Huddle Up | Jaguars Mock Draft, Evaluating Roster

0:00Welcome to Udola Udola! Jaguar Senior Writer John Osher, NFL Network Analyst and former Jaguar Bucky Brooks, and Senior Reporter J.P. Shatterin bring you the latest on your Jacksonville Jaguar. Udola starts right now. Welcome into another edition of the Udola Podcast Bucky Brooks in LA. I'm with John Osher, I'm J.P. Shatterin by the way. We're in the Miller Electric Center, the Hyundai Studios, as the off season continues. We'll get the football coming up. We'll hear from Mark Lamping coming up as well. Jaguar's team president on the opening of the office building earlier this week. Bucky, what's going on? What happened to UNC? What are you talking about? Baseball is going great. They're crushing it. Spaceball season is good. Spring football season is here. Second year head coach. Spring football is good. Women's team is in the sweet 16. I have no idea what you're talking about. Life is good as a Tar-Hill.

1:01Why would it be bad? Bucky, that was a hard watch that night, man. You're talking about the men's basketball team. I'm watching with my wife, and again, I'm not the diet. I'm not Tar-Hill blue, Tar-Hill bread, Tar-Hill dead like you are, but they're the team that I follow, and I love Dean Smith, love Roy Williams. Yeah. Look. Different time. That was not a Carolina coach to team the other night. No, it was not a Carolina coach team. It was not a Carolina team from a talent standpoint, even though Caleb Wilson was injured. It's a lot different like, to the men who made this Tar-Hill podcast, but for most of my childhood, I am used to being first or second my team in basketball. Like, you could write that in. And believe you ought to be first. Yeah. And when they finished second, it was like, what are we doing? Right. You know, like,

2:01so it's been a challenge to see them fall off in. I'll say that they finished fourth in the ACC this year, which was quite an accomplishment given after they lost the player, but they are in a crossroads in terms of who they're going to be in this new world, with NIO revenue share and those things. You have to either go all in on being transactional or you have to be bold enough to be transformational and say, hey, we're going to do it a certain way and be okay when the results are not consistently what they were back in the past. Yeah, and that was Roy's genius. Even when Roy won like three, he never went big time NBA guy to do it. I wonder if you can do it that way. Times are a change. Yeah. Yeah. I would say the difference is though, because when I look at all these teams, I don't know if all of the great teams, like for instance Houston, who's really good. They're doing it with fourth and fifth year players

3:03that have stayed in the program. They may have a pro or two, but I would say maybe the difference is the profile is not that of a blue blood where you expect it every year so they build it differently and they had the patience to wait. I don't know like Kentucky. Kentucky and Carolina are kind of in the same thing. The fan base doesn't have the patience to wait for a rebuild. Every year, every year we need to be there. Not when you can walk to Duke and they never rebuild. I mean, you can walk over there, Buck. But you know that Duke is not won a national title since 2015. So a lot of that is a bit of a myth. You keep holding on. Everyone in the final four every year. I don't know. Some on teams like you can go to the dance, but if you ain't dancing, what is it? But he's wearing a black shirt when he's bleeding light blue right now. Oh man. I mean, you have it. Carolina won one in 2017 and they win again in 2016. Duke, they haven't won. This is not a Carolina podcast,

4:03but I do a general question because there's not much NFL going on. But a general question and this is probably the old guy in us. We're all old. You guys aren't as old as me. But Buck is closer than he wants to admit. I admit I'm there. Do you? I used to love this thing. I used to love college basketball. I was into it. Do I not have the interest in it because I'm old now? Or is it just, is it the NIL? They cycle in and out so fat. I'll always use this. You hated lateener but you cared because he was there for four years and you knew him. You don't know anybody now. They're not there long. They're there for about a minute and a half and then they're off. And that's too much of a generalization to understand it. But I've talked to multiple people our age and they just can't attach to college basketball anymore.

5:03I think college sports in general are kind of like that. Football is just a keen pin that it never go away. Right. Because you recognize the helmets. Yeah. It's really hard when you can't, as you say, grow to fall in love with the players that you see. Oh, man, they were terrible as a freshman. Look at them get better as a sophomore. Man, did you need yet? They start playing senior year. They're great. It's hard when we don't have that connection. And college sports are, I mean, we're calling it college but guys don't even really go to class. Like everyone is taking things online. There's a disconnect between. That's, that's romanticizing what college sports were to what they are now. And I'll say this is really difficult for me, particularly as, as it's already been watching, like Carolina basketball growing up on that. To, to these people popcorn in and out. And there's no connection to the thing. It's just a different time. But I like the university and some of these other schools.

