After acquiring Jessie Bates and Davon Godchaux on Monday, the Jacksonville Jaguars made the blockbuster trade for Eagles' defensive tackle Jordan Davis.
To land Davis, the Jaguars had to part with a 2027 first-round pick and a 2029 second-round selection.
ESPN's Seth Walder is not a fan of this trade whatsoever. In fact, he gave the Jaguars an 'F' grade, citing the huge price that Jacksonville paid for Davis, among other factors.
However, SI's NFL insider Albert Breer recently provided some insight as to why the Jaguars were willing to trade away two premium draft picks for Davis.
As Breer notes, some teams wouldn't have given up a first-round pick for Davis, viewing him as a two-down run-stuffer. But the Jaguars believe he can get after the quarterback
as well, particularly in Anthony Campanile's defensive scheme.
"Other schemes, likely Philly’s, play d-tackles to attack-and-react," Breer wrote, "Campanile teaches his interior guys, like Hamilton, to react-then-attack, which requires bigger players to be stout at the point of attack. In that way, Davis was actually a better fit than Ojomo for a front built to have a run-stopping superpower, that creates bad down-and-distance situations for its opponents."
Another reason that the Jaguars were comfortable making this trade is that Jacksonville sees the defensive tackle position as one where players don't enter their primes until later in their respective careers.
In the Jaguars' eyes, Davis' best football is still ahead of him, and compared to drafting a defensive tackle in the first round, Davis will be better suited to make a quicker and greater impact in the coming years.
"So in their view, Davis, who doesn’t turn 27 until January, is just on the front end of his best years as a pro," wrote Breer. "And with a looming 2027 need at defensive tackle, drafting one in the first round would probably have meant having to develop that player for a few years before getting the production Davis, who’s signed through 2029, could give them right away."
Lastly, the Jaguars like where their roster of core players is at, and will continue to leverage the compensatory pick formula to rebuild their overall draft capital.
"They’ll also have comp picks to fill in the blanks—which was central to the strategy that Coen and Gladstone saw the Rams execute over the years, one that valued volume of picks through gaming the comp-pick formula," added Breer.
The Jaguars' roster-building moves under Gladstone often seem to be critiqued by some on the outside, but Jacksonville has a unique and bold approach that they trust, and through the first 18-ish months of Gladstone's tenure, it's hard to argue with the on-field results.
This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: Insider details why Jaguars paid big price tag for Jordan Davis trade
