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Touchdown Jaguars!
Touchdown Jaguars!
Episode 105: Titans/Jaguars Week 14 Analysis - Victory In Nashville/Reflecting On BTJ's Rookie Year
What if a victory could cost you the future? That’s the paradox we’re unpacking as we hail the Jacksonville Jaguars' long-awaited win over the Tennessee Titans, ending a daunting five-game losing streak. Experience the bittersweet thrill of triumph, even in a low-scoring game, while grappling with its ripple effects on our draft positioning. We spotlight exceptional performances, and unravel the unexpected news of Bill Belichick migrating to college football, a twist that shifts the spotlight away from Jacksonville.
Our deep dive into Walker Little's career progression reveals a narrative of perseverance amid setbacks, highlighting the significance of his newly extended contract. We explore the dynamics of his development, underscoring the challenges of limited playtime and drawing comparisons with Cam Robinson to demonstrate how injuries have shaped his path. Celebrating Little's potential, we discuss the strategic advantage of securing his role as left tackle, thus freeing up future draft picks for other priorities.
Defensive prowess takes center stage as we analyze standout performances from newcomers like Maason Smith and seasoned talents such as Josh Hines-Allen. Even amidst the struggles from Mac Jones, the Jaguars' defense remains a force worth watching. With Brian Thomas Jr. nearing a standout rookie benchmark and comparisons to Fred Taylor's legendary debut season, we examine the bright future these rising stars promise. As we anticipate the future, the complexities of victory versus draft impact linger, reminding us of the fine line between immediate glory and long-term success. Tune in for a dose of optimism, strategic insight, and a touch of nostalgia as we journey through the Jaguars' evolving narrative.
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James Johnson and Phil Smith bring you the best and most up to date Jacksonville Jaguars news. "Touchdown Jaguars!" is a tribute to the prospective ownership group "Touchdown Jacksonville!" In 1991, the NFL announced plans to add two expansion teams and "Touchdown Jacksonville!" announced its bid for a team, and Jacksonville was ultimately chosen as one of five finalists. In November 1993, the NFL owners voted 26–2 in favor of awarding the 30th franchise to Jacksonville. James and Phil have been fans of the franchise ever since and have had the honor (and sometimes dishonor) of covering the team professionally since 2017. The rest as they say, is history.
Still ready. And no, that is a no no. Touchdown Jacksonville 109 yards. Incredible, incredible. Play action Upstairs wide open. Tommy Bohannon, touchdown Jacksonville Looking for Jimmy in the end zone. Touchdown Jaguars. Touchdown Jaguars. Touchdown Jaguars.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Touchdown Jaguars podcast. Here are your hosts, james Johnson and Phil Smith. Hey everyone, welcome back to the Touchdown Jaguars podcast. I am your co-host, phil Smith, and joining me, as always, is your other co-host, james Johnson.
Speaker 1:And Jay, what do you know it? We are here on the afternoon of Wednesday, december 11th and we're going to talk about a win. Is it a win that benefits the team in the long run? We'll see, given how things have now sorted out in the draft order. We kind of touched on that on last week's episode. So if you want a little bit more on that, definitely check out last week's episode.
Speaker 1:But yeah, jay, we haven't been able to see this and talk about a win in quite some time. They snapped their five game losing streak. So we're going to talk about the game very briefly because, as a lot of you know, and as you can see by the score, there wasn't too much to talk about. I mean, I know a lot of funny tweets came out over the weekend because of Calvin Ridley Shout out to him. But, yeah, really not a whole lot to discuss in terms of game breakdown, but there were definitely some standouts that you want to point out, and we'll also talk about some news that we put off from last week in terms of an extension and also, to end the episode on a positive note, we will just talk about what are the bright spots of the 2024 season. So, jay, happy to be back here with you and, yeah, like I said, talk about a win for bright spots of the 2024 season. So, jay, happy to be back here with you and, yeah, like I said, talk about a win for a change of pace.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a victory. Well, I can't say Monday, but victory Wednesday episode. We haven't had a victory episode in quite some time. It was getting a little repetitive here talking about the losses, although you know a lot of people are upset that the wind now kind of messes up our draft positioning. I guess we can kind of talk on that a little bit maybe, um, as we get into the game. But yeah, man, while we did mess up our draft positioning, it never feels bad to beat the titans right, especially in Nashville, because we just struggle there in our history with them. So you know, it never really feels bad per se to beat the Titans, our most hated rivals. And yeah, as you said, man, while the score was the, actually it was the lowest scoring game of the year for the NFL. By the way, phil, I called that at the end of the broadcast when I was watching the game, although it was that, we still got a few good talking points to discuss on it.
