Ep. 65: CB Draft Prospects, Foye Extension & O-Zone Mailbag | Jags A.M. Podcast

Welcome in to jag Zam. I'm Kayannie Stevens. Are in the month of April. Now free agency is behind us, so now we're looking ahead to the twenty twenty four NFL Draft. Now, Brian Sexson is off today John Oser is back with me here in studio. We're going to do a deep dive as we start looking into potential draft picks who may be coming to town and positions of interest. Our big thing, number one is twenty three days, because there's twenty three days until the first day of

Well, I think their thoughts and their research on guys is mostly set in stone. You're doing sort of punch out work now, if you will, still setting the board. Once they set that board, it's pretty much set in stone. I think that's a couple of weeks down the road. The work actually started for a lot of these guys

The posse is getting all in on the big board, so we'll have more on that as the week's come along, and we'll talk a little bit more about prospects later in the show. We do want to talk about our second big thing, though, which is an extension for Foya Lewis and the linebacker captain of this team. Last year was on the final year of a three year deal,

Yeah, it's credit to him.

A couple of free agents from the twenty twenty one class seman line to do this.

Christian kirk Is the other guy comes in mind. This might be down the road.

Usually players who sign big free agent contracts are two or three year players and don't really become part of your core. The Air exceptions to that, but that's sort of the norm. Foya Lucan led the league and tackled his first year with the Jags twenty twenty two, came close again last year, solid player, became a little more of a turnover guy last year. So he's locked up. He's part of the core of this team. And credit to him again, because that doesn't always happen with second

Is this extension due to just what the performances we've seen on the field, or is it a bit of an indictment against those two other guys that they drafted just a year ago.

I don't think as much to do with Devin Lloyd. Perhaps Chad Muma. They may have.

Looked at him as a possible replacement when they drafted him in twenty twenty two. I think the year was it all runs together. At my age, Ventrel Miller last year when he was drafted seemed like a guy who might be an inside back or starter at some point.

And totally get on the field.

Last year at all, he was hurt, so I think the circumstance and injury maybe more than an indictment.

All right, freeze up some money and he'll be here to stay. So that's good leadership to have on this team. But speaking of that extension, there's another extension or new contract that hasn't gotten done a waiting game. We're still waiting on Josh Allen. And now with those twenty three days until the draft, John, we've talked about hoping this deal gets done before the draft. Is that still the plan or is this going to be something that dragged out even further.

Yeah, I'm not sure there's that much.

You know, My experience with these is usually deadlines create deals. I don't know that there's that much of a deadline before the draft because they've already gotten through the league year, so they're cap they're not trying to get under anything in any sort of deadline like that. The deadline or the pressure points might be more when they want to sign the rookie class or get other deals done that

Everything else we worked around.

That when they're that big, and that perhaps even unusual trying to get certain numbers in certain years. Sometimes you want to get that done before you start doing other things. So I think it gets done before July fifteenth. Don't really have a feel for any date beyond that with Josh Allen.

All right, Josh Allen Contract Watch continues. We'll keep you an eye on that, keep you posted.

Of course.

Coming up after the break, we're going to look at some of the cornerback prospects for this year's draft and who the Jags might be targeting.

Move the Freight, Move the Freight.

Magellan Transportation voted coolest office space in Jacksonville. You can apply online at www. Dot Magellan Logistics dot com. Welcome back to jag zam here in the Hyundai studios, Kan Nannie Stevens, Brian Sexton not with us. We'll be back next week. But John Osier is back in studio, and that's really all we need this time in the year, John, thank you for joining us.

No problem, it.

Is sor all you need anyway, it's all we need. Were worth.

Let's talk draft.

Let's talk draft because we're gonna dive into this for the next few weeks pretty much as we all try to guess what's gonna go down and probably get it very, very wrong. But we're gonna start with cornerbacks because that's a position we've talked about obviously, that's a skill position that you really only see maybe you know, a starting cornerback in the first round less she gets super lucky

So well, first of all, on corner I think it's if you had to pick a position right now that makes the most sense for him, it feels like corners. Yet I know O lot of people are saying wide receiver, the people are saying offensive line corner.

To me, it still feels like.

They might not only take one in the first round, but might take one somewhere again.

By Dave, I mean not.

I say by day four, by round four, it feels like the biggest need, and it is a spot historically. The good news on that to me, sometimes offensive linemen can need more time, their certain positions need more time. Corner is a position where guys can often come in and be who they are right away.

So it's good.

It's a young man's position, right as we always say, so it's good to get some young blood in here. Quinyan and Mitchell is the guy from Toledo, which you don't se see a lot of Matt Conference guys necessarily, but that's someone where we're looking at. I don't know, fall to seventeen, it might be something where you needed to trade up. But he's kind of the CB one, if you will, starting out of this class.

Yeah, and came out of nowhere a little bit, has had a really good off season. He's a guy off So when you go to Toledo, people come in with questions. Everything you hear is that he's answered all those questions. In terms of the draft, seems right now like it might be a little surprising if he's there at seventeen. You sort of mentioned during the break trading up. Boy,

Go get him fair.

