Jacksonville Jaguars Draft Needs & Mock Draft for 2024

As a lead-up to the 2024 NFL draft, we’ve broken down the current depth chart of every NFL team and identified the biggest draft and team needs for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

You can find additional team-by-team draft needs articles and other draft content on our 2024 NFL Draft Hub.

Who Did the Jacksonville Jaguars Select in the 2024 NFL Draft?

The Jacksonville Jaguars selected Brian Thomas Jr. (WR, LSU) with the No. 23 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.

The Jaguars also drafted:

Maason Smith (DT, LSU)
Jarrian Jones (CB, Florida State)
Javon Foster (OT, Missouri)
Jordan Jefferson (DT, LSU)
Deantre Prince (CB, Ole Miss)
Keilan Robinson (RB, Texas)
Cam Little (K, Arkansas)
Myles Cole (EDGE, Texas Tech)

Jacksonville Jaguars Needs: Top Positions of Need in 2024

Cornerback
Offensive Line
Wide Receiver

What Picks Do the Jacksonville Jaguars Have in 2024?

The Jacksonville Jaguars have 8 picks in the 2024 NFL Draft, including:

Round 1 (17)
Round 2 (48)
Round 3 (96)
Round 4 (114)
Round 4 (116)
Round 5 (153)
Round 6 (212)
Round 7 (236)

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Jacksonville Jaguars Draft Capital Stats

Our Sharp Draft Value Rank is a valuation of draft capital based on a combination of average performance delivered and average dollars earned on second contracts.

This is based on two public models: performance delivered based on draft slot (the AV model created by Chase Stuart) and contractual earnings in non-rookie deals based upon draft slot (the OTC model created by Brad Spielberger and Jason Fitzgerald).

Jaguars Sharp Draft Value Rank: 14 of 32 teams
Jaguars AV Model Draft Value Rank: 14 of 32 teams
Jaguars OTC Model Draft Value Rank: 15 of 32 teams

Jacksonville Jaguars Draft Value vs. Other Teams:

The Jaguars’ draft value is 2% lower than the league average of all 32 teams. 13 other teams have more draft value entering the 2024 NFL Draft.

Jacksonville Jaguars Draft Prediction:

Brendan Donahue has the Jaguars selecting Quinyon Mitchell (CB, Toledo) with the 17th overall pick in his most recent 2024 NFL Mock Draft.

Mock draft expert Ryan McCrystal believes the Jaguars could target a cornerback like Kool-Aid McKinstry (CB, Alabama) with their top pick at No. 17 overall in the first round.

Jacksonville Jaguars Strength of Schedule, 2024

The Jacksonville Jaguars have the 14th-easiest NFL strength of schedule for the 2024 NFL season.

Jacksonville Jaguars Offense: Depth Chart, Analysis & Draft Needs

Rich Hribar breaks down the offensive depth chart by position for the Jacksonville Jaguars, identifying areas where the team could improve in the upcoming 2024 NFL Draft.

Quarterback Depth Chart, Jaguars:

Trevor Lawrence
Mac Jones
C.J. Beathard

The Jaguars are in the 11th hour of their window with Trevor Lawrence on a rookie contract.

Lawrence enters the final season of his rookie deal this season.

The Jaguars will pick up Lawrence’s fifth-year option over the next month, which will cost $25.6 million in 2025.

After taking a jump to close the 2022 season, Lawrence and this offense fell apart as the season went on last year.

Lawrence was battered all season, playing through a knee bruise in October, then suffering ankle and shoulder injuries in December, and also sustaining a concussion.

The Jaguars were 8-3 at one point, but a 1-5 collapse ended their season.

Lawrence ended the season 22nd in the league in EPA per dropback (-0.03), completing 65.6% of his passes (14th) for 7.1 yards per pass attempt (16th) with a 3.7% touchdown rate (22nd) and a 2.5% interception rate (25th).

Lawrence had a career-high 12.4% inaccurate throw rate which also coincided with a career-high 8.2 air yards per pass attempt.

The largest issue for Lawrence so far in his early career has been handling pressure.

Since entering the league in 2021, Lawrence has completed just 44.0% of his passes under pressure (34th in the league) for 5.4 yards per pass attempt (29th) and a 4.0% interception rate (33rd).

We are still looking for Lawrence to make a complete jump that overlaps with his pedigree entering the NFL, but he will have a long leash to find that level of play.

With Lawrence in jeopardy of missing multiple weeks last season due to various ailments, the team added Mac Jones as a backup and extra insurance to go along with veteran C.J. Beathard.

Both are only signed for this season unless the Jaguars also want to pick up the fifth-year option on Jones for another cool $25.6 million in 2025.

Running Back Depth Chart, Jaguars:

Travis Etienne
Tank Bigsby
D’Ernest Johnson

The run game was an area of weakness for this offense in 2023.

