It is Thursday, April twenty fourth. This is Jackuars Happy Hour. Jaguar's Happy Hour is brought to you by dream Finders Homes and now the world's only two time recipient of the Mister Irrelevant Award, J P.
Shack Holcommited.
Is Jaguars Happy Hour presented by dream Finders Homes. Twenty twenty five NFL Draft is upon us just hours away. JP Shadrick, Jeff Logoman, full busy hour ahead. We'll have Tony Bassellian studio coming up, a live report from Green Bay with Brian Sexton. James Gladstone in the draft room. I caught up with him just a little bit earlier, and yes we will predict some picks tonight. We're on ten tonexxel Amjaguars dot Com, Jaguars YouTube, all the places.
JP Shaddick with Jeff Logoman and the Executive Vice President of Football Operations, Tony VASSELLI.
You've dressed up for the draft. I see that's really there.
Well, I do have I do have clothes all changing.
I just got a little work out in so oh good for you. Are the nerves there yet? How you feel? And first draft? All the work and all the build.
Up, you know, I mean excited more than anything just for the uh, for the opportunity to get in there. And I think we're gonna actually I don't think. I know we're gonna be better after this weekend as a football team. But you know, we've done all the work. I mean, we prepared, we put long hours in. The scouts have done a great job. James has been amazing leading our coaching staff, led by Liam getting in and
doing it together. So it's like at this point now it's kind of you just kind of wait, and you know, obviously we pick early, so less there's fewer variables.
To worry about.
But then we're gonna get into you know, you're get in the rounds two through seven.
You're at the mercy of what happens a little bit before you.
So you gotta you know, you have a plan, but you got to be ready to pivot and kind of be flexible.
So you're saying, there's less variable, so you're saying you're not trading.
Back as we speak right now.
You know, we'll see.
All right. So the whole reason we brought you in here, it's a that's a good cacking, that's a good catch.
A good player. Yeah, I think you know he'll be a good football player. Listen, I think you know.
You look at the team and what we've done in free agency was purposeful.
One.
We wanted to raise the floor, but we also wanted to fill some gaps with guys who we were confident could come in and start day one and so that we weren't going to be forced to do anything when we got into the into the draft. So because of that,
we feel really comfortable with our options. We've obviously targeted a handful of players each round, because we picked five today, and you know, as far as trading down, that's going to be, you know, continuing to evolve as you know, as we have conversations and kind of see what's available. It has to be the right You don't just trade down to trade down. You have to have a couple
of things, want a willing partner them. The compensation has to make sense for us, and then we want to make sure there's a guy we like in the first round wherever we land, and so we'll evaluate everything, but we feel pretty comfortable where we're at right now.
What has it been like to uh, to really understand from really an intimate perspective of what intangibly rich really means.
Well, you know, Jeff, you and I watch tape all the time, and in the past you probably actually watched a little bit more than me getting ready for the draft. But we'd watch tape and all you have to go by is what's on film, because we don't we're not back when we're doing radio and when I was doing you guys do. It's not like you're diving into the character and the background information. We don't have that information
available to us. But if you think back Jeff to when we played, it wasn't always the biggest, strongest, fastest guys who were the best football players. There's more than just physical attributes. It's the competitive nature of the individual. It's the football instincts. It's the you know, the love of the game like love and ball, you know, all these things going into it's how they learn intelligence. They're intelligence. How much can they comprehend? How do they process information?
So these are all kind of what you'd say in you know, watching film, you can evaluate some of that stuff. You can see their play demeanor, if a guy's finishing blox or finishing plays or chasing and pursuing you can see that competitiveness there, but then it's taught. You know, our scouts have done a great job they always have of talking to the coaches, the strength coach, the equipment coach. They're high school coaches who they're with, So that's kind
of what builds that overall profile. And ultimately we just want good football players.
Tell me WASSELLI with us?
It's Jaguars Happy are on tentan Exaljaguars dot Com and Jaguars YouTube closing in on Round.
One of the NFL Draft.
How do you know beyond the tape if a guy loves ball? Well, how do you find that out?
Especially at this day and age with college and the nil and things, the landscape has changed for prospects.
It's much more difficult, There's no doubt about it, because you can't just go to the one university.