Speaker 2:Can't wait to get into it and just happy to be back in the booth with you, my man, as always, you know where to find us. You can find me at sportsgrind, underscore, done. You can find Phil at Philgrind, underscore, done. You can find phil at phil the filipino, both on twitter, and you can find the touchdown jaguars twitter handle at td jaguars pod. Of course, the website is wwwtouchdownjaguarscom, and also shout outs to seat geek. Who is your go-to provider for your ticketed needs, for whatever event it is that you want to go to, whether it's sports concerts, you name it. They got you covered.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all that will be in the Linktree link in the show notes of this episode. But, jay, we are going to pivot here actually to some breaking news that just came out of the sports world. That will be. It's very interesting to us because it's going to prevent something from happening here in Jacksonville. Jay, the North Carolina Tar Heels have are finalizing a deal to land Bill Belichick as its next head football coach. This is according to multiple reports that are now coming out. So we've been kind of following this here, of course, as the uh, you know a lot of fans, you know, wanting to make sure bill stayed away from duval county, trevor, lawrence, all of it, and looks like we are going to be able to avoid that for now, jay. So, uh, there you have it and want to get your immediate reaction bill belichick is heading to the college ranks to be the head coach of the north carolina tar heels yeah, shout outs to Boogie for putting it in our thread.
Speaker 2:And, as we said in the past, right, phil, this is just the world of podcasting that we live in right now. We can get stuff on the spot. Man, it's crazy where we come from. We used to do blog, talk radio now, and now we can get stuff on the spot, you know, basically in terms of from Twitter or wherever it is it came from. But, yeah, shout outs to Boogie to getting that to us.
Speaker 2:It looks like it was reported by 24-7 Sports. As we all know, they cover recruiting and college football, college basketball, things of that nature. So, you know, this is fantastic news. Fantastic news because, just as sure as Bill Belichick was a free agent, the cons were going to have interest, right, and it's so important because, maybe not for north carolina, they might be hating this, um, but then again, who knows, maybe bill belichick could be a good college coach. We'll see.
Speaker 2:But this is important because, as I mentioned you, if the cons brought in Bill Belichick, all of the reports were saying that he wanted full power. Of course he wanted full power because that's pretty much what he had, at least for the most part, with the Patriots and as, as we've discussed. I don't know if we discussed it on this podcast Maybe we have but at least put it on Twitter. Bill Belichick is not a great scout or executive, and that's not to take away from his Hall of Fame coaching career. Great coach, fantastic coach, but as a scout, you know, that would be something that I feel like he should leave in someone else's hands.
Speaker 2:If he was going to come to Jacksonville and with him, being the scout that he is, would we trust any GM that he would choose? You know. So like that also opens up another conversation. So shout outs to the Carolina Tar Heels for helping us dodge a bullet there. Now we just got to get Trent Baalke up out of here. But shout outs to Carolina all the Jazz fans out there Go ahead and send some donations to Carolina, because they saved us from a grave mistake. And again, the only hurdle now to clear field getting Trent Balky up out of here and, of course, doug Peterson, that goes without saying. But most importantly, getting Trent Balky up out of here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you said it for a while now. You know just how enamored the cons are with Bill Belichick. And listen, no one can ever take away what Bill Belichick did in terms of his run with Tom Brady. Obviously, all of that is cemented in stone in terms of his legacy. He's going to moonwalk backpedal, do whatever, bray Wyatt backwards, walk into the Hall of Fame. So none of that is under investigation.
Speaker 1:But yeah, in terms of how things went in those final years of the new england patriots, that is not something that we needed here in jacksonville. So good news, more good news here on a wednesday afternoon. But, jay, let's get into some news that came out last week in terms of an extension for offensive tackle walker little Per over the cap. Little's deal is worth $40.5 million in total value, includes a $25.944 million fully guaranteed salary with a $25.5 million in new guarantees, to pair with a $444,256 guarantee on the final season of his rookie contract this year. The pay bump makes him the 14th highest paid left tackle in the NFL on average annual value per over the cap, and he ranks 15th at his position in total guaranteed money. That is per Zach Goodall of the Jaguars. Shout out to him.
Speaker 1:So, jay, I know for some reason, like Walker Little, has always been a little bit of a polarizing figure when it comes to some Jaguar fans. I know you know we bring up Boogie all the time. A lot of our audience doesn't even know who Boogie is in terms of a person. They just know who he is because we talk about him on this podcast a lot, but he didn't seem to be very thrilled with this. But I mean again, when you look at the money, when you look at the fact that you know they finally got Cam Robinson up out of here and, jay, you made a really good point about Walker Little in terms of the football player and how much time he has had to play football and with him being in and out of the rotation all the time, he's never really gotten the full opportunity to develop his skills and now he's going to be able to do that. So please tell our audience about that and your how you feel about the extension overall yeah, well, yeah, as you were.
Speaker 2:You were saying one of the issues we bring up walker little a lot in this podcast and one of the issues I've always had wasn't even necessarily tied to him and his skill set, but more so tied to we drafted somebody that was getting very little play time. That was a swing tackle in the second round, right, and I think we used that pick that Dave Caldwell got, one of the picks that Dave Caldwell got for Yannick and Gakwe to get Walker Little. We used that on Walker Little, should I say, and when you get a second round pick, as we've said, phil, many, many times, any, anybody you're taking in the top three rounds in any draft that's reasonably equipped, you're gonna start her right. And for them to go this long, we're in year four for Walker Little, right, and you know, realize that he needs to be the left tackle of the future. That's malpractice, right. This should have been established long before now and essentially what you're doing, you're giving him a contract off of limited work.
