GENERAL MANAGER TRENT BAALKE
OFFSEASON MEDIA AVAILABILITY
THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 2024
(On if him and Head Coach Doug Pederson are still on the same mindset as last year) “I think that’s a
good question. I think it’s probably even more so. When you go through tough times, you find out a lot
about a lot of people. The season didn’t end the way we wanted it to, we had some strong conversations
throughout the year of where things were at and where things were trending. Great communication,
great collaboration, and really respect him and everything that he does. A lot of what’s written, a lot of
the narratives out there are just false. Plain and simple, false narratives.”
(On if the head coach Is in charge of hiring his own staff) “Absolutely.”
(On if the hiring of Defensive Coordinator Ryan Neilsen was done by Head Coach Doug Pederson) “I think
I answered that. Coach owns the staff, just like they do in most places and no different here. I respect the
decisions that he makes. We collaborate, we work together. I sat in on all the interviews, we shared our
thoughts. But at the end of the day, Coach owns it. I respect those decisions.”
(On if he has any regrets bringing back many players from last year) “I don’t live with regrets. That’s not
how I operate. Are there decisions you look back on and say, ‘What if we would’ve done this? What if we
would’ve done that?’ Should’ve, would’ve and could’ve all got beat. You do the best you can, we felt we
had a pretty competitive football team coming back. We still feel we have a competitive football team
coming back. The season didn’t go our way. There were four teams left a week ago. We beat two of
those teams, we lost a one-score game to another one and another one we were down by three points
with four minutes left in the third quarter. We felt we had a competive football team. We didn’t win the
number of games we wanted to win and that’s on all of us, me included. Look no further than here.
There’s some things that we have to do, we recognized it and we’re making those changes as we go.”
(On what the offense has to do beter to perform at a higher level in 2024) “I’m not a coach. Those are
questions for coach [Head Coach Doug Pederson]. I think if I look at it from a big picture, create an
identity. Who are we? Offensively, defensively, special teams, I felt we did that towards the end of last
year, I’m not so sure we got to that point this year. That’s number one, you’ve got to have an identity.
Who are you?”
(On if he’s drafted enough blue-chip players through his drafts at the Jaguars) “You’re talking like a scout
now. We feel we have some prety good football players. Sometimes, you have to execute the vision that
you had for these players. Coach [Head Coach Doug Pederson] and I have talked a lot about this year’s
class in particular. The onboarding process of them, getting them up to speed, trusting them. You’re in a
developmental league now. You don’t have time to say that we can shelf them for a year or shelf them
for two years. You got to get them up to speed quick and when you go in and you have as much
collaboration as we do, because trust me, we have a lot of collaboration on these decisions. It’s not one
person making these decisions. When you look at bringing in a player and the vision you have for them,
at the end of the day, you got to ask yourself, ‘Did we execute that vision or didn’t we?’ I think if you ask
Coach and certainly you’re asking me right now, we’ve got to do a better job of that vision executing
it. We feel really good about the young players we got. Have they all reached their potential? Not yet.
There’s still a lot of growth to be had, but we trust that we got a prety good nucleus of young players on
this football team.”
(On why he chose not to invest into a veteran pass rusher) “Well, when you say plenty, I’d like to know
the names. Again, we brought Clowney [Ravens LB Jadeveon Clowney] in and he chose to go in another
direction.”
(On if he made a contract offer to Ravens LB Jadeveon Clowney) “I’m not saying that. We got in
discussions with him. I’m not going to talk about what we did or didn’t do. We got into discussions with
him and had him on campus. He was here for a visit. Again, we felt we had Dawuane [OLB Dawuane
Smoot] coming back off injury, we knew he was coming back. We drafted a young man that we had a
vision for. We had Chaisson [OLB K’Lavon Chassion] in the last year of his deal. Moreso looking back at
during the season, what we could’ve done to upgrade the roster, are there moves we could’ve made?
Once again, I don’t live in the past. I don’t live in regret. But we’ve got to continue to look at those things
and you’re never done trying to make your team beter and more competive.”
(On if he contemplated retiring) “I contemplate that on a daily basis but no, I’m going to be 60 years old.
I’m far from retirement.”
(On Offensive Coordinator Press Taylor and making a potential change) “Again, Coach [Head Coach Doug
Pederson] and I, and ownership, we talk throughout the year and we’ve talked about everything. Those
discussions will remain private, but at the end of the day, like I said, Coach owns the coaching staff. He’s
held responsible for that coaching staff. I can tell you this, I have supported every decision that he
makes, one hundred percent. We have discussions, we get through with the discussions, whether it’s the
draft, free agency, coaches, personnel staff, support staff, we go through the process and we talk about
everything. At the end of the day, once a decision is made, we make it and we move on. I’m one hundred
percent behind anything Coach decides because I’ve been factored into it. I’ve been a part of those
discussions.”