6:03You had a crossroads where either you jump in and you're okay with the transfer portal and everyone. Or you just are, nah, we believe we're going to do it another way. And we're okay with what it looks like, kind of like dabble in Clemson and football. Right. If you ask Trevor, Trevor probably has a hard time looking at Clemson struggle, but they're trying to do it the way they did it when Trevor was there, as opposed to the way some other schools are doing. And not many players these days are going to go perfect from the field and the freezer line on the regional final with the game winning shot with no time left like Layner did. Those days are pretty much over. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect day. I can't believe that. Perfectly is over here talking about Christian Layner. You brought him on. This might not be like, I would never bring, I would never bring that guy up. I would never bring the Duke Yup in general. That's enough Carolina talk for the day. We've had enough of this already. Let's move along. A little bit later, get into the Jaguar is sending an offer sheet to Jake Bobo,

7:05wider see where the Seahawks, but then the Seahawks matching it. We'll get into that. The Jaguar is business side this week. Officially cut the ribbon for the new office space along the St. John's River. The building is called one court tower. And the Jaguar is occupied the second, third and fourth floors. There's a law firm taking over all of the fifth Mark Lamping explaining who's going in on the fifth and sixth. In addition to the Jaguar's business office headquarters, local private investment firm, Tim McQuant asked that management will occupy 7,000 square feet on the building sixth floor, a new 6,000 square foot state of the art downtown YMCA, which is open to YMCA members from all over the first code network, is now open and located on the first floor. Eric Mann, thank you very much for your partnership to help make this happen. Future plans also include a 57, 100 square foot full service restaurant on the ground level. Today we are absolutely thrilled to be able to announce that global law firm,

8:07Foley and Lardner, LLP will relocate their Jacksonville office to occupy the entire fifth floor to accommodate 44 attorneys and approximately 60 staff members. Daniel Whiteley is here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. So that was announced today and then everybody was at the ribbon cutting, got to tour the office facilities, the second and third floor today and the YMCA. That was open. So adding to downtown Jacksonville, the mayor was there, Jonathan Deegan today as well with some comments. And you know, this is the other side of the Jaguar's business now, the development on the other side right next to the four seasons, which is going up, developing this office building a big piece of that. They had to get everybody on the business side of the organization out of the stadium so the construction and the stadium can move along and out of the official opening today, John. Speaking of four seasons, is your condo almost done? Did they finish that up? For me or Bucky? J.P. It must be J.P.

9:07It must be J.P. Obviously Bucky's is done. Yeah, I'm going to go with Bucky's. Yeah, so. Yeah, not mind. Yeah. Yeah, I'll be more down near the beach club. More saving. I am there, but if they want to throw that in as a part of it. You would turn it down. It's hard to read. But he had a one out of one. I would happen. I would happen to take that. Maybe with the next contract, we can kind of bake that into the cake. Well, the 365 night at room ocean. It's already baked in. It's unbelievable. It's amazing. He's in town for 11 days. And the rest of the 365 is re-nated to the Bucky Brook suite. We can bake some other things into the bed of balcony on that thing or a lot. As they say, everything is negotiable. Everything is negotiable. You know, the worst thing they can say is no. So we'll just keep pushing the envelope a little bit. Boy. So that's the other side. That happened today, which is cool to see. And everybody walking around the building and good operation, good setup over there.

10:09And good to see the other levels of the building starting to take shape. And some other companies in downtown. Actually, that law firm he was talking about moving from another part of downtown and staying downtown. There are some companies that are leaving downtown and the pushers to keep some companies here. So that's a big step in the right direction. Certainly. Time now to lock in your seats for 2026. Place your deposits now. Next season will be played at the bank, but seating capacity limited. In bowl renovation spots are going fast. There might be some people in the lower bowl affected where their seats were. Might not even exist anymore. At least this season. So there'll be some movement around. So check it out. Go to a Jaguars.com slash tickets called 9046332000. Talk with your representative and get the latest. All right. We are in a free agency zone right now. The Jaguars did try to make another move the other day. They sent an offer sheet to Seahawks receiver Jake Bobo. At five days, the Seahawks did to match it. And they did match it. Two year offer sheet.

