RELAX: Jacksonville Jaguars GM James Gladstone Faces UNHINGED Backlash Despite 15 Wins

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1:03Click ranger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. There's been a lot of second guessing of Jaguars GM James Glass Stone. I'll tell you why I think it's happening, and I'll tell you why it's a little unhinged here, unlocked on Jaguars. You are locked on Jaguars. Your daily Jacksonville Jaguars podcast. Part of the locked on podcast network. Your team every day. Going on good people, I'm Tony Wiggins, the host of the locked on Jaguars podcast. Make sure to follow and listen, oh, going Amazon music, so you never miss an episode. All right, an episode like the one I'm about to do right now. Let me tell you where we're going. Patience is needed. In the middle of the show, the philosophy. What am I talking about? Patience and philosophy. We about to start to show them. I'll tell you the second guessing of GM James Glass Stone is unhinged.

2:05Why do I feel that way? Well, because first of all, he's being criticized, roundly criticized about his draft classes, even when he does something that people claim he's not doing. Whether James Glass Stone moves up into the draft to take Travis Hunter, the most talented player in that particular draft, Hyasmotropy winner, all of that stuff. Or he drives people that you've never heard of or the consensus board people have never heard of. And there's always somebody that thinks he's done something wrong. Or that for somehow I saw somebody that I respect immensely. They said James Glass Stone is going to eventually pay for his sins. He's also criticized about the things he's done in free agency. Even though there are some people that believe that even the 2025 draft, the 2025 draft was

3:06a bit of a wash. And now that Mason Graham has four sacks for the Cleveland Browns through the first three games. And the Jaguar's biggest need appears to still be interior defensive line, in particular a three technique. And Devon Lloyd was an all pro last year. And then in the second week, he had maybe the statistically best grades aligned back and could probably have, not to mention they got 59 points put on him the first week. Yeah, you get the point. The point is he's damned if he does and he's damned if he doesn't. He traded up and took a player that everyone in the whole world knew in Travis Hunter. And he got criticized. And then he didn't move and only had a second round pick because of that trade. And then he took a tight end who's played, probably outplayed all rookies and snaps so far. And he got criticized. But the Jacksonville Jaguars have won 15 of the 20 games that they played since James Glass

4:11Stone has been here. So that leads me to come on this show today and tell everybody they need to relax. You got to wait. You got to be patient. You can't tell if a draft is good the year it happened. You can't tell if a draft is good the year after it happens. And you probably can't really tell if a draft is good unless you're the Minnesota Vikings and you have JJ McCarthy who you just traded away for a bag of chips. Two years after the draft is done. The goal here to all my mini GMs out there and I say that with the utmost affection. Because that's what people have turned into. I keep getting emails or text not really emails but DMs and all of that stuff. And I'll never call anybody out for it. Let me tell you all right now. I'm a very interactive person when it comes to the Jacksonville Jaguars because I appreciate the every day I listen to this show and people that actually value my opinion.

5:13So sometimes even if it sounds like I'm telling you you sound crazy, I don't really mean it that way. I'm not telling you you're sounding crazy. I'm telling y'all but sometimes you don't see it. So sometimes when I quote you and I put it up there, it's not because I'm singling you out. In fact, it's the opposite. I'm trying to basically answer a well-written response to what I'm responding to is also a legitimate question but I say it in a way that the 50 other people that keep asking me the same thing. I say it in a way for them to get the answer that they need to because the questions always come sort of in a different form but in the same manner. So we're going to break this down a little bit. And then in the second segment, I'm going to show you the philosophy that they have and why they have it and why it absolutely makes no sense for us to keep arguing and going back and forth with some of the things that we argue and go back and forth about. And maybe it'll make sense to everyone else too when they realize that this is how they're

6:18doing business and why they're doing business and it's something that they're doing a practice I believe their practice is something that I actually believe with. And it's something that they preached about on to the next. No matter if it's good or bad, you got to keep moving on. I'll hit that philosophy in just a second. But first we got to just look at those drafts that we've been discussing. One I ain't going to hit on free agency this off season because last off season that look man, they came in here and they were just like look, we're a devoid of talent. Tony Bacelli who had been in the building in another capacity was now in the decision-making capacity. Therefore he flat out told them we need offensive linemen and we ain't going to be able to fix it in the day. So they drafted white, myelam and they drafted Jonah Monheim and then they signed four guys in the off season and one of them in a being traded away. So they ended up with five new offensive linemen. And then they went back this year and they got another offensive lineman on day two. There's a lot of people who still want that to move even faster. I think next year you'll see the Jacksonville Jaguars at least with the names, the people