(On if he misidentified what talent the team had on the offensive line) “Well, when you can’t run the
football and later in the year, you can’t stop the run, that’s a problem in the National Football League.
We’ve always prided ourselves on being able to do that; run the football, stop the run. For whatever
reason, we weren’t able to do that. I think there’s a lot of moving parts to that. I don’t think it’s just
player related, I don’t think it’s just scheme related. We’ve got to get bigger, we’ve got to get stronger,
we’ve got to get more physical in the trenches. If you want to compete for championships, you have to
do that. I think we’ve got some good pieces in there, we have some good young players in there, but we
have to get beter.”
(On if he’s had enough returns on the defense for what he’s invested in) It’s never just one thing. We
finished I believe ninth in run defense, a litle over one hundred and some yards. A big part of that fell
apart if you look at where we were the first nine, ten games of the year and where we ended up. There
was a huge falloff. Why? A lot of things factor into that. Players got to trust one another. When you start
to search for plays and you start to search for answers, whether it’s coaches searching for answers or
players searching to make plays and not playing within the scheme of the defense; it’s all it takes for an
explosive play. We gave up way too many explosive plays as the season went on, we didn’t protect the
ball. We didn’t take the ball away. There’s a lot of things that factor into it. We feel like we have some
good players, and we showed that through the first 10 games. Being able to stop the run very
consistently, we didn’t do that at the end, so we’ve got to look at why.”
(On if he plans to be more aggressive in this offseason than last year) “Last year we didn’t have a ton of
cap space to work with. We’ve gone into free agency the first two years. Are we going to be more
aggressive? We feel we’ve got a good nucleus of players. But this team is going to look different when we
strap it up in April, when the offseason program gets going. The team is going to look different. Our team
is going to look different, every team in the National Football League is going to look different. How
much different depends on a lot of the discussions we’re going to have over the next couple of weeks.”
(On if OLB Josh Allen will be with the Jaguars next year one way or another) “Josh will be a Jaguar.”
(On how close the team is to finalizing a deal with OLB Josh Allen) “Very far. Haven’t started. Those
negotiations will start.”
(On if a deal to re-sign OLB Josh Allen can happen quickly) “Yeah, I’d love to say yes. I know Josh wants to
be here, I know we want him here. Can we come to a number that works for everybody? That’s the key. I
respect that. Like I said last year with Evan’s (TE Evan Engram) situation, you got to respect these guys
that put themselves in this position. They work hard, they deserve to make good money. What that good
means to them could be different than what it means to us. We just got to come together, sit down at
the table and work things out.”
(On if the plan is to use the franchise tag on OLB Josh Allen) “I’m not going to commit to anything right
now relative to the franchise tag. But at the same token, Josh Allen is going to be a Jaguar next year.”
(On WR Calvin Ridley) “Calvin did some awfully good things. I love Calvin Ridley. He’s all ball. You guys
and gals that were able to see it at practice, he loves to practice, he loves to play, he loves the game.
When you bring somebody in that hasn’t been a part of football for over a year and a half, you’ve got to
knock the rust off. He did that and at times, he showed exactly who he was, who he can be. The sky is
the limit, he’s only going to get better because of the way he works. When you love something as much
as he loves football, you can’t help but get better. We would love to have Calvin back and we’re going to
work toward that. What that means, I don’t know right now.”
(On if any plans have changed with an extension for QB Trevor Lawrence this offseason) “No, I think
we’re going to sit down with ownership in the next several days. Sit down with the head coach, sit down
with the personnel staff and really review the roster. We’ve already done it, it’s not like we’re starting
from scratch. Really just have a heart-to-heart on where we’re at with all the guys that are potentially
coming up. There’s some good players on this roster that we’d like to see moving forward.”
(On if he feels more pressure in 2024) “I’m not worried about my job. That’s not how I live, I don’t live in
regrets. I don’t live worried about my job. If someone can do it better, step up. This is always a challenge;
keeping a team together and building a team. It’s not one person doing it. We have a lot of confidence in
the process. We had 21 of 22 starters coming back last year. To go into the draft, especially where we
were picking and think you’re going to come away with four immediate starters is not realistic. Does it
happen on some teams? Yeah, but it usually doesn’t happen on a team that made it to the divisional
round of the playoffs. Again, I go back to vision. When you set forth and you have a vision for how you’re
going to onboard a player and what role that player is going to be, it’s important to execute it. I think if
you ask coach [Head Coach Doug Pederson] and certainly I’m in front of you now. That didn’t happen the
way we needed it to happen as we move forward. We’ve got to do a better job with the vision, a better
job with the onboarding process, a better job of getting these young players up to speed quicker. It is a
developmental league and it’s got to happen quickly.”