11:095.5 million up to 7 million within incentives. According to reports, special teams blocking kind of player. A bucket is going back to Seattle. The Jaguars did what they felt they could and made that offer. But hey, the Seahawks got him back. How does that work? Like, why did that happen that way? Well, he was a restrictive reagent. So the Seattle Seahawks had the opportunity to match whatever deal was put out there. And because you no longer can put poison pills in the contract, it's pretty clean when it comes to a here's the number. Either we want to get up to the number and match it or we don't. They decided that he was such a vital part of their operation as a special teams player, as a backup receiver that they want to retain them. And if you go back, if you talk to people up there, they would say he was so valuable because he pushed everyone around him. Oftentimes, Bobo was so solid as a practice player that he put pressure on DK Meccaff when DK Meccaff was there to practice and perform at that level. There is something too.

12:10And we talked about it going all the way back to when Gladysson and Cohen talked over. They talked about the culture and the program changing organically by the people that you bring in. Well, if you want a team that plays hard and practice hard, what you do is go get a bunch of players that play hard and practice hard. Bobo would have been one of those guys that did that for them. And it would continue to elevate the energy and the vibes in the building because you have another high level competitor with the Jax. Yeah, that Jax was exactly what I heard inside the building. They liked his toughness. It was a move. I got a lot of questions. Why are they trying to wide receiver? Well, because not all levels of wide receiver in terms of putting together roster are created equal. You want a guy in that fourth or fifth receiver role who can play all the special teams because it helps you form a game day roster. And he was a piece that you could bring in and absolutely feel good about your game day roster. Never have to play him on offense unless forced and he's still valuable.

13:13But if you played him on offense, you were fine with it because you could get production. So teams, Bucky, those are the meat and potatoes guys that GMs and coaches love because it makes a Thursday night and Friday morning so much easier in trying to figure out who's going to be up. Yeah, I think the big thing when it comes to special teams. So we're trying to find extra advantages. Liam always talks about finding an edge. Well, one of the edges that a Jaguars can continue to expand on is the special teams area. Being able to dominate the game and special teams to hidden yardage when we talk about flipping fields, the punnix changes, the being able to return kicks and cover kicks really well. Bobo is the guy that can help you in so many different ways. And now it's about finding other guys that can do it. Special teams are the final frontier. If you're going to be a team that we want to be where we're always in the conversation, not only being a playoff contender, but eventually a title contender,

14:14you got to be solid in each of the three areas, offense, defense and special teams. So I would expect us to continue to look at how we can enhance the bottom third of the roster. To make sure we're great in those areas, particularly in the kicking game. It's funny, JP. I had run in right when Friedens was starting. I ran into Heath Farwell, come out of the building and a special teams coordinator. And I joked with him. I said, so they get all your guys because the special teams go to their famous for. They sit there during the draft and Friedens see and they whittle their thumbs because they're not getting anybody for them. And just when they go out and try to get his guy. He goes back the other way, so especially once again, special teams coordinator has to wait by the side. That works. A lot of times in the NFL. Hey, let's wrap today. A bucky, your mock draft 3.0 was released yesterday at about two o'clock. That was on Tuesday. I don't know if you remember it. I know how this operates now. I have to talk to you for a few years now.

15:15Do a second round draft. I mean, the first round is. But the Jaguars don't. Right. I had. So we had somebody we did a show mock draft live that if you're watching on NFL.com, you would have been able to see who we have projected to go to the Jaguars. That would be a Jacob Rodriguez linebacker from Texas Tech. Someone who was a splash play creator. Because of his ability to knock the ball loose on force rumbles, interceptions. We felt like there was a slot right there given Devon Lloyd's departure. Maybe a second round linebacker would be heavy and played for the Jags because it's a really good linebacker class. And it'd be a good fit. He'd be good player. I have a guy from Texas Tech. Jacob Rodriguez. I have a question for the guy who won't mock people in the second round. Um. He's just in his online. The one that I can go find on the website. Yeah, I'm looking at a second round picks or not. No, he goes to 30 32 as if the lead just stops.

16:18Nobody cares if there's no Friday or Saturday. Yeah. So Bucky, um, it does seem like it's a sweet spot in terms of where the Jaguars are picking. Uh, you would think outside linebacker would be logical. It doesn't mean they go that direction. But uh, break down some of the guys where I'd regas to there's a few guys who might be there. Who do you like? Uh, who would you be happiest with if they came out of there with that guy just at linebacker because that seemed, you know, frankly, because we've got four or five more weeks to go as some other positions. Yeah. So when we talk about linebacker, Jacob Rodriguez from Texas Tech is someone that will certainly be there. And the reason why he's appealing to me when I look at him, he looks like a jag in terms of the way that he moves around, the way that he plays, the passion that he exhibits, but more importantly, the playmaking. We can say a lot of things about Devon Lloyd, but you don't turn the ball over five times and debt and leave and not have an impact.

