HEAD COACH DOUG PEDERSON AND GENERAL MANAGER TRENT BAALKE
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2023
BAALKE: (On if they like where they sit with the 24th pick) “I think you’re always looking, always looking to improve the team any chance you can, and obviously right now is a big chance to do that with the draft a week away, but I certainly feel good about where we’re at, but never complacent with where we’re at.”
PEDERSON: (On if they like where they sit with the 24th pick) “I echo Trent’s comments. We love, obviously, picking later in the first round, not first, like we did the last couple years. There’s going to be some good players there at 24, and we’re excited about that, but again, we’re in that position, too, where we’re always looking to add talent, to add depth, add competion, from a coaching perspectve, and we’re excited about that.”
BAALKE: (On if players taking covid years and possibly being older has impacted how they evaluate the draft) “I don’t think it’s had any impact to be honest with you. I think you still look at the film, you go through all the information that you got, and regardless of whether they’re 23 or 22, you stack the board at the level of value that you place on the player. I don’t know if it has any more of an impact. This is a year where there are some older players in the draft, unlike some of the other years, but it hasn’t changed our approach at all.”
BAALKE: (On how important it is to address the needs for this year as well as the future, especially at the tackle position) “Again, I think you’re always looking. As coaches, you’re looking today; as evaluators, you look at today and tomorrow. I’m prety fortunate to work with a guy that sees the vision of not only today, but as the future unfolds. We take all that into consideration, but we still set the board on value, where we value the players, and we let the board speak to us on draft day and have a plan regardless of which way the board falls.”
BAALKE: (On balancing geting the value they want with meeting the need they have and if they ever have to sacrifice one for the other) “You’re always balancing need and value, and when you say that, really, each year, the board is different. There are different strengths and weaknesses in every draft. Some years, the O-line, D-line are more prominent than maybe the edge guys or vice-versa, inside versus out. You’re still seeing the board based on value. Once you’ve got the board set on value, then you start looking at the needs. You don’t want to push players up the board value-wise just because you have a need at that position. I’ve been doing this a while now, and most of the time, the value and need come together. Very few times have I looked at the board and said there’s just no value at the position of need we have. Sometimes it might be a card off, but it’s still close enough where you can address the need.”
BAALKE: (On the depth of the draftleading to there likely being a player of value even down at pick number 24) “I hope you’re right. It does. Without geting into what our needs are, everybody has an idea of what they think our needs are. Coach and I have a firm belief in what our needs are. We’re not going
to get into that right now, especially right before the draft, but we feel confident that there’s going to be a good player at 24.”
PEDERSON: (On what they do if there is a difference of opinion when it comes time to pick) “I think, and this is what I appreciate about the way Trent (General Manager Trent Baalke) and his staff and the way he handles the board, the way he handles it with us as coaches, if there’s a discrepancy or something we might differ on, we’re going to talk about that. We might even go to the tape and watch more film on a player or bring in the position coach, talk to him, or bring in the scout that looked at this guy and just exhaust everything we can and make sure we’re in agreement that when we pick a player, that we’re on the same page with that player. We’re not always going to agree. That’s part of this process, but when we walk out of that draft room Saturday night, those picks are ours. They’re Jacksonville Jaguars. And that’s the exciting thing that I appreciate from Trent that he’s allowed us to do in this process.”
PEDERSON: (On the pass rush and defensive line of the current roster) “From the coaching side, obviously, that’s an area we’ve got to improve. We do feel like we have the men in the locker room to get it done. Going into year two will make a big difference in the scheme of things. We’re comfortable there, and obviously, as we build our roster, geting closer to the regular season, we’ve got to make sure that we have the right guys at the end of the day. So with that being said, with Buck (Defensive Line Coach Brentson Buckner), Rory (Assistant Defensive Line Coach Rory Segrest), and Shuey (Outside Linebackers Coach Bill Shuey) and working with the guys this spring, being able to put them in positions that we feel as a staff can help us generate more pass rush. We look forward to that. It’s a challenge for us, but we know that’s an area that must be addressed.”
