Opinion As they remove more young building blocks, Jaguars veer further

The Jacksonville Jaguars’ mind-bending purge of talent continues with the exits of two more young franchise cornerstones just two weeks before the start of the 2020 season. Jacksonville agreed on Sunday to trade top pass-rusher Yannick Ngakoue to the Minnesota Vikings. Twenty-four hours later, the team waived leading running back Leonard Fournette. And once again, we’re left questioning the direction of what once looked like a promising young franchise. The Jaguars’ fortunes have changed so drastically, and it remains unclear where their decision-makers intend to steer them. It’s hard to believe that not even three full years ago, the Jaguars found themselves minutes away from reaching their first Super Bowl. After riding a vaunted defense to a 10-6 campaign and the conference championship game, Jacksonville led the New England Patriots for the better part of the contest before falling short 24-20, surrendering a game-deciding touchdown with less than three minutes left. The two seasons that have followed featured loss totals of 11 and 10, respectively. And with management having either traded or cut some of the most prominent contributors to that 2017 squad’s success — Ngakoue, Fournette, cornerback Jalen Ramsey and defense end Calais Campbell, among others — in the last 10 months, a rebound in 2020 seems virtually impossible. Jacksonville instead appears poised to contend for the No. 1 pick in next year’s draft. This isn’t to say that Jaguars brass is indeed intent on “tanking for Trevor” — working to give themselves the best possible chance of landing prized Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence. That would require a clear, decisive vision, and ever since that AFC championship collapse, the Jaguars haven’t demonstrated they possess that. They have made one miscalculation and counterproductive move after another. Displays of dysfunction have mounted just as heavily as have losses. The rampant missteps cost executive vice president Tom Coughlin his job last December. Jaguars owner Shad Khan opted to give general manager David Caldwell and coach Doug Marrone additional time to turn things around. But the exodus of talent has continued as neither has managed to resolve the conflicts with Ngakoue or Fournette adequately enough to keep them in the fold. So averse to spending another season in Jacksonville, Ngakoue agreed to roughly a $5 million pay cut to play for Minnesota rather than earn around $17 million on the franchise tag with the Jaguars. With little leverage, Jacksonville received second- and conditional fifth-round picks for Ngakoue. According to Marrone, the team couldn’t find a taker for Fournette, the No. 4 overall pick of the 2017 draft and a 1,000-yard rusher in two of the last three seasons.''We couldn't get anything -- a fifth, a sixth, anything. We couldn't get anything,” the coach said at a Monday news conference . “At the end of the day, I’ve got to be able to field a team that gives us the best chance to win.

All data is taken from the source: http://usatoday.com
Article Link: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/columnist/mike-jones/2020/08/31/leonard-fournette-jacksonville-jaguars-waived-doug-marrone-roster/3449283001/

#jaguars #newsoftheday #newsworldfox #newstodayusa #newstodayinusa #newstodaydonaldtrump #