7:22on their roster that will shoulder most of the load on the offensive line moving forward. I don't think you can turn it over especially when you inherit a situation where guys are going to be free agents like co-van Lantern and guys had just signed their new deals like Walker Little. That was a deal that the first year to deal was the first year to Jaguars were here. As a Cleveland will still here in the contract Sean, Sean Sarrad had a lot of familiar area with him from Minnesota and he's a good player. You don't get really good players especially in a position that you're struggling with, right? But last year they took Travis Hunter and Caleb Randson. Both of those guys seasons ended. Randson's never got started out of training camp. So you got to give them a while to get Travis, Travis made a big impact in the game this week and he was making an impact last year. So that's definitely not a bust. You can argue position of value all you want but then I'll ask you what position are you talking about because he plays too. And that may not make a lot of sense to a lot of people that's fine.

8:23This is what they chose to do so we got to let it play out. And we ain't going to sit here every week and mitigate the fact that they did something that you didn't think was smart because that's basically what this comes down to, right? You look at the rest of the picks. Wyatt Milam has them played a whole bunch starting to get on the field a little bit more in these situations. Basel Tutten was definitely a home run. Running back one. He's one of the better running backs in the AFC right now. Jack Kaiser got hurt in the year that he was supposed to be trying to make a difference. Jayla McLeod has been active in these games as of late. He's a special teams player. Rayon Lane has been a rotational player with the safety. Jonah Monheim is absolutely your backup center who can also play guard and right tackle. And Lequent Allen is your third down back who's your best patch protector. That doesn't sound like a bus to me. We look at this year's draft Nate Borkertje. I would venture to say he might lead all rookies and snaps. He definitely has had a quiet impact.

9:25And that's the problem. People think a guy who's picked that high, his impact should be a little bit louder. That's not the way this works, not around here. But Regis was their second pick who was picked in the third round. And this is mainly for the people who don't really understand it. We try to break this down. His impact is always going to be minimal because he's a nose tackle by trade. Look no further than Devon Hamilton. Everybody doesn't think it's not everybody. But a lot of people, I get a lot of text and I get a lot of DMs about who's very, very good. Emmanuel Pregnon, I think is a future star. He's looked like it. He's not a Husky. Has not cracked. He hasn't been active yet. That's a deep position. I think Husky was a position that they wanted to round out their room and have him here for the future. Wesley Williams. We can talk about that because Wesley Williams has kind of been usurped a little bit by the other Brian Thomas Jr. As well as Zach Durphy when he comes back. But he's a different type of player again. He's more of a run stuffer who fits the mold of everything that the Jaguars want to

10:29end up doing. But I will admit that that's one that hasn't shown up yet. Tana Cosio. He's shown up. He was active the other day and we know his future. Josh Cameron has been a home run. Some people think he's already a third-wide receiver on this team and I wouldn't disagree with them and it's disguised the limit with that. And CJ Williams showed a lot. Zach Durphy's been banged up. Parker Hughes got injured also. So these drafts are not a wash. And I know you said, I told you you can't grade them. No, we're not grading them. We're just saying that you can't grade them yet. And there's no way that you think the trajectory of this draft is that those two drafts is that James Glassstone is somehow bad. The philosophy is on to the next play. On to the next player. On to the next acquisition. On to the next. And it doesn't matter how it would have turned out. That's why I want to tell you all about that in just a second year on Locked On. All right. Today, she'll sponsor the brought to you by prize picks.