When Jeff and I played, I mean he went to Virginia.
I went to USC So it was a single place the scouts can go to and say, tell me about this individual. What's his work ethic? Like, what are that in the weight room? How do they practice? And so these are all kind of clues you can kind of understand what the competitive nature of the individual is. It's the same thing today, but now it's multiple colleges, it's multiple phone calls, multiple touch points, and sometimes you got to be careful because you might hear one thing about
a guy at his first school. He transfers and he's only with this other school for one season, a very short window, and they have glowing reviews. So is that really who he is, right or is he putting on an app act because it's a short window and he's auditioning for a job. I mean, these are all the nuances that we go through and try to do the best we can to understand who the individual is now.
In the past, you would always see coaches and players that were at one program. The coaches are trying to get those players drafted as high as they possibly can because it's it's it further sells the program that they're trying to build. Yeah, I would think that having a player having experience at a couple different places, you probably get a little bit more of an honest perspective when you.
Get a whole rounded Yeah, And Jeffy, it's a great point. I mean, we want to hear from that coaches. There's no doubt about that. But yes, I also have to be realistic. These guys are selling the program to the next recruits coming and the last thing you want to do as a head coach is bad mouth.
You're not gonna do one.
Of your players because the next guy's coming up. They hear about that, and you know that's not well and it does.
Get that player drafted. The higher you get to put your drafted, the better exposure your program gets.
And so and anyone who's been football also understands. Go talk to the trainers, Go talk to the wait coach, Go talk to the equipment coach, Talk to the support staff that spend a lot of time with.
Us as players, and they'll give you.
They'll give you, they'll give you a pretty good view of who the individual is.
I would be in contact with every equipment staff about that player that I was thinking about. Sure they know all the intimate details I've said players, no doubt about that.
Yeah, JP Shatter, Jeff Lago and Tony WASSELLI with us on Jaguars Happy Hour. Give us your behind the scenes as much as you can. Look at James Gladstone in the process he's put together to get to this point.
How impressive.
Is it what stands out the most about his efficiency, his mindset, his his operation as a whole.
I'll just give you my perspective in all kind of three areas. I was convicted that he was the right choice when we hired him right before the combine, more convicted now after working with him. His communication ability is uncanny of how he can take in a lot of information from a lot of different sources and kind of correlate and synthesize all that information and communicate it to the right stakeholders and make decisions from it. And then the last thing, he is a he's a killer. I mean,
don't underestimate Jane Gladstone. I mean, he is very good at what he does. He's very focused, understands it, and throughout the process has done a great job of jumping into the middle of the situation in bringing everyone together to make sure he's getting all the right information that we can get to the right decision.
A Number two. You we brought up the communicator. It's unreadied just I mean, our opportunity that we get obviously is not as wide as the perspective that you get.
But listening to him talk, it's impressive. And what I love here is that you refer to him as a killer, because look, the reality is, in that line of work, you've got to be confident, uh and unwavering and your commitment to your beliefs and an understanding of players that you're gonna be picking and if you're if you're not, then you're just gonna get beat up and tossed aside with and get eaten up.
Yeah, And just to go step further what I mean by killer because people are like, what do you mean he's GM. It's not like he's out there on the fields eating.
Guys up or anything. I'm not talking about the physical side of it.
He he's very good at his job and and part of that. And this is what we did when we went through the interview process. And I'm glad it's worked out. And we're still in the early stages, so we got a long way to go. We'll hit the adversity and I think we'll even see it more at that time. But I wanted to make sure and so did Liam, that we got that the individual there's gonna be the
GM that was gonna partner with us. Because Liam and I talked about this a lot, no ego, not ego driven, and not a personal hidden agenda, because those two things kill an organization. And when I say there is none of that, and there's a there's a lot of humility combined with that attitude that he's just fearless. He is
not afraid to make tough decisions, in big decisions. And that's what I say to Killer, He's unwavering and so and then the last thing that I enjoy because we have to come to work here and lead him the draft. It's long hours. My favorite part about this job outside of I got to work at this organization and do football. I get to work with two really good dudes like Liam and James as good dudes at the end of the day. And Jeff knows it's being a locker room.
