The 2020 NFL Draft starts on Thursday, April 23. As a lead up to the draft, we’ll be giving a team-by-team breakdown for positional needs. For each team, we’ll give an overview of each team’s current depth chart and how big of a need each position in the upcoming draft.

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Jacksonville Jaguars 2020 Draft Picks Overview

Round 1 (9)
Round 1 (20)
Round 2 (42)
Round 3 (73)
Round 4 (116)
Round 4 (118)
Round 4 (140)
Round 5 (165)
Round 5 (170)
Round 6 (189)
Round 6 (206)
Round 7 (223)

Jacksonville Jaguars Offense

by Rich Hribar

2019 Jacksonville Jaguars Offensive Ranks

*denotes new addition

Quarterback

Gardner Minshew
Joshua Dobbs

Gardner Minshew was as successful as a rookie sixth-rounder as you could hope for, but still enough of an overall mixed bag to provide just enough doubt that he’s actually the answer for the Jaguars’ future at the position.

Minshew threw 21 touchdown passes to just six interceptions on 556 dropbacks, but completed 60.6% of his passes while his expected completion percentage was 65.8% per NFL Next Gen Stats. That -5.2% mark trailed only David Blough for all passers a year ago. His 7.9-yard average depth of target ranked 28th while his 7.0 yards per pass attempt ranked 23rd for all passers with four or more starts on the season. 

The Jaguars shipped Nick Foles off this spring to the Bears, while they failed to pursue any veteran passers to take his place. Minshew has an immediate leg in being the starting quarterback for Week 1, and the team may just give him all of the 2020 season given the state of their entire roster, but the Jaguars still are a strong bet to add another player to this shallow depth chart, via the draft or a veteran afterward. The team has so many holes and so many draft picks that they are a wild card to add any position. 

Running back

Leonard Fournette
Ryquell Armstead
Devine Ozigbo
Jeremy McNichols
Taj McGowan

The Jacksonville backfield is led by Leonard Fournette, who was a workhorse in every way during the 2019 season. Fournette handled 85.8% of the Jacksonville running back carries and 84.8% of the backfield touches. Despite sitting out Week 17, those rates of usage trailed only Christian McCaffrey at the position. Fournette enters 2020 on the final season of his rookie contract with the fifth-year option for 2020 still in play. The team could be looking to add to their depth given the intersection of Fournette’s career-high 341 touches, final season of his contract, and career injury history.

His receiving role and functionality may not be safe as well. Fournette set a career-high with 76 catches and 100 targets, but did so with only 6.9 yards per catch and had 19 total air yards all season on those targets. The Jaguars could add a back to given them more passing game appeal given Jay Gruden’s propensity to pass the football and the team expected to be trialing often. Last year’s fifth-round pick (140th overall) Ryquell Armstead found the field for 150 snaps, earning just 49 touches. 

Wide receiver

D.J. Chark
Dede Westbrook
Chris Conley
Keelan Cole
Charone Peake
Michael Walker
Terry Godwin
C.J. Board

The Jaguars found their potential leading man a year ago with D.J. Chark breaking out (73-1,008-8) in his second season. His immediate future is locked in, but the rest of the depth here is more of a mystery.  

Dede Westbrook is in the final season of his rookie contract while struggling to become the explosive playmaker that he was in college, when he won the Biletnikoff Award for the best wide receiver in college in 2016. Westbrook has been pushed into a slot role at the NFL level, averaging just 6.8 yards per target through his first three seasons. 

Chris Conley set career-highs in his first season in Jacksonville with 47 catches and 775 receiving yards. He is also under contract just for the 2020 season while averaging fewer than 3.0 receptions per game over his first five seasons. Keelan Cole is also in the final year of his contract. After a 42-748-3 line as a rookie, Cole has had seasonal lines of 38-491-1 and 24-361-3 following that promising rookie output. 

Tight End

Tyler Eifert*
Josh Oliver
James O’Shaughnessy
Charles Jones

Seven different tight ends found the field for the Jaguars in 2019 with the group posting a collective 57 catches for 496 yards and three touchdowns on 83 targets. With that, the team went out and added Tyler Eifert. Eifert appeared in all 16 games in 2019 for the first time in his career. He turns 30-years-old this September coming off a 43-436-3 season. 