Speaker 2:Now, that being said, to Walker Little's defense, as you were saying we have discussed in our text thread is, you know, some people may be upset with it, but at the end of the day, walker Little hasn't played a lot of football, at least not as much as you would want for starting left tackle. So he's still developing. And it's hard to develop when you're in and out of a lineup, especially at left tackle. And I've said this, you're dealing with arguably the most gifted, physically gifted athlete on the field in a defensive end or outside linebacker, whatever the case may be. And to be able to learn the position while being in and out of the lineup it's just simply not doable, you know. So I think what helped them get to this point, of course, was to get Cam Robinson out of here, which he should have been long out of here anyway. I'm not sure why they held on to him as long as they did. He was a Dave Caldwell pick that Trent Baalke extended, and then not only extended. We had Walker Little, we had Anton Harrison, so like that caused some conflict right there, you got three left tackles. I mean I guess like in this day and age it don't hurt to have three guys that can start at tackle, but you end up with a situation like we had, where Walker Little has predominantly spent more time on the bench than he has spent on the field Now, thankfully well, I don't want to say thankfully, because it involves injury, but what I will say, what has helped walker little, although he's been in the lineup sporadically and not consistently?
Speaker 2:Um, cam robertson did miss a lot of games, right, so he is somewhat polished, but it's just more so. You need that consistency at left tackle because again, the weekend and week out, you're dealing with arguably the best athlete on the field. So you know he's going to take his lumps because he's still relatively, when you look at starts, in terms of starts he's still relatively a young player, right, and not to mention, in college he didn't play a lot either. He was, you know, he was injured coming out of college too. So he's going to take his lumps. It's not going to look perfect. That's one thing I want people to understand about Walker Little. It's not going to look perfect. He's going to take his lumps. It's going to be times where it looks like his head is spinning because he hasn't necessarily started in a lot of games consistently.
Speaker 2:But make no mistake about it, the skill set is there. We're talking about a guy. I think when I researched him years ago, when we first drafted him, he was like the number one college recruit on. It might've been 24-7 or one of the big recruiting sites that does that stuff, but he was like the number one college recruit coming out of college. So the talent is there. We've seen it at times and then at times we've seen them struggle again. With consistency the struggles will go away, but the skill set, the size, the height, the weight is there and, um, you know, I like this from the standpoint, this signing, from the standpoint of now. We don't have to go into the draft and hopefully trent balky's not making the call, but we don't have to go into the draft saying, hey, we need a left tackle and probably a guard and a center, you know, coming into the draft. So it kind of eliminates one of those needs we have on the offensive line going into next offseason.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm very much on board with this move and definitely think that Walker has earned the opportunity to become the left tackle of the future. And you know, I think that more people kind of keep up with our buddy, daniel Griffiths, who will come up a little bit later in this episode. You'll know how well he has played since taking over full time for Cam Robinson, so I do think that big things are in his future. Like you said, we've talked about him quite a bit here on this podcast, dating back to the draft process, because we had mocked him to us for months and then he ended up being the selection. So we were definitely excited about that. And, yeah, he's going to take those lumps, he's going to have lapses about that. And, yeah, he's going to take those lumps, he's going to have lapses. But as he continues to get more comfortable with the position and, you know, just kind of figure things out build up his chemistry with the rest of the guys as well as, of course, you know, trevor Lawrence I mean he's been there with him since day one, so I'm sure that already has been established for the most part. Here we go. Here's a good tweet from now. This is from december 5th, so I haven't seen this number updated uh since um the tennessee game. But in terms of walker, little's uh pressure percentage allowed for pff 2022 10.1 percent, 2023 6.3 and then 2024 4.3. So playing very well, very excited for him and excited the again the growth of the offensive line.
Speaker 1:But, jay, let's move into the actual football that took place on the field here this past Sunday. As we mentioned, it wasn't necessarily a shootout, but it was a matchup between two bad teams, things obviously not going very well for Tennessee either, and I guess that's one of those saving graces. Right? You just talked about it in the beginning of the episode. It's always nice to beat Tennessee. It's also always nice to see Tennessee struggling, and they certainly did, as the Jacksonville Jaguars went up to Nashville and won Something again. That doesn't happen very often, especially in the history of this podcast, but also just in the history of the franchise in general. The Jaguars win 10-6 in Nashville behind pretty much a really great defensive effort in Tank Bigsby.
Speaker 1:Jay, I just want to get your thoughts on this game because you did just get to watch the condensed version here today. I watched it live, but I was also doing some things in between the game. It's just so hard to watch this football team, even when they're winning. Um other than you know the the bright spots that we'll talk about here in just a moment, after we discuss the game. Uh, but yeah, what takeaways did you have?