You want the locker room filled with a bunch of good dudes because then you'll figure it out. As long as they're competitive, love ball and they're good dudes, you can get through about anything. And that's been probably the most fun of the process.
And you can't build culture. She got good dudes doing.
It right, because you think about culture, culture is all that really is at the end of the day, and we use different words, and those are important. The words are important. It's what we live out every day in the building. And it starts with leadership. What is leadership living every day because that gets filtered through the whole building and then that's just who we are. And so that's what we're trying to build. And we've had you know, free agency, we got the draft. We were on the
field this week. That was fun with the voluntary uh.
Mini camp Vetri Mini caamp.
Great see the guys out there competing and uh, it's one step at a time. But ultimately, you guys know this, none of us are gonna be judged until September.
Yeah, we'll see.
You'll find out when the balls of the balls of the t week one exactly right there. This could be obviously a youth movement for the Jaguars, right you know, ten draft picks, there's a lot of room on this roster right now, Tony.
We have fifty nine signed players. That is the least in the NFL. I'll put it this way. During Vetrian mini camp, we had scouts and coaches playing scout team.
What were you playing? No, no, no, no, you.
Have to actually be able to run James, Yeah, and we are wildly comfortable with that. We're gonna get ten draft picks over the next three days. We're gonna go target and try to get approximately twenty undrafted free agents, and then we'll see if we fill out the rest of the spots with a couple other veteran free agents
that are still out there. But you're gonna have training camp when we're all sitting watching together as Liam and our players and our coaching staff are out there working, you were going to see a competitive environment because jobs are wide open. Come grab one, and we're gonna have a bunch of young guys who are hungry and fighting for a spot on the roster.
You bring up the roster composition of the number right now fifty nine. A lot of people, I think don't understand as a lot of times you kind of really have two. Well, there's multiple tiers of free agency, but you have a second phase of free agency, which typically happens after the draft and teams wait to see what they draft to there for to see what they need to plug in. I'm sure that's the approach there was.
We'll look at things. We have some good ideas.
I mean, well, we have a like I said at the beginning, we have a plan of what we're gonna target, we're gonna go after in each round.
But let's say we miss.
Let's say we don't get some of the guys we want a certain positions. Obviously, we still there's a number of still good players out there that have played in starting games in this league, and we'll do what we need to round out the roster. But expect a lot of young guys running around here come two weeks from now on working meeting camps there.
All right, So, so big question here. I think every NFL team, for the most part that has has been asked us, so is there an interest in Aaron Rodgers.
Less than zero Western zero?
I had to ask you that you heard it here first you can I can confidently say we are not going down that path.
Not going down that path.
We are.
We feel pretty good about our quarterback, and it was good to see him out there throwing shoulders, coming along good his left shoulder, the rehab, he's been working his tail off and and we're excited about what he can do.
How about the the I guess how do you say this? The immersion and the new offense. I mean, it's got to be a challenge. I mean, it's a system three for him. And look, he's a bright guy, but how was that going.
Well, he's very bright and he's a very hard worker, and so that combination he'll be fine and great. Yudinsky, offensive corner is doing a great job, and we have a really good staff. And I think one of the smart things several smart things that Liam did when he built the staff, he brought guys in here that he did either worked with or had worked in the same system, with the same language that he had. So it was is it we're onboarding a whole offensive staff and our quarterback.
And then we brought in Nick Mullens who comes from the system, Johnny Wolford who was in Tampa out of that system, and at the RAMS out of that system.
And so what we've purposely.
Done is surrounded Trevor with a lot of guys who understand to accelerate that that combined with his work ethic and his intelligence, I'm not worried about it at all.
Good Tony Boselli, Executive vice president Football Operations, Welcome back to TV Land.
Yeah, it's good to be back on how's it been going? Good?
Good? Actually, better than before after leaving to hang you for the draft show that we've got tonight. It's a long night.
Yeah, where are you guys doing that tonight? We're doing the podcast. Okay, I'll jump down there.
It comes to Hi, do you guys after the pick and chop it up a little bit?
Who do you?
I've been asking everybody.
I did some stuff with brand earlier in Austin, And who do you guys want?
Five? Give me Jensi Jensie back.
Yeah, explosive, five foot eight and a half, hard to tackle.
Well, mind you a little bit watching them and you know, not as wide as Maurice.