(On if he’s ruling out doing an extension with QB Trevor Lawrence this season) “No.”
(On disappointment towards the continuous struggle on short yardage situations) “More of a coaching
question, but I do think you’ve got to have an identity. You’ve got to develop that identity in the
offseason and all the way through training camp, the preseason and into the season. You’ve got to stick
with it. I think if you ask the coaches, we probably didn’t do that to the level we wanted to. At the same
token, as I mentioned earlier, we’ve got to get bigger. We got to get stronger and get more physical in the
trenches. We’ve got to trust we can do things that you need to do in this league to win games. That’s run
the football when everyone in the building knows you’re going to run it. You’ve got to be able to still run
it.”
(On if OL Luke Fortner has the ability to get more physical and growth potential) “I truly believe in Luke
[OL Luke Fortner] as a guy that has what it takes to play the position and play it well. He’s showing signs
of doing that. This was not necessarily one player’s issues. This was a systematic issue. So when you look
at across the board, the things I talked about going back to the basics, going back to three-point stances,
coming off the ball, forming an identity. All of those things, we’ve got to do beter. We also got to look to
how we make this a more competive situation. Guys get nervous when the guy behind them is pushing
them everyday for the starting role. Iron sharpens iron. So you got to make these rooms as competive
as you can, whether it’s through the draft or through free agency, we’ve got to atack that to make these
rooms as competive as they can be so the guy that’s starting is always feeling the pressure of the guy
behind him.”
(On where the biggest needs for the team are in the offseason) “We’ve got a lot of needs. It’s not going
to do me any good to sit up and here and tell the world what we view as our key needs. At the same
time, we know what we need to do. Again, this isn’t a team that finished 2-15. We finished 9-8, one
game out and it’s not good enough. I get that. It’s not a team that needs to be a total overhaul. There’s
good players in that locker room. There’s good coaches in this building. There’s good personnel people.
We have what we need in this building, we just got to add some more to it.”
(On if OL Cam Robinson will be on the team next year and if OL Anton Harrison can play left tackle) “The
discussions on who’s all going to be here, who’s not going to be here. I’m not going to commit to
anything right now. We got some work to do, we got some hard discussions to be had. But as far as
Anton’s ability to play right or left, this year what he did as a rookie. Coming into the National Football
League and going up mano-mano on some of the best pass rushers, a gauntlet of pass rushers
throughout the course of the year; you look at the pressure rate that he gave up and a guy that wasn’t
given a lot of help in terms of chips and double teams and protection. You got to be nothing but proud of
how he handled himself as a rookie. He’s only going to get beter, there’s another young guy that really
loves the game, loves to work and loves to compete. We expect great things from him. Do we feel like he
can play left? Absolutely we do.”
(On if finding players that can execute the vision with physicality and strength is a high priority) “I think
going through the history of the drafts we’ve had over time, size maters. Physicality maters. Strength
maters. We’re looking at that, we’re always trying to add that. You want to be as big and fast and smart
and tough as you can be in this game. Those are the intangibles we look for; guys with great instincts,
guys with passion to play the game. Those are all things we consistently look for.”
(On signing Jaguars draft picks to second contracts) “I think every situation is different. When I look at a
player, does he deserve to be paid or doesn’t he? Whether he’s a draft pick of ours or a free agent that’s
come in or a free agent from some other team. Do they deserve to get paid? You hope to not pay a
premium on a guy that you’ve drafted, simply because you get to do it a year earlier. The market hasn’t
had a chance to weigh in on it. You also want to pay guys fairly. I do think there’s some really good,
young players on this roster that we drafted that are going to be second contract guys. Look at the teams
that are winning, look at the teams that are still playing. They don’t have a roster full of first contract
players. It’s a roster full of second contract players and third contract players. That’s how you win.
Experience does mater, but development maters too. As you’re trying to work your way, I’ve said this
before, the easiest thing to do in the National Football League is to take an average football team, a
struggling football team and make it competive. The hardest thing to do is take a competive football
team and make it a championship football team. That’s just the reality of the world we live in. We’re in
that phase. We’ve got to take a competive football team and turn it into a champion. That’s not easy,
but that’s our job. It takes good football players, it takes good coaching, it takes good management, it
takes great ownership. Everything factors into that, making that switch. We have everything we need
here. Now, it’s just time to go do it.”