Speaker 2:because I know you were pretty impressed by some defensive efforts yeah, man, um, one thing, one of the things that stood out to me, especially like within the first few drives, was the defensive line. They were making plays. Now, that's not to say that the titans didn't have some good runs in there, but it looks like they were mostly like linebacker based mistakes. Um, that led to those runs. But the defensive line to me really stood out and, like each member of the starting group, made an impact play, as I was telling you before we started recording. You know you got Mason Smith, who's coming into his own right these last few weeks now that he's not being marked as inactive, which you know. That's a whole nother story for a whole nother time. You know, doug trying to sabotage Balky which I guess if you're in Doug's shoes you would get it but at the same time you want to put out the best players out there to help you win at the same time. But, yeah, mason Smith was making some plays and you know getting off of blocks and stopping the running back from making too much penetration into the past, the line of scrimmage. Then you um Devon Hamilton, who made a play here and there, you know Devon Hamilton found himself in the backfield. I know he made a tackle on Pollard I think it was like two yards deep into the backfield and really he just caught Pollard before he can get going. It was like the play was over before it kind of even took into uh to effect. And then, um, josh Allen, of course he did his thing. He had a sack, uh, at late in the second or the uh yeah, that was the second quarter that he had as well where he just straight up like blasted uh will levis and I thought they were going to flag him because he kind of landed on will levis, but they didn't, but blasted him at the end of the second quarter and that, I think, led to a fumble. But it might have been recovered. I'll have to go back and look at that. But nonetheless, though, he had a good game. That sack aside, he was being himself Josh Allen, all over the field making plays, not just towards the quarterback but making plays in the run game and what have you. And Trayvon Walker too. He was a very physical presence on the edge and, um, it was, I think, early in the first half. He might have saved the touchdown there early in the first half, or it might have been the second half. But, yeah, he had a play, a very impactful play, where, in a game as low scoring as it was the lowest scoring game of the year in the NFL, he had a play there where he say the touchdown that probably would have been ball game right. So you know he, he deserves a unsung hero hat or whatever you want to call it a game ball, whatever the case may be. So that was the biggest part that stood out to me. Also, you know, matt Jones is. Matt Jones Wasn't very impressive, but I think what happened to get the Jaguars offense going in the third quarter and fourth quarter?
Speaker 2:They started to go to Brian Thomas Jr more and started to realize, hey, this dude is literally open all the time and the Titans can't do anything with him. Nobody has right, phil, none of these teams that we've seen have been able to stop Brian Thomas. The only thing stopping Brian Thomas is Press Taylor and our offensive line, at times not giving the quarterback enough time and sometimes Trevor Lawrence not making the best decisions or overthrowing him. So they found out, hey, it finally clicked like, hey, let's keep going to him. I think he had four catches in a row at one point and it finally clicked on him. They even talked about it in the press conference I think it was Doug that said it and that's what got the offense going. Now again, they didn't score a lot of points, but what put them in the position to score the points that they did was the impact of Brian Thomas. You can sprinkle in a occasional good ETN run or catch and a good occasional Tank Bigsby run or catch and that's pretty much what the offense in terms of the points that they put up. That's what helped them to get to where they were. So that was my biggest takeaway.
Speaker 2:Also shout outs to jorian jones, who had a phenomenal game.
Speaker 2:He should have been the game's mvp if he wasn't, uh, but he had a phenomenal game, made several paths break up, at least two or three that I saw.
Speaker 2:Um, he got a sack as well. He was sticking his nose in the run game too, which is something like me and you already kind of knew about jorian because we had this discussion like weeks ago of um. You know where he ranked on pff in terms of his run support status, um, but yeah, he was sticking his nose in the run game near the line of scrimmage as well, which kind of went under the radar. Of course you always see the pass related stuff because he's a corner, but he's the guy that's not scared to play near the line of scrimmage and make an impact there, as we saw with the sack, as we saw with some of the stops that he made near the line of scrimmage. So shout-outs to him and I'm very excited to see where the future goes for him. We mocked him to us, so anybody we mock to us, we're always happy to see when they actually end up on the team and, um, yeah, I think we might be cooking with grease with him and, uh, time will tell um what we have in him.
Speaker 1:I'm excited for his future yeah, man to bring up boogie again. Uh, he is an fsu fan. He saw this coming. Uh, jerry and jones is easily going to be a fan favorite for a very, very long time. Would not be a surprise, jay, if we saw some more Jerrion Jones jerseys popping up in the crowd at the games. I will actually get to go to the game this Sunday, so excited for that. It'll be the first home game I get to attend since what? October? Because again just been traveling, been so busy and the team's not very fun to watch because of the aforementioned Mac Jones.
Speaker 1:But the defense may be worth the price of admission as of right now because, like you said, they are cooking. And yeah, josh Allen, like you said, had that sack. I was definitely worried also that he was going to get called for that penalty. Continuing to see Mason Smith out there trying to pull up the snap count that here it is the defensive line snap count from, once again, daniel Griffiths, 51 for Josh Hines-Allen, 48 for Trayvon Walker, 39 for Mason Smith, 38 for Hamilton, 33 Eric Armstead, 25 for Tyrell Lacey and 18 for Jeremiah Ledbetter. So, yeah, we're seeing those numbers, those snap counts raise, go up for Mason Smith, so excited for him to continue to progress whenever we get this new defensive coordinator in here and he gets more opportunities.