No, but bounces vision a little better vision.
But people, if you remember Maurice come out of UCLA, people would like bounce off of us, right and similar to yeah, he's a powerful.
We think logs wide receiver. Travis Hunter.
Travis Hunter. Yeah, yeah, well.
Everybody wants hit that wide receiver.
He ain't getting a five, so I mean so it might have.
To move up a little.
Oh that's it.
We'll bring Jeff down about talk to just go make the pick?
Ye uh, Tony, thanks man, Yeah, Tony, guys, it should be And when you need air electric or plumbing service. Donovan is always a good call. They've been trusted by their customers for over forty years. Trust them to deliver fast, reliable service to your home.
Brian Sexton from Green Bay.
When we return, this is Jaguars Happy Hour.
A baby.
I was always under the light, so it changed nothing about me.
You know.
The course is don't they don't really do anything to me.
I know, I know how to get through the courses. I'm not answer it.
So that is Travis Hunter from Colorado, wide receiver and cornerback at the NFL Draft yesterday. Some community events in the Green Bay area and some of the prospects making their way around town yesterday, all getting ready for the big night at Draft Central outside lambeau Field, the nuts so frozen tundra. Here at the end of April and welcome back. It's Jaguars Happy Hour. JP Shadwick with Jeff Logman.
We're at the Miller Electric Center, just down the hall from the draft room where the Jaguars leadership will make the pick at number five.
Maybe we'll see what happens tonight.
Brian Sexton is in Green Bay, Wisconsin and he joins US Now live from Draft Central.
How you feeling.
What's this scene?
Looks like there's a lot of a lot of fans starting to file.
Into Green Bay.
Listen, if you see me do this, it means I'm about to get run over because we're in the middle of the parking lot, which seemed like a great spot to set up about an hour ago. But all of a sudden, there's just been this deluge of folks that come through with either something to say or maybe just sort of a threatening approach. It's a live and active crowd, guys. I don't feel in danger.
But let's put it this way.
I feel like I could get knocked down by somebody who's a little too boisterous.
All right, So, Brian, I mean many people did not expect Green Bay to be hosting a draft. Of all places, where is everybody staying in Green Bay? I don't know if there's enough hotel rooms to fit everybody. Are they reunning every house out in Green Bay? Now?
You know this?
This kind of feels a little bit like when Jacksonville hosted the Super Bowl twenty years ago. They had to come up with alternative plans, right, so we brought in cruise ships.
They haven't quite done that.
I'm told that there are a lot of folks that jumped onto Airbnb. We're staying in Appleton, which is about half an hour from here. There's a lot of folks who are staying north up towards Michigan, and plenty more that are driving in from Milwaukee. It doesn't have the infrastructure and so they're not expecting the turnout like they had in Detroit last year. There was upwards of seven hundred and fifty thousand people who attended the three days
of the draft at Cadillac Square in Detroit. They're expecting about two hundred and fifty thousand. It's just it's narrow, there's not a lot of places to park. It's they're doing their best and they've got this whole title town thing going, so that's pretty good.
Brian Sexson joining us from just outside lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The twenty twenty five NFL Draft coming up a little after eight o'clock tonight is the first round, all right, So we heard from Travis Hunter they we'll for some more prospects coming up throughout this evening. You caught up with a bunch of those guys yesterday. What stood out the most about some of your conversations.
Well so, Ted McMillan was the funniest because I asked him the receiver from Arizona, have you heard from the jaguars? And his response was, nobody's heard from the jaguars, am I Trippman? Has anybody talked to the jaguars? And of course, you know, we knew that they weren't doing their thirty visit routine this year, but I was just curious if in any way, shape or form he had had made contact.
He said no.
I asked Ashton Genty about being born in Jacksonville and the potential of coming home, and he smiled and said, duvall he knew about the history with Fred and the comparisons to Maurice Jones. Drew Travis Hunter was great. I asked him point blank, what position are you playing? He said both. I said, you're holding on to that? He goes, why shouldn't I? And Mason Graham was quiet. You know what, lots of two and three word answers, but logs. He
had the biggest forearms. I mean, he made Tyson Alu Alu look small with his just the dimension from his elbow to his wrist so strong, powerful fit that he was a heavyweight wrestling champion in the state of California. They were all interesting, all good guys, which is what everyone's looking for.