PEDERSON: (On atendance during OTAs so far) “I’m thrilled. I’m thrilled. We understand this is a voluntary program, and these guys don’t have to be here. These are veteran guys, so they don’t have to be here. To have the atendance that we have, it’s thrilling. It makes you excited to know that they’re excited, obviously coming off the season we had. They’re looking forward to what’s ahead and what the possibilities are. To see this number of guys here is encouraging, and we coach the ones that are here.
BAALKE: (On the importance of Top 30 visits) “I think they’re very important. Any time you get a chance to sit down with a prospect, especially at that length of time, get a chance to meet with everyone in the building at different levels, for the coaches to sit down and talk ball with them, watch ball with them, for
us as evaluators to ask the questions that we may have from all the information that we’ve gathered, I think it’s priceless. It’s a chance to also get physicals on guys that weren’t invited to the Combine, so there’s a lot of good things that come from it. You get to know the local guys that grew up in this area that may be free agents or draft picks that really want to be back here. We had, I believe right around 30 guys here yesterday, got a chance to talk to a lot of these guys and the excitement of what’s going on here, their familiarity with the organization and just wanting to be a Jaguar. So that was encouraging.”
PEDERSON: (On the importance of assistant coaches in the evaluation and draft process) “Again, it goes back to what I was saying earlier, this is what I appreciate about how Trent (General Manager Trent Baalke) handles this process with us; he involves us. He definitely wants everybody’s input, and you’re right, we’re the ones coaching the players, and he wants us to have that input on guys. I think that’s, it just holds us as coaches more accountable to the guys in that locker room. Now we’re all on the same page. It’s just a valuable part of the process, and the more eyes and the more information we can get on the players, the beter we can make selections.”
BAALKE: (On if the likelihood of up to five quarterbacks going early in the draft pushes valuable players at other positions farther down) “Absolutely it does. When you don’t need a quarterback, and there’s four or five of them in the draft that people are coveting, you know at least five guys are going to go up in there, it is going to push everybody back down, and you hope there’s other positions that aren’t real needs of yours that are heavy at the top end, too, because that will continue to push guys down. We need as many guys to go ahead of us as possible, and hopefully we’ll have our pick of two or three guys that we have in mind right now—it’s down to that level—probably two to three guys that we’re really interested in, and we feel like we’ve got a good shot at one of those guys.”
BAALKE: (On scouting the person, not just the player) “That’s the challenging part, right? To gather as much information as you can, and I always say, get the stars to align, get the dots to align. We do a lot of different things with these players from interviews to psychological testing, profiling, all kinds of things in background checks, interviewing a lot of people that are around that player, going back to their high school years, just gathering as much information as we can, and do all the stars align, do all the boxes get checked? When they don’t, try to figure out what they’re missing and why they’re missing it, and if they really fit our culture. I think Coach (Head Coach Doug Pederson) and I have said this, that locker room is prety special. We’ve got a great group of guys in there. We want to keep it that way. That doesn’t mean we aren’t going to take some risks at times, but we’re always going to mitigate that as much as possible. We’ve done a lot of work on these guys. Our board is not laden with guys. We’ve got 127 names on the board right now that are draftable for us. When you figure 230 plus guys are geting drafted, whatever that number is, you look at that, your odds dwindle on having guys that are what you consider draftable as the draft unfolds. The culture is huge. We spend a lot of time looking at these guys. Do they fit us? Do they not fit us? There are a lot of guys that are taken off the board because they just don’t fit our culture. They’re good players, but they just don’t fit what we’re looking for, and the coaching staff has a big weigh-in on that as well.”