Speaker 1:But yeah, jim, in terms of, like the Mac Jones thing, you know, like I can't believe. At one point there were people calling for him to maybe get a shot, even before Trevor got hurt. This is who Mac Jones is. This is who got Bill Belichick essentially fired and kicked out of the building. Bill Belichick, that guy, you know, who has all those accolades that I talked about earlier, but Mac Jones he is. I don't even know if he is a second string quarterback at this point, right, jay? I mean, with the way that you know, some of these other teams have guys that can come in and at least win you games. I mean, I don't know that Mac Jones. I don't know what roster he ends up on next year. Do you bring him back just for the continuity and the vibes? I mean, he seems like a good locker room guy, but he's certainly not a very good quarterback.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would. I would definitely say and I'm not even being funny when I say this that, uh, his play has helped his chances to return as a a backup quarterback with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Now, when you look at and I you know I've praised him as a backup quarterback, but never have I been one of those people saying like he'll start over Trevor Lawrence one day, like that never was a thing that even crossed my mind. I don't know how that even came to fruition, but that's neither here or neither there. But that being said, one thing I will say about Mack is you do want somebody with a lot of experience as your backup quarterback. That he has. Um, now again, you know he hasn't had the best showings when he started for us and what have you.
Speaker 2:But it's times where you look at mac right, and I know the preseason is kind of vanilla, but you see enough to believe like, hey, I would like to run it back as a, you know, you know second year with him in terms of having him as a second year with him in terms of having him as a number two, and maybe he takes a leap as a backup quarterback.
Speaker 2:But I guess, before we answer that question we got who's our coach, what kind of system we're running, all of that good stuff, and then you can kind of decipher if Matt Jones is a good choice to be back as the second string guy.
Speaker 2:But yeah, to answer your question, I don't think nobody's choice to be back as the second string guy. But yeah, to answer your question, I don't think nobody's going to be throwing crazy money at him in terms of bringing him in as a starter, because that was the thought process heading into this season, like especially when looking at the preseason but again, you have to be careful with the preseason but a lot of people were like, oh yeah, matt jones not going to be here long term, somebody's gonna throw him a lot of money next and he's going to, you know, end up starting for some. Somebody, or a lot of people were saying, towards the trade deadline, right, it's like let's trade mac jones to the minnesota vikings. Like did the minnesota vikings want mac jones? Like you have to ask yourself that. But I think he's certainly done himself a favor, or well, he's done jags fans a favor in terms of his chances to remain in Jacksonville, because I don't think like he's gonna have like this extensive line or these extensive contracts thrown at him in the offseason.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we discussed this a couple of weeks ago in terms of the upcoming quarterback market. It's not very good as far as free as teams than Mac Jones. So, yeah, it seems like he'll probably stick around and yeah, that's a good point. You know you don't want to. You want a guy to stick around that has the experience. Once again, I think he is definitely a very good locker room guy and obviously, him being local, you know that's a little bit of a bonus as well. It just depends on the money. You know you certainly aren't going to pay him you much.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I don't think anyone's going to be calling or clamoring for Mac Jones to be their guy. If anything, that maybe you have competition in terms of a backup quarterback, you know, in terms of familiarity somewhere else with him. But yeah, not too worried about getting outbid for Mac Jones. If they want to do that, you know by all means he can have them. But, jay, anything else you want to mention in terms of this game before we talk about again, to wrap up this episode, just a positive in terms of the season overall. Anything else you want to mention in terms of the performance of the team, once again coming away with a victory over the Tennessee Titans, although it did come at the cost of dropping from number one in the draft order to number five although it did come at the cost of dropping from number one in the draft order to number five.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess we can talk about it. How do you feel about the win? Because it is a win over the Titans, right. So, like some people might feel indifferent, while some people might be like I'll take a loss over the Titans if it keeps us at the number one overall pick. How do you feel about where we're positioned at in the draft right now and um, that win basically taking us out of the travis hunter race, for now at least?
Speaker 1:yeah, I don't feel very good. I know people always want to beat tennessee, I totally get that. But it reminded me a lot of a few years back when the jaguars played indianapolis in week six, week 17, and if they, if indianapolis had won, they would not have gotten the number one overall pick to draft andrew luck. And I was clamoring for the jaguars to lose that game. Not that you know teams are out here throwing games, you know. You know these, like these players, livelihoods depend on it and no one's out here intentionally tanking for the most part. But I was clamoring for the jaguars to lose that game and keep andrew luck out of indianapolis. And, lo and behold, that didn't happen. Now, the events that came after andrew luck being in indianapolis, you know, very unfortunate. That's what they get for not protecting a generational guy, but that's a topic for another time.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I don't feel good because he's not going to. If New England is picking at three, he is not going to get past number three. I do think if it stays the way it is, las Vegas and New York take quarterbacks. I think Vegas is a shoe in for Shador Sanders and I think the Giants will take Cam Ward. Now again, we're in December and we know how crazy things can change in a short amount of time. But there are two. There is one team, jay, that can help us quite a bit here in terms of the draft order, and do you know who that team is?
Speaker 2:Not Carolina, is it?
Speaker 1:It is your Atlanta Falcons, not Carolina, is it? It is your Atlanta Falcons. They play Vegas and New York back to back and Kirk Cousins man is looking terrible right now. He hasn't thrown a touchdown pass in a month and if he can gift the Raiders and the Giants a couple of wins here back to back, then we'll find ourselves right back in the mix. But yeah, jacksonville, I think, think, has to pick in the top three, bare minimum to have a shot at him. But, however, this is a good draft in terms of being in the top five to like eight range. I think you're going to get a really, really elite talent and yeah, and you know, with the right GM, you know we should be cooking, but yeah, I don't feel good about it. But again, shout out to your Falcons.