17:18Um, that's felt or create a crater. He does that. He has a knack for getting the ball plays fast. He was a walk at quarterback at times like that speaks to his athleticism and what it can do. But then when you watch him at the combine, the athleticism is matched up with the play. If we're pying the sky, hoping that someone gets there, Anthony Hill from Texas, he could be someone that's in the mix. I don't think he's going to be there, but we talk about hit, running cover, super athletic, 17 sacks during the time of Texas. So he's an awful linebacker who also can get in the mix as an additional pass fresher. You love that if he's available, a realistic possibility. It will be dependent upon how we choose to play him. Jake Golday from Cincinnati, big physical linebacker, 64 to 37. Super athletic started off as it is defended and moved back to off ball linebacker. So he has some versatility that you can tap into. And then the last guy who could be there would be Josiah Trotter from Missouri. And when I think about him, I think of an old school thumper linebacker comes down.

18:21He'll great instincts and awareness. He is kind of slippery as a pass rusher. Second round at the bottom of the second round where we're talking about picking. He could be there. It's a really good class. If you're going to get a linebacker, the second round is kind of the sweet spot where you can find a good one. Let's see if the Jaguars take a swing. Let's see if they can find one. Since we board people at the top with Carolina Blue Talk. We'll throw them a bone here and talk a little more draft. I'm not sure on this show we've really talked about the draft in general. I keep hearing that it's not a great draft. That the draft or NFL types, which Bucky, you're an NFL type. These are tight. Yeah. So that there are some real position groups that people love in 27. And I feel like it's a better draft in 27. Assess that big picture of 30,000 feet.

19:24I would say that the draft is one that is devoid of what we call like headline as a superstar talent. And a lot of that narrative is driven by the quarterbacks of the lack thereof in the class. I would say at the top, you have guys that are splashy and their play, but they play what we call non premium position. So the guys that are being talked about a lot of the top Arville Reese. Offball linebacker who occasionally plays on the edge, sunny styles, offball linebacker plays on the edge, Caleb Nounds. Safety. Don't really get excited about safeties traditionally running back Jeremiah love. So for the guys that have the sizzle when you watch them are non premium positions and of late we've been conditioned to devalue those positions. Even though if you ask coaches, they would say that that is changing because on defense, there's what we call positionless ball where you have a bunch of different hybrids that are playing and moving around like the Seattle Seahawks. So linebackers that have safety flexibility, safeties and corners who can go interchangeably from outside to inside.

20:28Those guys are really, really valued because guys are not changing and substituting. They're just moving people around and everyone looks the same running backs that can catch the ball out the backfield while also being able to grind it 20 to 25 times that value because of the way that we kind of prioritize the positions. Those positions are not getting the love that he typically would get. That's why we don't have the sizzle in the draft because the best players don't play those marquee spots that we always talk about. Are Antonio and Jarian starting to be those kind of guys? Man, like yes, I think so and I think we've seen that right. So last year the Jaguars did a lot of three safety looks with Antonio Johnson on the field or they ran their nickel package with Jarian Jones on the field. What's interesting about those two guys is they both played the nickel roll, but they played it differently. Right. Jarian Jones is on the field as the fifth DB. He's a cover corner. He's a guy they can play in a slap or play out wide. You're anticipating cash.

21:28You want to match up better with the wide receivers. When Antonio Johnson is on the field, he's a safety that can come in the box. He's not afraid of the smoke and dealing with the run game. So you get a different body to match up with tied ends or be a factor. Everyone is now trying to find these guys who can kind of be a Swiss Army knife in various spots. So a lineman that can play on the edge would go inside on passing down linebackers that can play in space and do some things safety that can do that. And the more you can do, it increases the value and it adds more tools to the toolbox for the decordinator. So you're looking for that and the league is in the middle of a I would say a bit of a storm. Sure. Where we're seeing more teams kind of build their teams and defenses like that. It's funny, JP. You and I have talked some fans ask us questions all the time and ask me questions a lot in the other zone. And it always takes four or five years sometimes for the verbiage that people who follow the game ask and is different than the people who are actually coaching and playing it.

22:34These positions people always want to know, well, who's the starting safety? Who's the, you know, there's two of them. That's what are they playing? Are they playing a four three or a three four? And we try to answer questions in that vein because that's the verbiage that the fans and us have learned for 35 years. And that's how we can communicate. But as Buckley said, when you get into talking to the people who are putting guys in the field, sometimes yes, a question about a four three and they gave you sort of a blank look. And it's like, well, I guess I can talk about it for three, but we. Nobody really plays that anymore. So it's interesting how the league transitions ahead of what of how we talk about. It's not madden where you have to hit the button and choose a four three or four or whatever. Yeah, no, it's so blended and that's what makes it really hard. So I do the top five rankings by position for the prospects and people are mad. They were mad JP because what I wrote had edge and outside linebackers.