PEDERSON: (On scouting the person, not just the player) “For me as the head coach, I give a lot of responsibility back to the players, and this is where they handle the locker room. I don’t want to micromanage the locker room whatsoever, but we have such a great group of guys down there, as Trent (General Manager Trent Baalke) alluded to, that if there is a guy, whether we trade for a guy or draft a guy or there’s a free agent or something out there as we go, maybe he’s not a culture fit, but we still sign the guy, our locker room can handle that. We can absorb that. I came from a place where we did that a couple time, and the locker room just handled it. We look for that, we put these guys, … our scouts do an outstanding job of spending time with players and family members and coaches, as Trent said, anybody we can talk to to get answers on players. So we feel like the ones that are on the board are all great fits for us. Again, but our locker room can absorb that, and they either buy in, or they won’t be here.”
PEDERSON: (On if the team feels a different type of energy after last year) “This first week has been good that way. I want them to believe that, I want them to feel that coming off of last season. But we also understand that we’re not going to be able to just walk out there and repeat what we did. We still got to put in the hard work, the preparation, the time has got to be spent in the weight room, the classroom, and on the practice field. I think that’s what the guys understand, but yet, I still want them to remember the ups and downs of last year of what we’ve been through. The energy is great, last year I think they were looking at me at this time going, ‘Who is this guy? How are we going to trust this guy?’ Trying to build that trust with the team. They know who I am, how I operate. The energy level is extremely high right now and we got to continue that through the rest of the offseason and on into camp.”
BAALKE: (On if there’s an expectation to close a deal with TE Evan Engram soon) “That’s the goal. The goal is to get this thing done. These negotiations always have ups and downs as you go through the process and you’re just trying to come to a common goal of geting him signed. I think we’re trending in that direction, but we’re not there yet. We’re continuing to work to get him signed to a long-term extension, and hopefully we can get that done.”
PEDERSON: (On being able to see WR Calvin Ridley participate with the team) “I can’t be on the field right now, coaches aren’t allowed. Phase One. It’s just exciting, he’s fired up. He’s excited to be here; we’re excited to have him. He’s been working with Trevor [QB Trevor Lawrence] obviously, and the guys spent some time together. It’s just another piece; it’s another piece to our puzzle and a huge piece that can help us head in the right direction of where we want to go and all of that. We’re just excited, we’re excited to start Phase Two of the offseason program and we can be on the field with the guys and really see how everybody is shaping up at that time.”
BAALKE: (On feeling more aggressive ahead of this draft with so many available players) “It can, it certainly can. Again, we have a specific way of how we set up the board, so while it sounds like 127, there’s more numbers baked in there. Those are the 127 that we really feel fit the culture we want, fit the value we have placed on them and really all the stars align. There are other fallbacks that we can go to, but really, we’re picking from 127.”
BAALKE: (On how much growth is needed in the tight end room to fit TE Evan Engram) “We’re going to look to build that room and get as strong as we can. We don’t feel that it’s an absolute necessity to add to that room, but if there’s an opportunity to add to it, we will.”
BAALKE: (On how to narrow down to two-to-three players from 127) “Well, it’s more daunting. Yes, is your short answer. I’m just expecting that the board is going to fall a certain way. Three years of experience, you tend to get a feel for how the board is going to fall. That doesn’t mean it’s going to fall; I’ve been siting at 29 before and had nobody on the board we felt was valued at that level. That happens. We feel good about this group, this class, that there’s going to be enough depth in the draft, that there’s going to be a player at a need-position we have valued in that area that will be there when we pick.”
BAALKE: (On weighing out the value of a player with the team draft plan) “We talked about that this morning. We went through scenarios, and more of a later round type-scenario. We talked about that and when there is depth at one position and no real depth at another position. It is a position in need, you may push the need ahead of the value a litle bit. It’s going to be within a respectable range, you’re not going to reach way below the value.”