Speaker 2:They can help us out this week, these next couple weeks let's go kurt cousins, right, but yeah, no, like it now I'll say that it doesn't feel great to lose out on a talent like travis hunter, but then, at the end of the day, like when I look at it right, you're probably looking at like you went from basically being able to get somebody, like if you were on the, the hype train of getting a wide receiver right, you went from being able to get Travis Hunter to being in the range to get T-Mac and who for those of you who don't know who T-Mac is, that's the kid in Arizona State who now I admittedly I have to watch some more film on T-Mac, but everything that I see in terms of highlights and what have you on him is pretty impressive. And like, when I look at that kid, I'm just like, oh wow, you put him next to brian thomas jr, like you know and I don't want this to happen because we've complained about not running the ball in the past but it's like we'll never run the ball if we got t-mac and brian thomas jr running routes out there, and then you sprinkle in probably what'll be Evan Ingram coming back right and then probably what'll be Parker Washington in the slot because, as we all know Christian Kirk's contract is kind of getting to the point where he might be expendable. You know you're looking at probably a decent little group there, you know what I'm saying. So like to go from being able to get Travis Hunter to getting T-Mac at receiver. I don't know if the drop-off is that significant. Again, I want to watch some film on T-Mac. There's also the kid his name is escaping me that goes to Michigan.
Speaker 2:The defensive tackle who could be available, which we don't really need. A defensive tackle. We just talked about how Mason Smith is playing, but, um, he is every time I go on Twitter somebody's putting a highlight of him just wrecking havoc. So, uh, you can never have too many big guys, right, that's the me and you kind of talked about that in the thread with Georgia. That's how Georgia has maintained their dominance a little bit and we're able to get through that stretch early in the season where they would just beat up.
Speaker 2:But you know, we'll see, time will tell if it's a costly mistake. But hey, man, the Falcons, man, our, you know you can say arguably them and the Panthers are arguably our like sister NFC teams, kind of because of the proximity and just kind of how we kind of have built relationships with them over the years. They could help us out a lot here. So you know, kurt Cochranes, go out there and throw as many picks as you want. I think what you have to worry about is if they put Michael Pendix out there and there's no film on him and he just goes crazy. But you know for now, if they sit with Kurt Cochranes or Jagwars might get a favor or two there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that receiver is Teteroa McMillan sorry, from Arizona. As you mentioned, pff's second-ranked player on their big board as of December 4th, and then Travis Hunter is number one. Mason Graham is the player you were thinking of, jay, so you know, adding another Mason to the interior defensive line. What do you think about the idea of people throwing Ashton Jenty out there, I think somewhere between like the 8 to 12 range, if they were to pull out another couple wins. Any interest in bringing that guy in and pairing him with Tank Bigsby, because I'm not really sure what's going to happen with Travis Etienne?
Speaker 2:Well, that's the big question, though, phil. Who's our next coach and offensive coordinator, right? I don't know if it will be Ben Johnson, but if it's Ben Johnson, I can see a place on his roster for Travis Etienne and a significant role for him and Tank Bixby, because what Ben Johnson is doing with the two running backs that he has Sonic and Knuckles over there in the Lions, you know, it would seem that he wants two running backs that have that bring two different dynamics to an offense, and that's what kind of has made the lions as dangerous as they have been. I I would take ben johnson with tank bigsby and travis etn any day over press taylor with them right. In short, to. To put it in short, um. So, yeah, it just depends on who the offensive coordinator and the head coach is. Genti is is extremely talented, don't get me wrong, and I know we live in a day and time, and me and you have said this right, taking running backs in the first round is kind of a no, but it's been some special guys that have made me look stupid when it comes to that model, right, most notably one of which you would know right from texas damn, I'm blanking on his name phil bijan, yeah, bijan robertson. And bijan robertson, who has done some great things with atlanta falcons, make no mistake about it. The falcons aren't losing because bijan robertson right. So that's not why, uh, you find special talents like him and even I mean even travis etn, where he was drafted what? 25th overall, something like that.
Speaker 2:When you look at aside from this year, you look at wait, they've gotten out of him the years prior. You can't say he's, he's been a bust per se for a running back that you took late in the first round. We've gotten some first round talent out of him and some first round performances out of him. And again, we could continue to get that if we get a Ben Johnson or you know whoever the case may be. So I think a lot of that just depends on who's calling the plays, and you know if you have somebody that also a GM, that's coming in here and looking at you know what Trent Baalke did wrong and is looking to get that out of here as quickly as possible.
Speaker 2:To establish a culture like this is where the last regime messed up. We're going to fix this as soon as possible. If you got it, you have a GM that wants to make that type of statement and starts cleaning the house and getting the quote, unquote, balking mistakes out of the building, then you know, maybe you know you might have a GM that wants to, is looking towards maybe trading E10 or something like that, but I don't know. I think if you made me put money on it right now, I believe that the two running backs that we have now most bright offensive minds, would probably be fine with them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I totally agree. Just been seeing Ashton Jenties' name thrown out there a lot by Jaguar fans, and understandably so. He is outstanding. He is the rightful Heisman Trophy winner. I'm not even sure why. It is a debate which is insane. But honestly, ashton Jenties should just get fitted for his Dallas Cowboy jersey right now, because I don't see him going anywhere else other than the Dallas Cowboys. So we'll see.