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12:32the NFL to get $150 instantly in lineups. If you win your first $5 line up prize picks, run your game. And today's show is sponsored and brought to you by home chef with schedules getting busier and everyone getting back into their normal routines, figuring out what's for dinner can be a daily headache. Home chef makes cooking simple with fresh food delivered right to your door, easy recipes to follow in meals that actually tastes good. Weekly deliveries help eliminate the meal planning, grocery runs, complicated prep, and even a lot of the cleanup. And with more than 30 meat options every week, there are choices for different tastes and different dietary needs, including 30 minute meals and oven ready. Options for fall season is hard for media people, man. When I ask people to fill some for us, but we're just trying to tell you, time is of the essence. And home chef helps me out all the time. For a limited time, home chef is offering my listeners 50% off and free shipping for your

13:34first box plus free dessert for life. Go to home chef.com slash locked on NFL. That's home chef.com slash locked on NFL for 50% off your first box and free dessert for life. And that's home chef.com slash locked on NFL must be an active subscriber to receive that free dessert. All right, let's keep you moving here and locked on Jaguars on hump day as we get ready for the Jaguars to go on the road to play the Cincinnati Bengals will be right here for you because it is your team every day. We thank you for making us your first listen. I'm Tony Wiggins, host of the locked on Jaguars podcast. I've been covering this team in the media for over two decades now. So I kind of gotten used to things. I've kind of gotten used to fans and I've kind of gotten used to the panic, but I also know what it comes from and where it stems from. And that is because this team is given people a lot of reasons to have anxiety over the years. I keep trying to tell folks this new regime is this new is a new regime.

14:36It is it is all new. It is not something to take lightly. One of the new pieces of James Glassstone. James Glassstone came from the Rams where they sort of had a philosophy and I can't remember where I heard this from either Lesney or James Glassstone or someone who was describing the dynamic of the Rams organization. And that is this and this is not to constantly keep comparing this to that, but we do it with coaches when we talk about their tree. So I'm going to do this. That's where he learned all of his tricks. So I know the Rams are the F.D.P.S. type school type organization where it seems like they trade their first round picks for sure things. They're in a little bit different category. The Jaguars were not that team when James Glassstone got here. So I don't consider the Travis Hunter trade anything more than they just love Travis Hunter as a talent, as a player, wanted that work ethic and wanted his twitchiness in the building and that's what they got. And it looked really, really good until they got hurt last year and then it's looked good

15:37now that he's come back with just a little bit of impatient. And that's where some of this unhinged stuff comes from. So the philosophy that I heard them speak on is this. If we disagree on a player, once we make a decision and once we make a decision on where we're going, it does not matter to us. We never look back and say, okay, that guy would have worked here or we made a mistake. We never, they never do that. So the constant and the fans aren't doing it so much to them, but sometimes I consider me an intermediary here when like what's really going on and what is the consciousness and what the fans are thinking and what the fans are talking about. It's kind of like being in a barber shop. This is the way I've been for 30 some odd years where the barber is the dude that's going to stand there and calm everybody down and tell the truth. But you're doing it because you know these people are only in there for 30 to 45 minutes at a time. So you got to kind of, and then you regurgitate the same stories because a customer coming

16:39in an hour later, he wants to know the same thing. By the time a customer comes in two hours after that, the other barbers in there have heard it so much, they've caught them off and they'll start telling their people what it is that I said. So I'll say this loud and proud today because a lot of people have been listening to the show and watching the show lately and I absolutely appreciate it. It is hard and difficult for me to continue, but I'll continue to do it to talk about eight and a hundred. It's hard for me to talk about Mason Graham. I don't know who, a hundred something was before. Hudson and Trayvon was before then. I don't know who they would have picked. I'm thinking that from what I heard and I tried to tie everything together, I was even asked by somebody in the building, okay, who would you take? I said, if I had to stay at five, I'd take genty. I heard that's what they were thinking about doing. It was either genty or Teteroroic Miller. It wasn't going to be Mason Graham. And even if it was, it wasn't.

17:42They don't regret drafting Travis Hunter. They don't regret trading that first pick. You know how I know that? Because they, their philosophy is they don't revisit stuff like that. They don't think about what they didn't do. It's water under the bridge. What's that going to do for us now? Oh, I know somebody's going to say, oh, you can learn a lesson. Learn what lesson? You knew exactly why you did it. They were thought out. Remember when I, when everybody was talking about consensus board, I say, well, they got their own consensus with their own 50 people in the building. Those folks, if you watch on social media, they go through every single scenario to come to a conclusion. Once they come to that conclusion and they're able to exercise it, it is done. They're not looking backwards. It's next play, next player, next acquisition. We ain't talking about guys that show up faster. We talk about the dudes that are best for the Jaguar.