Cooper de John's probably one of the more versatile corners coming out of Iowa. He's someone that I think people think they could probably use in a multitude of ways. Maybe safety as well, but just that versatility. That's something we know. Trent Bulke likes a versatile player. But is that someone that you could see in the system or do you think maybe not.

Yeah, I think Caitlin Clark's off the board here, so.

She's too expensive.

Yeah, you know, for what they need, versatility makes sense. The interesting at corner, you feel like Darby, who they've signed, Ronald Darby and Tyson Campbell are probably their outside corners next year, possibly wanting to play inside, but it.

Would be interesting.

The challenge for them, I think is trying to get a guy who can be a long term outside corner and play Nickel early. Cooper Jjohn with his versatility, could fit that. Again, it sort of feels like you may have to go up and get him at this point.

So.

He makes sense.

Don't know that he'd be available when they're picking, but I think that versatility makes a lot of sense for him.

All right, let's go over those two Alabama guys, Terry Arnold, Koley McKinstry one of those getting mocked to the Jaguars quently that you've been seeing.

Yeah, Terry and Arnold has been mocked a lot. Kool Aid I don't know as much about. I haven't studied him quite as much. Terry and Arnold seems like the guy right now that people think will be available with fill in need. You know, there are people It's an interesting draft class for many positions with cornerby and one of them where there's so many guys that it might be a matter of how you think a guy fits

Maybe in the last two or three weeks, which means means nothing.

That means we're not going to get him.

That's probably means nothing, probably what it means.

And then finally we'll look at Clemson product Nate Wiggins. We've seen him kind of move up and down a little bit. Is he someone that would fit the system as well?

Or well, good, good, good player.

Uh again, I have not sit here and poured through tape on on Nate Wiggins or any of these guys, but from what you hear, the size you even see right there.

I never want to call an NFL player frail because it's not that, but his size and frame.

Would it's going to scare some teams, and you wonder if he fits When this team is getting ready to move to an aggressive man, demand guard the short pass, be physical, you wonder if that fits what they.

Want to do.

If he's the guy there, there's fit. And then there's also the case of well, you don't want to pay us on good players. So not ruling Nate Wagans out, but the frame is what you hear pundits talk about with Nate Wagans and the Jags.

Very good. Those are the top five we've got for cornerbacks. We're going to be looking at different positions the next coming weeks. We'll look at a different position group and what we think the Jags are going to be looking at and the top prospects for that.

Stay with us though.

We've got Ozone mail bag questions for you after the break. Jaguars fans guro up at fanatics dot com with all the latest styles. Shop now and get today's special offer. Fanatics dot Com officially licensed everything. Please God, welcome back to jag Zam. Ozone is back with us, so we're celebrating. We're do some ozone mail bag questions because John we need your answers on all of the things.

Well, yes, uh, I guess you did, Yes we do.

Our first question is about the offensive line. There's been a lot of changes to that from what we've seen so far. So Daniel from Johnston, Iowa wants to know a lot of iowant today. Are you satisfied with the efforts made on fixing the O line thus far? He says, not convinced yet.

I'm not satisfied or unsatisfied. I guess I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought that going into the off season, I thought that they might move on from Brandon Sheriff. He his salary cap. That's the one thing that didn't happen that I thought might happen. So I don't know necessarily that they think they should have because he's a good veteran player. I don't know that he's in the prime of his career anymore, but he certainly you can get by with good veteran guards you know how to play,

Well, I don't know that we actually saw.

What Ezra Cleveland can really bring. Last year he played five games. It never felt like he got in and got into a rhythm. He was in and out of the lineup.

Not his fault at all.

So there thought clearly is Cameraroms can go into his eighth year.

Brandon Sheriff going.

Into his tenth, Mitch Morse going into his tenth, and.

Ezra Cleveland I believe going into his fifth or sixth.

Fifth, maybe well the left side of that or the first three guys I mentioned. That's a little old for my taste, but they clearly look at it and say we can get there. This is a veteran line who knows what they're doing. They believe that there will be continuity there. Age makes me wonder about the continuity. I think that's the risk in the continuity card. But you have to believe in something right now. They believe in continuity veteran that this bunch can go do it. To

Line, health will certainly be an issue. We saw a lot of different lineups last year, so hopefully we can avoid that this season. Second question we have for you here today is going to be about two of the defensive backs because we were just talking about cornerback. But would you offer an extension to safety Andre Cisco or cornerback Tyson Campbell this offseason to void an inflated number after a possible Pro Bowl season this year?

Yeah, I don't think you can. I like both guys a lot.

I mean, I'm pulling form to be core NFL players that you pay. I think they have the potential to be that, because I am I. I think they have the potential to be that. I don't know that they've shown enough of that yet to go sign them to long term deals.

And they may not want that yet because you want to prove yourself. You want to have a great season before you sign that long term deal, because you might not get that money that you're expecting. I think if they were to give them an offer, it's probably not going to be the money of them would want right now.

And that's what they ran into.