Speaker 1:But let's pivot here, jay, to the last topic and stop discussing future rookies on this team and talk about one that we have right now, who is just lighting it up and you already talked about him, you know, during your breakdown and that is Brian Thomas Jr. And it just brought up the thought that I wanted to discuss here because of, again, another tweet we saw from Daniel Griffiths. We need to get him back on, by the way, at the end of the season to discuss everything that happened but he tweeted out Brian Thomas Jr is on pace for 71 catches, 1,113 yards and eight touchdowns. This would break all rookie receiving records 64 catches, which is held by Justin Blackman, 865 yards, also held by Blackman, and then six touchdowns, which he's already tied Alan Hearns with his rookie season. So the question that I have for you, jay, and also our audience, is Brian Thomas Jr, the best rookie in Jaguar history.
Speaker 1:We were trying to think of some other names that we could throw out there. Probably Maurice Jones-Drew belongs on that list. Justin Blackman, even in his limited time, probably belongs on that list. The Allen brothers as a duo obviously was a really, really fun time, even though the team wasn't playing very well. And maybe toss out some other names that maybe you thought of. Oh, jalen Ramsey, I think I mentioned. But yeah, is Brian Thomas Jr the best rookie in Jacksonville Jaguar history?
Speaker 2:I think so. To be honest with you. Now, that's not a takeaway from some of these other rookie seasons we've seen, but I think for me a part of it is. Our history at receiver has been terrible, right, and had our history not been so terrible at receiver, you can we probably be arguing that somebody else had a better rookie season than him. But being that our history is so terrible at receiver, for the most part I believe, yeah, that what he's doing is the most impressive rookie season we've seen.
Speaker 2:Now, look, I just pulled up Fred Taylor's stats. Now, he didn't start in every game, he, it was what 15 games played. He started in 12. He had one thousand two hundred twenty three yards and 14 touchdowns, had 1,223 yards and 14 touchdowns. But I guess, like that's so long ago in our minds that we don't remember it as as well. But as great of a season as that was the Allen brothers I, if I can recall they. They had standout seasons, but a lot of what they were doing right was because the Jaguars were playing from behind, a lot in the Gus Bradley era, right, and they just had to just go all pass in the last two quarters, you know, or the last quarter, whatever the case may be. So their stats, albeit, you know, I don't want to take anything from what they were able to do. I love the Allen brothers, but their stats were kind of padded and inflated for that reason, I guess I would say because they were playing from behind a lot.
Speaker 2:Jalen Ramsey yeah, he had a pretty impressive rookie season, but with cornerbacks, you know, it just don't pop out as much as a receiver right, a receiver is, you know, a guy that's always at the forefront of football, aside from the quarterback. So for me, yeah, I feel like Brian Thomas Jr is having the most impressive season as a rookie and also too though this is the thing about it is he's 45 yards away from 1,000 and what we have, even after this game, he has two more games to you know further, put up some more stats and he can get closer to this number. I just mentioned for fred taylor, who, you know, again, he had over 1 200 rushing yards, so he could get closer to that by um, making the most of those last two games. And well, the third, the game that's coming up this week as well, but the last two games as well. So I'm gonna be watching. Man been very impressed with what the young man has done, man and I'm I'm happy we got him.
Speaker 2:You know we complain a lot about how the season is going, but one thing I will say that has really, really made the games watchable and gives me some kind of ray of hope, some kind of glimmer of hope, is him and watching him and Trevor Lawrence when they connect and you know, even Matt Jones finally figuring out well, I guess Doug Peterson and Press Taylor finally figuring out that you know he can help elevate Matt Jones when he's on the field as a backup. So he's just a guy that he could. He could help both quarterbacks Right, and he's only going to get better as a route runner he's. He's not even polished as a route runner. Go just watch him on all 22 and then some of the routes he's running. It's like man, like he's not as technical as he could be just yet. So, yeah, the future is bright for him, man and I.
Speaker 1:I think what he's doing is the most impressive rookie season of any chat or at the moment yeah, I will say I think I'll give the slight edge to Fred Taylor right now, until the full season has completed. So he does have the opportunity to be. I will give that to Fred. In 12 games started, 15 games, you know, 1200 yards, 17 touchdowns is crazy. So I will give to him that crown to Freddie for right now. But yeah, with four games remaining, brian Thomas Jr and seemingly again you know the play calling figuring out. Oh, we should probably just feed him the football. I definitely think he has the chance to take that crown. But this is beside the point, jay, but we talked about this last week.