They're looking for good guys. I heard Tony on with you.
They're looking for good dudes in the locker room, and all of those guys were good dudes.
Yeah, I think Mason Graham, I mean, you're talking about the intangibles are way way, way high. But I don't know if there's any intangibles that are higher than with Travis Hunter Bryan. I mean, the more you read about this guy, the more you get impressed with him. I mean, he's just an outstanding individual on top of being an outstanding wide receiver and defensive back.
Well to your point, Jeff, we were talking with him and he talked about being a better corner, a better wide receiver. He said he was really more focused on being a better husband, which I thought was a great line for him.
He's married to his high school sweetheart.
You probably saw the story in the Athletic that he loves to bass fish is a very.
Competitive bass fisherman.
He's just a really good guy and has a great head on his Shoulders. He was asked about the father who's under house arrest or a confinement of some sort, being allowed to come to the draft, and he said, the only thing I can say is it's a blessing to know that my dad's going to get a share this night with me. Just a really grounded guy. And I guess I was surprised Jay, Jeff and JP because
you know he's around Dion Sanders. You just would figure he'd be this flamboyant character, two way player, the best player in the draft.
No way.
I mean, he was humble, he was confident, but he was just a normal guy man. If they would make a move up for him, I'd be really excited about that.
And listen, if they take genty at five.
He was a real million megawatts smile, carried on a great conversation, could just effortlessly move between reporters and questions. And a young man came up and wanted to take a picture, and he said, hold on, and he stepped out. These guys that the Jaguars are considering at the top of the draft, or I should say, are reportedly considering at the top of the draft, our first class human beings from my limited interaction with them yesterday at the Play sixty events.
Brian, one of the things that's kind of been newsworthy about the first round picks that potentially will be picked tonight is that the number kind of dwindled a little bit. I think the NFL started out with the hopes of getting thirty players maybe there, and I think the numbers down to about fifteen. So you probably got an opportunity to talk to everyone that was there.
Well, listen, I was on my way to talking to everyone and all of a sudden it started raining and we had to go run in for the car, So I only.
Got to talk to those few guys.
But you know, there was only what offensive lineman, Will Campbell, there were a few defensive linemen. They're just this has become the draft has become a spread out affair, and guys throw their own parties and have their own, you know, YouTube channels lined up, and so you don't have that centralization they had when you were drafted and everybody was
in New York. There are some rumblings around here that in future years Bill work to get a couple of the big names from the second round on for Friday night, so that They've got more players here, but more and more of the top players. Although again the top players, the big three that you've talked about, Hunter, Carter, and Genty are all here. Cam Ward is here, Will Campbell is here. There are some big names here, but there's just not many of them.
And you can tell that the Green Bay locals don't have much much experience with TV, Brian. They're all dancing around behind you in the background.
Listen, I told you the guy came by earlier and I thought he was gonna knock me over.
He wanted to get in front of the camera so bad.
I've never felt that way, but I'm like, you know where there's a sniper on the roof.
I'm looking at him right now, and I want to.
Just do one of these. You got my back because I can't see what's going on behind me.
Don't keep pointing up there.
Just stop the pointing up there.
Bright Oh god, I don't want his attention to either. Listen.
Overall this is this is a great environment. They have so much here, and you know, the Jaguars haven't played a regular game. They were here in twenty twenty logs, but we were traveling back then. This place has changed so dramatically since twenty twelve when Plaine Gabbert had his I think his only three hundred yard passing day as a Jaguars quarterback. I mean, there's so much that's been built up around her. Title town is an office complex
with condos and all sorts of recreational opportunities. There's more restaurants and hotels around here. Not four seasons hotels Hampton in right, but there's there's a lot around.
Here these days, all right, Brian, So it's a cool place.
Last question for me, because you know when we were in Steven's Pointless Consint going way back to the Jaguars first training camp. Ever, Okay, one of the must that you absolutely had to do when you were in Wisconsin, especially around Green Bay, you had to have an order of kurds and a pitcher or a glass frosty mug of Point beer. Have you that yet?
Yep.