23:37What posted on Twitter and Instagram was edge and defense event. Right. People are confused like what's the difference between an edge and a defense event this and that. And there is not like that. Like some guys edges to general category, but everyone wants a very clean definition for what a guy plays. And you can't give them that because some were looking at outside linebackers stand up player as a defense event. Others will say, oh, that's an outside linebacker given their system. Some will look at the nickel guy like we talked about Jerry and Jones as a nickel. Others will look at Antonio Johnson as a star. It is just however you want to categorize it. I just know that they're going to be 11 guys on defense and they're going to figure out how to play them somewhere. And we have to be more comfortable knowing that we're going to live in the gray when it comes to labeling what a player is and what he can do. Yeah, Bucky and I as JP knows because he reads them. What do these position by position breakdowns even of the Jaguars and it's sometimes hard because it's.

24:42You know, a Bucky will be talking about defensive line. Well, is defensive line does that include your edge does that include Josh Allen and sometimes he stands up at some time. So it's an interesting when you're trying to break this down. You do not break it down the same way when I was writing and Bucky was playing in 1998. You knew who the defensive ends were. It was Tony Bryant. It was very clear who played what and maybe you'd have a guy kick inside. But it wasn't like now where there's you know fall over the field. Is Antonio Johnson safe to usually but then there's time to where he plays. Yeah, kind of maybe I don't know. It's interesting to try to break down and I'm with you. Fans get frustrated because they'll ask me questions and I always have to start off by saying yes sometimes. But in certain looks this guy might be playing this and if he goes to their team he might be playing this. And I'll get emails back just to answer the question. Well, you can't always just answer a positional question anymore with with a very stock.

25:48You want to go onto the web and you want to be able to get everybody's depth chart. And it just doesn't quite work that way anymore. It doesn't quite work that way because they also changed the numbers. When they started letting D Lyman and people were single digits and all that. Like that was an announcement that the world is completely different as it relates to what positions people play and what labels we can put on them. Guess who didn't like that. I got a funny deal. Me. I know. And should always where I end should always where there's way too much of it. Zero. No, I'm kidding. I actually like I actually like the guys come or zero. That's pretty cool. And I'm even fine with the DB's being in single digits. It took me a year but let the record show that I'm okay with it. I don't even know you anymore, John. So change so much. So Roger just now to call me back.

26:50Bucky we're looking forward to your full seven round mock written mock. You know you're you're still looking forward to it too. You know what I'll do it. I'll release it right after draft weekend. But all out there all seven picks all seven rounds all the picks everything you need. Right after draft weekend. Wow. Give me a Carolina coach before you had a helpful. Who's going to be the coach? I will we just got we just got turned down from Brad Stevens. I would anticipate Ty golden turning us down from Florida. Now we begin into. And does that mean that Florida is a better job than Carolina? Out of the tournament too. Yeah. I mean right now just. I mean they they're throwing money all around. I mean it's a money iron coaches. Like there's a lot of money. You must be donating big money down there. What a different world we're in. He's doing the Florida coach can turn down you. John's don't even see around. There was a time the Florida coach would have walked to Chapel Hill. And I would say that he still should walk to Chapel Hill. Why wouldn't you say that?

27:50If you go on back to those days with Norm Sloan and stuff, he's just still be walking considering spent time at NC State. Like yeah, we can we'll do it. Don't worry about us. We'll be back when he starts pulling out Norm Sloan at NC State references, which I completely relate to. I did not like him. I did not like him. I was not a fan. How could you like him? In like David Thompson going off the backboard. I also did not like him as well. He was not a good fan of any of those guys. All right. All right, gentlemen. Have a great week. Bucky will do it again next week. And what? Next week is owner's meetings, right? It is. Oh, so maybe we'll have some news out of that with rule changes. And maybe Orlando or Gainesville out of the check. Are we going? Are we going to the owner's meetings? We're in Arizona. We're sitting this one out. We are sitting right here in the studio. Oh, that's not fun. I was hoping that maybe we can get another little trip out of that. Are you going?

28:50You're going, right? I would go if you guys are going, but if you guys are going, I'm not going. And we're fine as that. That's a good point. You're back there. Bucky Brookes. John Ozer, I'm JP Shadrick. All right. Thanks, Joe Fortunato, Brent Reiber, our entire crew. And thanks for listening to Huddled Up with Bucky Brookes.