If you remember with Josh Allen last year, Yep, Jaywarsy've got a lot of criticism for not signing Josh to a long term deal when the bargain was there, when you or when it was affordable. I never got the idea at all ever, talking to Josh that he thought that he had earned the long term deal that he believed he was capable of, if that makes sense.

I believe he knew he.

Was worth it, but also from a league point of view, he hadn't shown that, so there was no way that was going to get done before this offseason. I kind of feel like to a lesser degree, Cisco and Campbell I don't think. I'm not sure that they are players who will reach Josh's level at his position, But even so, I don't think there's any rush to do it, and frankly, I think it'd be a risk to do it at this point, and I would be surprised if it was on the table.

I don't think it is on the table. I think that's definitely something they'll look at next year, and I would imagine they would want to play a full, healthy season both of those players to hopefully get their highest value. Our final question today for the Ozone Nail Guy is coming from Art in New Jersey says, I think the new kickoff rules will be fun. Do you think they will lead to more running backs returning kicks?

Yeah.

My first thing was to say no because of the injury factor, and then I sort of rethought it a little bit and read a little bit more about it, and it could. I don't think the Jaguars will use Travis etn in that role unless.

Devin Durbiny were already get hurt, but it does.

The reason that running backs hadn't been used before was he didn't want to risk your star players for injuries. Now I do think you could see more quote star players playing back there. For the Jaguars, They've already got their star returner, so it's gonna be interesting. I don't know that we know the answer to this question yet.

It was mainly punts.

But point being, if you take the injury risk out of it, and it does look like this new format will significantly take the injury risk away from the returner, then maybe you we'll see more running backs.

You watch some of the setups they have for XFL and stuff. It just looks so strange. But I'm very excited to see that.

But it looks like the pace once they get going, it does look strange, but the pace does feel more like a running back's pace, if that makes any sense. Yes, because you're sort of starting more from a standing position.

You're kind of building accelerate. Yeah.

So yeah, I think a lot of this it is to be played out. It'll take some innovative coach to do something that'll work.

People will follow it.

This is a good change I think we can agree on. I think it'll be fun at least at least a little bit different. Not I feel like every time we get a rule change, we're always complaining. With this one, I'm kind of interested.

In well credited for trying something because the kickoff had been taken out of the game. The shame is that I I've yet to see anything that can bring the on side kickback because the danger and I think the on side kicked the way they've got it having to tell teams you're going to do it and you're.

Sort of silly.

But they'll figure out a way to bring that element back, maybe the fourth and twenty five past they've been talking about. But I do think this will add more excitement. It had gotten to the point where we're sitting in the press box and each other guy, we don't even bother watching the kickoff.

You know, so then you sit down there, go get a coffee.

That kind of stinks, So I think it'd be a good thing to get it back.

All right, say what's here on Jagzam. We'll be right back after the break from the Hyundai studios here for Jagsam closing things out. We mentioned off the top of the show it's t minus twenty three days until the draft. We're in full draft mode.

John.

What does that mean for you? Are you looking into all of these particular players or are you still trying to figure out Well.

Yeah, yeah, I look at the first round realistically. I always kind of laugh when I see seven round mock.

Drafts because they need to tell me the lottery numbers if they can get all that well, the.

First rounds darted aboard anyway, and then once you get into the sixth round, for me to try to figure out who they might take in the sixth round. You know, more power too if you can figure it out. But it's it's mainly trying to look at positions and trying to get a feel for conceptually what they might do. I'm not one to ever think you can grade a draft, especially right out of the box, but I think you can get a feel for did a team do what they wanted to do? Did they go need over best

Defensive end talked.

A little bit about trading for picks. Trent Bulk stockpiled a bunch of them last year. They have eight this year. Is this something where if they were going to trade up maybe try to get higher in first or second round. Would that be something we see now wish or would that be closer to actual drafts?

Well, if you're gonna do the first round and you have an early pick, you often see it. Now, You rarely see it deep in the draft until the draft because teams are usually trading up to somebody involved is usually trading up to go.

Get a specific player.

So if you're Trent right now and you're sitting at seventeen, is it worth it to try to go up to nine when theoretically the guy that you're trying to go up and get could be gone.

So you usually don't see that.

I think when Sammy Watkins got traded for it's been ten eleven years now, they knew they were gonna make that trade.

My understanding is, but they had.

To wait until a couple of guys got off the board to make sure he was going to be available to get there, And that's that's sort of the common thing is I think magical about the Sammy Watkins story. One interesting thing about this draft, it is not considered a very deep draft. Last year's was maybe the deepest ever. Next year is supposed to be very very deep. This year is not considered great in the sixth or seventh round, so that can.

Play into.

It can theoretically make trading more difficult because people really don't care about getting anything. Then so you're not really going to be getting people to give up anything to get into those rounds.

So will that play out that way?

Probably not, because usually once guys get into the sixty seventh round, they figure out something that they like and they get antsy and they want to trade.

But not considered a very deep drift.

All right, Well, we will deep dive into this. As we mentioned, we're going to be talking about it for the next twenty three days, so we'll keep you covered there. We'll see you back here next week on jag Zam.