The Jaguars’ first entirely virtual three-day draft went without a hitch, but coach Doug Marrone did receive a few phone calls from his neighbors.
And they weren’t calling to suggest who the Jaguars should select among their 12 picks. Marrone jokingly said Saturday they were checking to see if everything was OK because of a police car parked in front of his house for most of the day Saturday.
“We had some security outside the house. We had the Jacksonville police department outside in case someone tried to run in and take over the draft room,” Marrone said during Saturday’s post-draft video conferencing call. “And we got a couple of calls going, ‘Hey, is everything all right over there? Is everything good between you and your wife? Because I see a cop car outside’ I was like, ‘Everything’s fine. The draft is going on. We’re good.’ “
Marrone was in a good enough mood to share the story before raving about talent they acquired over the seven rounds of the draft. They filled glaring needs at cornerback, wide receiver and offensive line. They improved their depth at linebacker and added a backup quarterback with sixth-round pick Jake Luton of Oregon State.
It was the first time the Jaguars had 12 picks in a draft, and they kept all of them instead of trying to trade up or back.
“You want to get yourself in a position where you create competition, and guys can raise,? Marrone said. ?Every year when you are looking at the draft, you’re acquiring players. Now they have to go out there and win and earn it. Do I feel we have a competition? And players can potentially be good players and a good foundation of the organization? Absolutely. So I feel like we have done a good job of putting that in place and now they have to go out and perform like we think they can or could perform.?
Cornerback CJ Henderson and outside linebacker/defensive end K’Lavon Chaisson will need to step in and become impact players immediately. Second-round pick Lavisha Shenault Jr. and fifth-rounder Collin Johnson filled the need to acquire playmaking caliber receivers for quarterback Gardner Minshew.
Shenault caught 149 passes for 1,943 yards and had 18 career touchdowns in three seasons at Colorado. Shenault’s eight 100-yard receiving games were the fifth-most in school history.
At 6-foot-6, 222 pounds, Johnson is a much needed big target. A four-year player at Texas, he had 188 career receptions for 2,624 yards and 15 touchdowns, the fifth-most in school history.
“I used to think the best thing for a receiver is to be tall, and then due to the draft process, a lot of people have a knock on that, think that I’m too tall to change direction, things like that when I know what I bring to the table. I feel like I’m in a unique situation,” Johnson said.
The Jaguars made a concerted effort to draft players with good character to uphold Marrone’s objective to eliminate drama that’s been a problem for the past two seasons, especially in 2019 with Jalen Ramsey’s trade demands before the Jaguars sent him to the Los Angeles Rams.
?This is about as satisfied as we’ve been,” Caldwell said. “We feel good about the players we got and filled some needs: secondary, linebacker – we’re going into the season with some really good depth at those positions. Obviously, defensive line, like I said from the beginning, we really want to set up the front seven for success.”
Among the Jaguars’ picks: Division III offensive lineman Ben Bartch, a fourth-round selection, and fourth-round cornerback Josiah Scott, who played at Michigan State and had six interceptions and 22 pass breakups in three seasons.
The Jaguars took Miami linebacker Shaq Quarterback, a former high school star at Oakleaf, in the fourth round, Auburn safety Daniel Thomas in the fifth round, tight end Tyler Davis in the sixth and seventh-round cornerback/kickoff returner Chris Claybrooks.
“We didn’t acquire picks to get less players,” Jaguars general manager Dave Caldwell said. “We acquired picks to get more players, and like I said, there were so many players that we liked that at the end of it. We were like, ‘I wish I had a couple more picks in the seventh round.’ Where normally you’re like searching for names, we felt like there were still guys with good value out there.”
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