PEDERSON: (On feelings of his tight end room throughout this career, including Philadelphia) “Well, I’ve always been, whether I was a player or coach, I’ve always had really good tight ends. We’ve had great tight ends, going back to my days in Green Bay when I was a player. With the guys we had: Keith Jackson [former Packers TE Keith Jackson], Mark Chmura [former Packers TE Mark Chmura], guys like that. The tight end, as a quarterback, the tight end becomes a really important piece. It almost becomes your best friend, right? At our level, that’s a comfort for the quarterback. I’ve always tried to make our tight end room the best we can, whether we do it through the draft or free agency or trade of something of that nature. We still feel like Evan [TE Evan Engram], Luke [TE Luke Farrell], and Gerrit [TE Gerrit Prince] right now, the three we have, we know we’ll bring guys in for camp and will compete there. That’s a strong room. Yeah, there’s two young players there, but we’ve got a lot of high expectations for those players as
well and they know that. It’s something that we’re always going to keep an eye on as we go in every year and try to have the best tight end room for our quarterback.”
BAALKE: (On expectations of OL Cam Robinson to be ready for training camp) “From a health standpoint, yes.”
BAALKE: (On recovery update of OL Ben Bartch) “He’s progressing well. I don’t know that he’s going to be ready for first day of camp, but he’s ahead of schedule as of right now.”
BAALKE: (On health status of OL Josh Wells) “He’s healthy.”
BAALKE: (On if there’s a best player in this draft class) “Oh, loaded question. I don’t get paid to address that. (laughter) I think there’s a best talent in this draft, yes, I do.”
BAALKE: (On what the Jaguars may get in 2024 with draft picks) “I think right now we’re on schedule to get a third for sure, possibly a fifth or sixth for sure, and then the possibility of adding a couple of sevenths depending on how some things play out. I think we will have two for sure, with the ability to have up to four.”
BAALKE: (On possibility of moving back from the 24th pick in the draft for future draft years) “There’s always a chance that we trade back or trade up to try to speculate and get more picks. As of right now, with Calvin’s [WR Calvin Ridley] situation, we’re down one. We picked up one, we had seven, we’ll probably at nine-to-ten right now in next year’s draft. That’s where we’re at. I don’t feel a need to necessarily trade back to pick up picks, but if the opportunity is there and we still feel like we can get the same level of player, then we would make that decision.”
BAALKE: (On difficulty of not knowing how picks before the Jaguars will play out) “Yeah, I rarely, if ever, have had conversations pre-draft about trying to move. There’s too much that can happen, there’s too many scenarios to play out in your mind. I think as the board starts to unfold, you get a better feel for how it’s trending, and you start picking up the phone at the appropriate time. I think it’s just too hard to play out. Coach [Head Coach Doug Pederson] and I talk, it’s too hard to play all of the scenarios in your mind, you can sit in that room to nauseum and go through it all. Then, the draft happens, and three picks into it, all of your work is shot, and you’ve got to swing from the hip anyways. I think you’re just beter off seeing the board, trusting the board, the value is set, and then leting it unfold.”
BAALKE: (On difficulty of scouting players that other teams may not see) “Well, I think it’s geting harder and harder to do that because the scouting itself and the informatition is so much more accessible now than it used to be. In the old days, you had nothing but newspapers to go by and everything. Now, just geting the film and watching the film is just the click of a buton and you got everything at your exposure. I think it’s more difficult to find those gems that nobody else knows about. I think the real art is in how you value the ladder part of the draft and being able to find contributors at that level. If anyone thought that a guy was picked in the seventh round that goes on to be a starter and a Pro Bowl player, you found them, you really didn’t. The botom line is nobody in the league valued him at that, but that’s why he was still available, right? As Mr. Haley [former NFL player and executive Dick Haley] used to tell me, that’s not great scouting, that’s luck. You just happened to pick him. If you thought he was going to be that guy like Tom Brady [former QB Tom Brady], you would’ve picked him with the first pick in the draft. I think you just put your board together and you really trust the culture fits that you’re looking for because that plays a big role in how they produce, especially those ladder picks. What’s their makeup?
How willing are they willing to work? How competive are they? To overcome what they didn’t have, because if they had it, they would’ve been earlier picks.”