18:43This year's Grayson Holtman. Yeah, I liked him. And I peacocked about it. But the reason why I did that is because I'd like to say I would have been right, even if they were to chose him. So at least the dude I was begging him to pick, unlike that nose tackle from Michigan a couple of years ago that everybody wanted them to take and move on from Devon Hamilton. I was one of them, but I was moving on from a Devon Hamilton that was coming off of an illness that did not allow him to play well. And I knew how valuable that position was. And I didn't know that he was going to be able to get it together before his contract was up. But he has. I don't sit here and tell you how wrong I was about that. Letting Devon Lloyd go. And then he goes and does what he did in week two and has a statistical game for a linebacker that's so good that everybody just talked about it. And here comes everybody else pointing the finger. Yeah, look at that. Look at what? They paid him $13 million.

19:44The Jaguar's ain't paying his replacement venture a mill of that kind of money. And guess who's the number one ranked linebacker in the lead through the metrics of true media and PFL? Then trail Miller. Guess what the take tells them about that decision? That they're satisfied with where they are. Y'all keep talking about give the ball to Basial Tutton, but they're all the same people that keep telling him that they should have kept Travis H.A.N. at $13 million. Which one is it? This is why we can't do this. This is why we can't do this. Once it's done, it's done. You got to see it for what it is. I'm not living in a retroactive hypothetical La La land. What I do this every single day. Somebody asked me, do you think they regret not signing Parker Washington in the preseason because Parker Washington has now really proven that what his value is? What do you mean regret? If they want to resign him, they'll still resign him. What do you think the price went up? Did you think or hope that they didn't want the price to go up?

20:47You think they hoped and didn't want Parker Washington to be with you? Go listen to where he far well. The special teams coach said he's going to lead us and catches this year. Go listen where Liam Cohen has said repeatedly. I want these guys to get everything coming to him. It's a negotiation, man. Whatever he's going to get now, even if it's more, they'd be more than happy to give it to him because they waited on the river and they saw the card. And now it's substantiated exactly what they were doing it for. Make it too much of it, man. You got to be patient and you got to not want to be right all the time. Tell you why that's important. Just a second here on Lockdown Jaguar. This message is a paid partnership with Apple Card. One of my favorite parts of game day is everything leading up to it. Putting the house ready for a watch party, putting on my favorite team, hoodie and making one last run to the store before a kickoff. You know the routine.

21:48And with my Apple Card, I can earn up the 3% unlimited daily cashback on every purchase I make with Apple Card using Apple Pay. Not a month from now, but every day. Apply in the wallet app on your iPhone today, subject to credit approval. Issue by Goldman Sachs Bank, USA Salt Lake City branch terms and more at Apple Card dot com. And today's show is sponsored and brought to you by game day, men's health, the quiz on your phone and a box at your door. Well, man, that's not a clinic. When it comes to men's health, things like energy, sleep, drive and how you feel day to day deserve more than just a question there. Game day, men's health is a real in person men's health clinic with more than 430 locations across the US and Canada. Men meet face to face with the licensed clinician, get labs drawn in the office and receive initial results in as little as 15 minutes. Game day looks at the full picture, your symptoms, your habits, your lab results before developing

22:50a treatment plan. And because they continue testing and evaluating care can be adjusted over time based on your personal data. Listen, man, a number on a lab port doesn't tell the entire story. Game day looks at the blood work alongside, but how you're actually feeling. Then a licensed clinician can build a plan around that information rather than just sitting around and guessing. Book your complimentary test and consult at game day men's health dot com. It's one word game day men's health dot com. All right. Thank you for joining me on locked on Jaguars here on a Wednesday getting ready for a weekend game up in Cincinnati with Cincinnati Bengals. If you are traveling, be careful, be safe, enjoy yourself, cheer those Jaguars on as much as possible. I think the Jags will be fine this weekend, not because of anything currently going on. It's just that it seems like Trevor Lawrence has always played pretty well up in Cincinnati.

23:51All they fell short, both the last two games, the last two times they've been up there the games come down basically to the last beta game. So let's just hope that it comes out this way in a good way for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Patients is needed when it comes to grading the general manager. You know, everybody out here, I got people asking me like before the game last week, what do you think we get for Brian Thomas Jr. Don't know. I got some people that believe that Jaguars bungled it because they didn't move on. But in the off season from Brian Thomas Jr. when people think that they could have got a first round pick for him, I got in the first round pick for him. And now people are like, what do you get? I was jokingly told somebody a day three pick. I don't think that's the case. But it's probably a day two pick at this point, if they're going to move them. But I just don't understand the thirst to move guys while you're trying to win something.