Jacksonville running backs ranked:

30th in yards per rush (3.5 YPC)
29th in EPA per rush (-0.18)
27th in success rate (32.1%)
29th in the rate of runs to gain 10 or more yards (6.7%)
32nd in rate of runs that failed to gain yardage (24.6%)
25th in the rate of runs that resulted in a first down or touchdown (19.6%)
32nd in yards before contact per rush (0.78)
21st in yards after contact per rush (2.71)

Travis Etienne amassed 1,484 total yards and 12 touchdowns on 325 touches, but his production was more of a result of sheer volume over efficiency.

Etienne was efficient in 2022 with 5.7 yards per touch compared to last season (4.6 yards per touch), so the blame for last year’s decline is not entirely on him.

Out of 49 running backs with 100 or more rushes last season, Etienne was a modest 26th in yards after contact per rush (2.87 yards) but was 40th among those same players in yards before contact per rush (0.91 yards).

In 2022, Etienne averaged 2.02 yards before contact per rush.

Like Lawrence, Etienne is in the final season of his rookie contract.

The team also has the fifth-year option on the table for him, sitting at only $6.1 million for 2025.

Doug Pederson is already out in front again suggesting the team does not want Etienne to handle as much of the workload as he did last season.

Etienne was third among all running backs in touches last season and was second in the NFL in the share of backfield touches (76.1%).

Tank Bigsby was supposed to help Etienne out after he was selected in the third round last spring, but he struggled to find the field as a rookie since nearly all of his snaps ended in disaster.

The Jaguars averaged -0.35 EPA per touch or target that Bigsby received last season.

The only running back with a worse EPA per opportunity with as many chances as Bigsby in 2023 was Dalvin Cook (-0.44).

Bigsby ended the season playing just 12% of the offensive snaps, handling 51 touches for just 2.7 yards per touch.

With the investment put into Bigsby, he will be given a chance to rebound.

D’Ernest Johnson was brought back on a one-year deal.

Wide Receiver Depth Chart, Jaguars:

Christian Kirk
Gabriel Davis
Zay Jones
Devin Duvernay
Parker Washington
Tim Jones
Elijah Cooks

The Jaguars have some moving parts at wide receiver.

Before losing Calvin Ridley in free agency, the team added Gabe Davis, who is reuniting with WRs coach Chad Hall. Hall was the wide receiver coach in Buffalo 2019-2022.

It is not believed that Davis was added as a replacement for Ridley, who was a huge part of their passing game.

Ridley accounted for 22.4% of the Jacksonville targets with a target on 21.2% of his routes run.

Davis has never been a major target earner to that degree.

Over his first four seasons in the NFL, Davis has been targeted on 13.4%, 18.7%, 16.0%, and 14.6% of his routes.

The one area where Davis has been at his best is creating splash plays.

43.5% of his career targets have resulted in a first down or touchdown, which is 12th among wide receivers since entering the league.

Davis has been more of a target earner in the red zone, an area where Ridley leaves a ton of opportunities on the table.

In 2023, Ridley accounted for a league-high 41.3% of the Jacksonville red zone targets.

Ridley had a league-high 52.2% of the team targets that went into the end zone as an extension of those targets.

For his career, Davis has converted 40.0% of his 55 end zone targets for touchdowns.

The only wide receivers with a higher conversion rate with as many targets as Davis over that span are Mike Evans and Davante Adams.

The team can also get Christian Kirk back involved near the end zone.

Kirk only had five red zone targets and four end zone targets last season after seeing 24 red zone targets and 13 end zone targets in 2022.

Kirk missed five games last season but was right on par with 2022 production when he was on the field.

After averaging 4.9 receptions for 65.2 yards per game in 2022, Kirk averaged 4.8 receptions for 65.6 yards per game when available last season.

Kirk is still signed through 2025, carrying cap hits of $24.2 million and $27.2 million over the next two seasons.

Zay Jones is entering the final season of his contract.

Jones had an injury-riddled 2023, missing eight games and leaving another early.

He ended up catching just 34 passes for 321 yards and two touchdowns a year after catching 82 passes for 823 yards and five touchdowns.

Jones has only averaged 10.0 and 9.4 yards per catch for the Jaguars and only is at 10.6 yards per catch for his career.

With Jones in the final season of his contract and the lack of a true WR1 target earner, the Jaguars still have more of a “sum of parts” receiving room.

The depth here is largely non-existent.

Devin Duvernay has been more of a special teams player than a pass catcher. The early signal is that he is a direct replacement for Jamal Agnew, who filled that role on the team as kick returner and fringe contributor at receiver.

This is a team that can add a wide receiver despite the amount they have spent in free agency the past two seasons.

The Jaguars have already used pre-draft visits on Jermaine Burton, Ramel Keyton, Jalen McMillan, and Devontez Walker.

Those visits do not preclude Jacksonville from taking a wide receiver with their front-end draft capital, but I do believe they will aim for the area of the draft where those visitors are likely to land.