the 2026 NFL Draft rather than their current total of 11 selections.
Jesse from Texas
I think Travon Walker is a fine player and all, but there is one thing that has irked me about him. After the fourth-quarter collapse and loss to the Houston Texans last year, he was asked directly right after the game if he was mad about the loss. And his comment was essentially, "No I'm not mad, I'm just surprised." The whole narrative for the next week was about how pissed off the whole team was about the loss, and then fittingly, they seemed to take it out on the Los Angeles Chargers the next week. Jags fans, myself included, and supposedly the rest of his team, were furious after that loss, so why wasn't he? Does he just have a load of talent, but no real competitive nature? Maybe that is what keeps him from being a Pro Bowl player like Aidan Hutchinson of the Detroit Lions, Maxx Crosby of the Las Vegas Raiders and Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns.
I worry about a lot of things. Walker's "competitive nature" is not among them.
Jason from North Pole, AK
The Pro Football Focus overall grades last season for some members of the Jaguars secondary; Safety Antonio Johnson first/98, cornerbacks Montaric Brown 20th/114 and Jarrian Jones fifth/114. Our secondary was never really healthy all at the same time last year. Adding cornerbacks Jourdan Lewis and Travis Hunter to the aforementioned three, do the Jaguars have a sneaky chance at an elite secondary this year?
The Jaguars absolutely have a chance to be a very good secondary in 2026, particularly if Hunter is healthy and safety Caleb Ransaw is healthy – and playing at the level the Jaguars hope. The Pro Football Focus grades are fine, too.
Bradley from Death Valley, CA
Does the NFL differentiate between offensive coordinators that call plays versus those that don't when it comes to parallel moves and such?
How the NFL sees levels of coaches only becomes important when teams want to block coaches from interviewing with other teams. The league in that sense does not differentiate any level of assistants. A team can therefore block an assistant under contract from interviewing for an assistant position with another team. The only "unblockable" move is assistant to head coach.
JK from NY & Fernandina Beach, FL
Johnny O. By extending Travon Walker, Jaguars Owner Shad Khan has once again shown his deep commitment to the Jaguars' success. Walker may or may not turn out to be one of the great players of his generation. But in reliance on the guidance of his Triumvirate, Mr. Khan again stepped up with a huge investment in our team. The Jags now have first-class facilities, management, coaching, key cornerstone players - and soon the Stadium of the Future. Most importantly, the Jags have 30 more years in Jax. Mr. Khan has emerged as one of the best owners in the NFL. But one open item remains - when will he find an office for the Senior Writer?
What's an "office?"