24:52Whatever you're going to get. And I keep hearing this ridiculous offer. You know what? I'm calling it ridiculous right now. But if they do it, I'll come on here and I'll call the Jaguars ridiculous for doing it. Trade Brian Thomas Jr. Straight up from Arvin Harrison Jr. Why you get rid of it? If they think Brian Thomas Jr. is a problem, why would you trade for another problem? I just rather get the draft choice. It ain't like you need if you go ahead and re-ink park a Washington, you got Jacoby Myers and you still got Travis Hunter playing both ways. You got CJ Williams. I just told you about Josh Cameron. Why would you go get another Y receiver? And he's making first round money. So there's a little bit of swap out with that. Why would you do it? And he's making top five pick money. Why? What do you hope he does? All of a sudden become the guy that they picked him to be and he's your number one. Well, what about Parker? What about the guys that you have? I don't understand why you do it. Not that at all.

25:55And you never know. Maybe they didn't have Marvin Harrison Jr. ranked that high. They're very, very good at evaluating Y receivers. Maybe they didn't like him. So folks keep asking me about stuff like I don't know, man. I have no idea. I'd rather just wait until they do things and then just spend all of my time trying to explain the ins and outs and the nuances and the idiosyncrasies of why that thing happened as opposed to living in this LLL land of hypotheticals. I just it just doesn't make sense. So the reason why I'm saying this today is man, look at where you are. Look at where your feet are. You want to see some pain. Go listen to the Titans and the Texans right now. The Jaguars are two and one. Look extremely consistent. Got everybody thinking that they're a really good football team. They've really done a nice job of turning teams over protecting the football on their own, putting the football, stopping the run. I want all hands on deck. Even if those hands are Brian Thomas Jr's hands and it seems like they don't work.

26:57It doesn't matter. Keep refining him. One of the things that coaches do coaches. I said I personally will believe Brian Thomas Jr will be good again when I see it because I keep, but that's not their job. Their job is to keep pushing and to keep prodding and to keep bringing them along. That's what somebody did with Sam Donald. He won the Super Bowl last year. That's what somebody did to a bunch of players, right? It happens. They didn't give up on Parker Washington based on where he was drafted. You just let him keep going. They didn't give up on Vintral Miller because he was hurt and banged up a lot when he came into the league. You just got to keep going. Those people operate in a whole different plane. So when folks ask me what they should do, I have to try to think about how they do their job as best as I can do it. Even though I don't do it every single day, but I try to use the tendencies that they have and the things and it's hard to get a beat on that with the Jaguars because this staff

28:00hasn't been here very long and they got their own little spin on it. Like I said, this ain't all the ramps. This is Liam, Tony and James Gladstone doing it their way with their coaches. I think we all just need to be a little bit patient. And the one reason you can be patient as opposed to in the past because they've actually won 15 out of 20 games. You won 75% of their games since these guys have been here. Trust them. They ain't giving you a reason not to. But if you sit and tell me that for any reason that the reason you don't trust them is because your heart was broken in 1999 or 2017, even 2021 or 22. I tell you the problem ain't me, the problem ain't the podcast, the problem ain't what they're doing. It might be you.

29:00You might need to get out your own way. That's probably what you got to do, man. And just enjoy what it is. And if you don't believe me, go listen to Tyler Roland shorts and go listen to John Hickman shorts from Locked on Titans and Locked on Texans. You can even listen to the coach shorts. Those are the teens that's in your position. They got locked on hit, locked on hit for a coach, Texans and Titans. Sometimes if what your team isn't doing enough, if that's not enough to get rid of that anxiety, every now and then you got to look at your enemies. I want you to go listen and watch those people and tell me that y'all shouldn't just relax and chill and just enjoy this ride that goes to Cincinnati this week. And I think they're going to win that game too. We'll have a crossover with Jake Liskow from Locked on Bingo since it's a great podcast by the way. I envy those dudes. I try to do this as good as they do it. We're going to have done the mar here. We're going to give you all the big keys about the matchups and everything else. Until then, man, y'all take care. Y'all know what it is here on Locked on Jaguar.

30:03We don't take you for granted and we appreciate your trust with us. Trying to make you a smarter fan. We'll see you later.