With the release of 2017 fourth overall pick Leonard Fournette this week, Tom Coughlin and the Jacksonville front office swallow yet another Top-10 draft pick bust.
It feels like ages ago that the Jacksonville Jaguars were leading the Patriots by 10 late in the 2017 season AFC Championship Game. Since letting that one slip away, Doug Marrone and Co. have continued to be plagued by the organization's inability to translate high draft picks into sustainable production and long tenures in Jacksonville.
Aside from Fournette, Jacksonville has a long history of personnel development issues, primarily on the offensive side of the ball. They struck out with 2014 third overall pick, Blake Bortles, 2013 second overall pick, Luke Joeckel, 2012 fifth overall pick, Justin Blackmon, and 2011 tenth overall pick, Blaine Gabbert.
Additionally, despite assembling a strong defense that has kept the team mildly competitive, the Jags front office has had a tough time retaining most of that talent. After nabbing back-to-back elite defenders in the Top 10 of 2015 and 2016 drafts, they dealt pass rusher Dante Fowler to the Rams in 2018, followed by a fire-sale trade of Jalen Ramsey to L.A. (again) after his involvement in an in-game altercation with head coach Doug Marrone. Finally, this past week the Jaguars sent highly-productive, but disgruntled pass rusher Yannick Ngakoue to Minnesota.
Coughlin and GM Dave Caldwell have made other questionable decisions, like giving stupid money to free agent Nick Foles last offseason and choosing not to throw down the funds needed to retain stud wide receiver Allen Robinson before he became a free agent in the 2018 offseason.
The fact is that Jacksonville has few remaining names lean on and will have to hope for instant growth from youngsters like Gardiner Minshew, Josh Allen and D.J. Chark. Playing in the highly-competitive AFC South puts the Jags at an even greater disadvantage. As has been the case at least a handful of times in the past decade, Jacksonville will be starting from square one in 2020, with a goal of simply sneaking into the postseason rather than building off their near-Super Bowl trip from two Januarys ago.
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