Last season, the Jaguars used the 69th overall pick on Josh Oliver. The third-round rookie managed to play just four games (117 snaps) during his first season dealing with back and hamstring injuries. The team also has James O’Shaughnessy as depth, who played 207 snaps and led their position with 14 catches for 153 yards a year ago. None of those players individually are good enough to make a team ignore the tight end position, but given Eifert’s signing and Oliver still in his second year following a solid draft investment, the Jaguars are signaling early that they intend not to press the issue early on in this draft. 

Offensive Line

LT: Cam Robinson/Blake Hance
LG: Andrew Norwell/Tyler Shatley
C: Brandon Linder
RG: A.J. Cann/Will Richardson/KC McDermott
RT: Jawaan Taylor/Ryan Pope/Donnell Greene

The Jaguars ranked middle of the pack in both pass pro efficiency (16th) while ranking 16th in adjusted sack rate (7.0%). Where they struggled was in the run game, ranking 27th in adjusted line yards (3.88) per Football Outsiders and 23rd as a collective run-blocking grade per Pro Football Focus. Their only positive grade per PFF in the run game went to Brandon Linder, who is safely under contract through 2022 despite not carrying any dead money over the next three seasons. 

The Jaguars gave big money to Andrew Norwell in the 2018 offseason and he still has three years left on his deal with cap hits of $14.5M ($9M dead), $15M ($6M), and $16M ($3M) over those seasons. A.J. Cann (two years remaining), last year’s 35th overall pick Jawaan Taylor and Cam Robinson all are on their rookie contracts with Robinson expiring at the end of this season. The former 34th overall pick has yet to play a full season through three years while ranking 78th out of 81 qualifying tackles in 2019 at Pro Football Focus.

Jacksonville Jaguars Defense

by Dan Pizzuta

2019 Jacksonville Jaguars Defensive Ranks

interior defensive line

Taven Bryan
Abry Jones
Rodney Gunter*
Dontavius Russell

The loss of Calais Campbell will be felt across the entire defensive line, but 2018 first-round pick Taven Bryan had an impressive sophomore campaign as a pass rusher with a 9.72% pressure rate that ranked fourth behind Aaron Donald, Chris Jones, and Javon Hargrave among defensive tackles with at least 100 pass rushes. There’s little of note behind Bryan. That doesn’t mean the Jaguars should go all out to fill the interior (they’re rumored to have interest in Auburn iDL Derrick Brown) since a Bryan/Jones duo could be more than passable with some added depth behind it.

EDGE

Yannick Ngakoue
Josh Allen
Dawuane Smoot
Al Woods
Lerente McCray

All of this hinges on whether Yannick Ngakoue will be on the team for the 2020 season and beyond. Ngakoue was offered the franchise tag but has not signed his and has made his desire to move on from Jacksonville well known. Josh Allen had an impressive rookie season and there is still room to grow. Without Ngakoue this position is a big need for the Jaguars and even with him, it should be time to add to the rotation for the future.

Off-ball Linebacker

Myles Jack
Joe Schobert*
Leon Jacobs
Quincy Williams
Joe Giles-Harris

With Myles Jack and free agent signing Joe Schobert, the Jaguars rival the Cowboys with the most investment in off-ball linebacker. Jack signed a huge extension a year ago but took a huge step back in play during the 2019 season. He’s cuttable after 2020 with nearly $5 million in cap savings, but with so many other needs on the defense, it’s more likely the Jaguars will allow that to play out before potentially addressing a permanent falloff early.

Cornerback

DJ Hayden
Rashaan Melvin*
Tre Herndon
Parry Nickerson

At this time last season, the starting cornerback duo was Jalen Ramsey and A.J. Bouye. This is not that. D.J. Hayden was a standout last season in the slot (10th in Adjusted Yards allowed per coverage snap among corners with 100+ snaps) but he might have to take on more responsibility in 2020. Rashaan Melvin was a bottom-tier corner with the Lions last season but is expected to be a starter, as is Tre Herndon, who was slightly below average in his first season as a starter. This, to put it bluntly, is a need.

Safety

Ronnie Harrison
Jarrod Wilson
Andrew Wingard
Doug Middleton
Josh Jones*

Jarrod Wilson played admirably for a fourth-year undrafted free agent who was pushed into his first starting role in 2019. Ronnie Harrison also showed some promise in his third season. Still, the Jaguars were among the worst teams defending the deep ball (23rd in DVOA) and there’s little to no depth behind the penciled-in starters. This should be another position targeted within the first two days of the draft.