Speaker 1:The fact that Fred Taylor is not in the hall of fame is criminal. Look at this five-year run here between 2000 and 2004 1600 yards. He had an injury season in 2001 but then came back, ran for 1700, 1700, 1942 in 2003, and then 1569 in 2004. That guy's not in the Hall of Fame man. That is absolutely absurd and just nothing but Jacksonville Jaguar bias. That's all that is is franchise bias, because if he played for any other team he would have again walked into the Hall of Fame by now and would have long had his gold jacket. But yeah, I'll give Fred Taylor the edge right now, but Ryan Thomas Jr is well on his way. But I just had to throw those numbers out, jay, because that's ridiculous from Freddie in that five-year span.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, sam Kovaris, longtime journalist for Jacksonville. Tavares, longtime journalist for Jacksonville, he's the one I think that is kind of the presenter for Jaguars going into the Hall of Fame. Right, he's better than me because I'll be throwing some cuss words in there to get Fred. Maybe that's why I'm not the presenter, but you got that insane run from Fred man and he absolutely should be in the Hall of Fame. Like, again, we all know, had that man not played for Jacksonville he would be there right now.
Speaker 2:But yeah, one thing I wanted to add too, phil, is you know we can't discount the rookie season that MJD had too, for the simple fact that MJD was a kick returner, a dynamic kick returner too, from what I can recall in his rookie season. So, like, if you look at what he was able to do as a kick returner, you can kind of argue that like, if my mind serves me correctly, his rookie season that he could have, he could have been a pro bowler as a special teamer as a rookie, I know he only put up like 900 and some change as a rusher, which I mean that's nothing light or small to look at either, but he was in a. You know, he was in a rotation, obviously, so he couldn't hit that 1000 mark. But MJD is another one that kind of comes to mind just because he was a utility guy, right. So I don't know what you think about his rookie season, but that's one, two that probably should be up there for Jacksonville Jaguars fans yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, mjd had, uh would have had an even better season again if it wasn't a running back by committee room. So the fact that those two overlap fred taylor and mjd overlapping is kind of similar to. Well, it's not totally the same, because what I was going to compare it to is when luca and dirk played together for like one season. But dirk was a shell of himself at that time. His knees were were given out when fred taylor was still very much a major, major contributor on a winning football team. So it's not exactly the same, but like just two franchise legends crossing over. It's crazy that sometimes you think that those two share in a backfield at one point. But yeah, mjd for sure deserves a shout out. And then, yeah, it's just so hard to judge a DB's rookie season outside of like, just interceptions. So that's why Jalen Ramsey, like, is a little bit further down on the list. But in terms of like interceptions, so that's why Jalen Ramsey is a little bit further down on the list. But in terms of cultural impact, I think Jalen Ramsey definitely belongs in the top five.
Speaker 1:But yeah, jay, I wanted to end on some positivity. Let's find some positives. We've got to win this week, good things happening here in Jacksonville. Hopefully we're just a few weeks away from both Trent Baalke and Doug Peterson being relieved of their duties and we can start fresh and, you know, look to the future. But, jay, anything else you want to mention here on this episode before we wrap up and start focusing on the next one and focusing on who comes in the town? Oh yeah, we got another throwback game coming up this weekend. We didn't even talk about that, but another throwback game the New York Jets coming in. They're a disaster too, you know, worried that they might pull out another victory, but we'll see what happens.
Speaker 2:Anything else you want to talk about before we get out of here. That's it, man. And I did pull up those MJD kick return stats for his season. Yeah, he had a high that year of 860 yards. Even though he only had one kick return touchdown, he did put the Jaguars in good field position a bunch of times, if I can recall that season. So, yeah, man, that's all I wanted to add. As you said, man, another interesting game coming up with the throwback game, it's always good to it's the Colts, I believe. Right, leave, right, phil. That's how bad the season has been.
Speaker 1:We just take it on a Sunday by Sunday basis, but uh, debbie, it's the Jets.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the Jets. Okay, so Aaron Rodgers, yeah, because he was on Pat McAfee talking noise about if he loses to Jacksonville or something like that. I saw that. I didn't listen to the audio, but I saw, like the like, the actual tweet of what was said. But yeah, do your thing, aaron rogers, because we, you know, we don't need any more wins at this point.
Speaker 1:Go on another darkness retreat and get the hell out of here. We don't need, we've, we've. We don't need you in the nfl anymore. Aaron rogers, just get out. We don't need.
Speaker 2:Oh wow yeah, you know what. That's an interesting topic if we ever start covering the nfl in general again to feel it'll be interesting to talk aaron rogers and what his future holds, should he be back or whatever the case may be, will he be back. But that's uh, another topic for another time for another type of show. But, yeah, as always, you all know where to find us at TD Jaguars pod for the Twitter handle for the podcast. At Phil the Filipino for Phil, at sports grind underscore done for me all on Twitter wwwtouchdownjaguarscom for the official site and shout outs to seat geek, your go-to ticketing provider for your ticketing needs for any event that you need tickets for, and our sponsor for the show.
Speaker 1:That's right. So everything once again is in the link tree link of this and every single episode. So thank you guys so much for continuing to support, as it's been a little bit of a rough season. You know the episodes have been sporadic in terms of releases and uh, and that's just because you know, jay and I've had a whole lot going on. So we appreciate everybody's patience and continued support, but we will continue to get better, continue to do better and we'll keep you updated with everything you need to know. When it comes to the jacksonville jaguars, that is my co-host, james johnson, I am phil smith, and do not forget to tune in to Touchdown Jaguars for each and every Jaguar podcast.
Speaker 1:And we'll see you next time, folks.