(On how he views what QB Trevor Lawrence did this year) “I think Trevor had another learning year, like
we all do when we are a third-year guy in this league. I think there are some areas he made great strides
in. You look at this season, the two things we’ve got to do are we’ve got to do a better job of keeping him
safe and protected, and he’s got to do a better job of protecting himself. Unfortunately, he had four key
injuries this year. When your quarterback has a throwing shoulder injury, a knee injury, an ankle injury,
and a concussion all in one year that’s alarming. So, we’ve got to work to improve that and that’s not one
factor, there’s a lot of things that contribute to that, but we do have to do a better job there. As far as
Trevor and the long term relationship with this team, there’s no doubt in that. We’re going to get
something done at the appropriate time.”
(On if the self-scouting process changes after having a season that ended the way it did) “I think it’s the
same. You try to be as critical as you can be when you’re looking at film, trying to identify exactly what
you have, what went wrong, sometimes it’s not just player related. I’m not saying it’s coach related,
sometimes there are things going on outside the building that nobody’s aware of that factors into a
player’s performance. There are so many things that go into success and failure, it’s hard to sit up here
and point to one thing.”
(On if he feels like the staff understands why things went wrong towards the end of the season) “Yeah I
think we have a real good pulse. We’ve had some real good discussions, going back to the question on
collaboration [with Head Coach Doug Pederson], and the unity we have in this building. I can’t speak for
Doug but I’m sure he’ll speak when he has the chance, the collaboration, the unity that we have
together, the respect we have for one another has never been better. So again, I go back to that
narrative, that’s a false narrative, nothing to it.”
(On what made Defensive Coordinator Ryan Nielsen the right man for the job and what do you look for
now based on the scheme change) “Well, schematically there’s going to be a change. It’s not going to
necessarily affect the type of personnel we look for. The thing that’s are neat is the preparation that Ryan
had put in to getting ready for the interview, knowing our roster the way he did, talking through how he
sees those pieces being utilized in his defense. That was impressive, especially for a guy that was on
vacation down at Disneyland with his family and we yanked him up here from there. So, just his
presence, his command within the room, the synergy he had with the group that was in there, his
atention to detail, the two-way relationships that he’s been able to establish, and really the fact that no
mater who you talk to they had nothing but positive things to say about him. Then you bring him in and
everything that you heard comes to life. So, really excited about the hire and looking forward to working
with him.”
(On how the defense will look different from a schematic standpoint) “Well I don’t read all the stuff, but
this idea that he’s a full man-coverage guy is fully blown out of proportion. I think I’ll let him speak on
scheme. It’s really a zone-based system, not a man-based system but a lot of times when you play zone,
and you play it well it turns into man with the match concepts and everything else. But that’s as scheme
related as I’m going to get. The four-man surface that we talk about, four-man versus a 30 look, really in
today’s game you’re in nickel 75 even sometimes 80 percent of the time you live in nickel. So, everyone’s
playing a lot of the same stuff. There’s not 32 different offenses and 32 different defenses, you just have
to take the pieces you have just like in any chess game you’ve got to be able to manipulate them they
way you want and take advantage of your strengths and hide your weaknesses. I think he’s shown the
ability to do that. We played them this year, I think we scored 13 points offensively against them and
then 10 of those points came on turnovers. Short-field field goal and a pick-six. You talk to [QB Trevor
Lawrence] Trevor, you talk to the guys that played against him this year, he’s hard to prepare for because
everything looks the same at the snap. Then everything starts to move once the ball snaps so there’s a
lot of things, again I’m not a scheme guy I’m a Jimmy and Joe guy, so I’ll stick to my Jimmy and Joes.”
(On if the Houston Texans emergence affects how he attacks the offseason) “First of all, you want to be
against the best. You want to compete in the best division because if you’re going to be in the best
division and you can win that division, you’ve got a great chance to go into the next round of the playoffs
and win a lot of football games and be the last one standing and that’s the goal. So, you can’t ever shy
away from competion, they’ve done an excellent job there, Indianapolis has done an excellent job,
Tennessee’s going to be fine. This division is better than people gave it credit for being, and I think you
can sense how quickly it turned. A year ago, we were in the same position Houston was in this year.
Almost storybook endings for both organizations. Both of them won the last game, back-to-back years to
put themselves in the playoffs and win the division. I like the fact that this division’s competetive, you
don’t want it any other way. That’s why you’re in this business. So, let’s roll out the ball, let’s go to work
and let’s see where we are at, at the end of this next year.”
(On if there are going to be any changes to the strength and conditioning program) “No, I think we do a
good job. I think we do an excellent job in the training staff, the human performance department as a
whole. We’ve just got to do some things a litle bit differently. We’ve got to push some narratives a litle
stronger. It’s tough to get these guys competing against each other in that weight room, but that’s wher
we’re going. It’s got to be a year-long competition. It’s got to be a focus of ours to get stronger, to get
more physical, to play the game at the level you need to play it to win in January and February.”
