The Jacksonville Jaguars are going for it. You can't pull off three trades in a single day in November and not be going for it. The Jaguars are going for it as much as any NFL team has gone for it in quite some time.
Just like Luke said to Lorelai when they started dating on Gilmore Girls, the Jaguars are in. They are all in. Jacksonville general manager James Gladstone saw his Los Angeles Rams mentor Les Snead's "forget those picks" approach and said, "Hold my in-stadium pool."
The Jaguars once traded a great defensive player in cornerback Jalen Ramsey to the Rams for that team's all-in Super Bowl approach. Gladstone has brought that reckless abandon to Duval. Will it work like it did for L.A.?
Just in a single business day, the Jaguars added
safety Jessie Bates III and defensive tackles Jordan Davis and Davon Godchaux. The price for all of those moves? A 2027 first rounder, a 2027 second rounder, a 2028 fifth rounder and a sixth rounder that will either become due in 2027 or 2028. That's... obviously quite expensive! Bates should provide elite ballhawking skills on the backend with sound coverage; Davis and Godchaux should fortify the Jaguars' run defense as a genuine strength going into January. Football-wise, you get the appeal for all three moves.
This pre-NFL deadline splurge isn't spent in vain; the Jaguars are one of the best teams in the NFL that needed some defensive help to really get over the hump in a difficult AFC. The Cincinnati Bengals, Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs, Denver Broncos, New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers would love for Jacksonville to look foolish for pushing all the chips in on 2026, only to suffer a first-round playoff exit. Splashes like the ones Jacksonville made (and hypothetically still could make; the team still has some premium 2028 draft picks to move around) get the headlines going. They get fans fired up. They immediately raise the floor and ceiling on the season. They're exciting!
However, they're also ginormous risks that can eventually cost people their jobs. The Jaguars won't pick until the third round of the 2027 NFL Draft right now, even if the team might be able to recoup a second rounder in a Brian Thomas Jr. trade. They're currently in the red with cap space next spring, too, though cap gymnastics can push money into the future. Budding star Parker Washington will need a new deal in 2027. So will Bates unless his trade is just a half-season rental. The bill is always due in the NFL, but you don't always have to pay it after dinner. Jacksonville is certainly mortgaging precious future resources on the present, but the team can navigate its limited resources, even if won't be easy.
The risks are just hard to ignore. Not winning a Super Bowl in this widow with this much investment could eventually create a lengthy regression vacuum whose spinning vortex the team can't avoid. You always have to plan for rain in the NFL, too; two of the players Jacksonville traded for will replace players who recently landed on season-ending injured reserve in safety Eric Murray and defensive tackle DaVon Hamilton. That's the risk for pushing the chips in; sometimes, you lose your hand for reasons outside of your control. That's when good football teams spin out of control and windows slam shut. You don't get to gamble without the downsides. That's why it's gambling!
You can break down the numbers, leverage each trade at each position against what's right and wrong with value and look ahead to the future and weigh the positives and negatives to an all-in approach. When it's all said and done, this will all be worth it if the Jaguars win a Super Bowl. If the team doesn't, the risks could eventually catch up. Snead's draft picks-be-darned approach only worked for him because the team won a title. If it hadn't, he might not still be in a job with the Rams. Gladstone is banking on his old boss's approach to translate to ultimate success. Having coach Liam Coen and quarterback Trevor Lawrence helps quite a bit to justify the faith in investing so much, but they'll all be in trouble if a championship doesn't materialize in Jacksonville within the next couple of seasons.
The clock is ticking, and the stakes are high. Jacksonville took the bold, arguably admirable approach to trust its plan and throw caution to the wind in pursuit of a Lombardi. We all know the two roads this lead to; it's just a matter of which one the Jaguars ultimately take. We'll either look at this day as a huge steps forward or a huge step back.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: The Jaguars made a huge gamble at the trade deadline. Will it work?