I will never touch a cheese curd. I don't care who orders it. I will never ever touch it, smell it, taste it. But the Point beer might have been on tap last night, and I have fond memories of our nearly six weeks in Steven's Point Wisconsin. For those of us that were on staff that showed up a little earlier than the union representative who refused to show up one day early.
Oh that was you. No, But listen, lots of great memories.
But you know what's funny is is nobody here remembers the Cheese League. It's gone. It was that brief moment with the Bears and the Chiefs and the Saints, and hey, thanks appreciate your participation in our show.
Are you right?
You see the crap I'm dealing with out here, But listen, I'll take it for the team for happy hour.
Fantastic.
We just do the rest of the show like this Green Bay.
Hey, listen, who do you want me to talk to?
Right?
The next guy that comes by, the next guy that comes he's gonna get it.
All right.
Final thought.
We'll get you out of here before you get heckled anymore.
Who do you want?
Who do you think to go?
By the way, some of the wacky weed is, oh who do I want?
There's there's a guy over here who's burning something he shouldn't be burning. Then that's probably why I'm distracted all of a sudden, So I think Ashton Genty makes the most sense.
I've said this.
They need touchdown scorers, Jeff. They have to have touchdown scores. You know you lost Christian Kirk. You don't have Evan Ingram anymore. You don't have the production guaranteed from ETN. I think genty makes a whole lot of sense, and I like him a lot. If you want to go up, great, If you want to go back, fine, But I like genty at five.
All right, Brian, it's hard arguing entertainment here.
Listen, there's a lot going on.
If you want me to find more entertainment for you, I'll find it.
It sounds like people are having a really good time there in Green Bay.
Have a great night.
It's about to get spicy here.
Yeah.
We'll look forward to your reporting throughout the evening. We'll see you back here when you get home. Brian Sexton jus from Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Boy, what a scene there.
Ahead of the twenty twenty five NFL Draft, Jaguars Football is presented by Fresh from Florida. It's always in season. We'll come back in a moment. And here from James Gladstone.
I caught up with him in.
The draft room just a little bit earlier today ahead of the NFL Draft, It's Jaguars Happy Hour. Welcome back, it is Jaguars Happy Hour Whenny coming up ahead of the twenty twenty five NFL Draft.
It begins at eight o'clock.
We've got about thirty minutes or so left on this program.
And the draft, of course, starts tonight.
It's time to celebrate the fifth overall pick with a newly released draft cap.
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Today.
We're on ten Toinexcel, Jaguars dot com, Jaguars YouTube, and it's Jaguars Happy Hour.
And as is tradition, on Draft Day, you catch up.
With the general manager of the Jacksonville Jaguars, this time first year general manager James Gladstone in the draft room.
About an hour ago.
JP Shadwick in the draft room with GM James Gladstone, first draft as a general manager. What are your feelings? Is there anxiety, nerves? How you're feeling just with only a couple hours to go?
You know, I gotta say, with all the work that's been done to date, all the collaboration across our coaching staff and scouting staff feel firm and our plan heading into tonight, And I got to say it hasn't felt, in terms of sensation, all that much different than any draft previously. You know, you got every thing sort of in the hopper and feel like you just fall back on what you had planned for and go from there.
So we're looking forward to what unfold. But obviously it won't take long for us to be on the clock and we're looking forward to press and send there and making the call.
Take us through your day so far, from the wake up to the morning prep to get to this.
Point, you know, it's been low key, It hasn't It hasn't been all that different from my normal routine. Woke up at the same time, got here at the facility fairly early, and headed out to the field for a few laps before taking some calls to just tie up a few loose ends, and have since been just chewing on the same thoughts that have seemingly been circling for quite a few few weeks.
Now, what's on your final checklist? Now?
What do you lean on when the clock starts? And take us a little bit if you can through your process when time is of the essence.
Yeah, you know, this first pick is going to be
a little different than the next next nine. Obviously, we some version of a controlled environment, knowing that there's only four selections ahead of us, and beyond that, I think what we'll lean into is a lot of the same things that I think we've preached over the last eight weeks, and really that's about focusing on players who are intangibly rich, and so that'll be top of mind at each pickpoint, and really the decisions that we'll make with each of
the nine picks that lie beyond tonight, we'll be sure to lean into that and keep that as our north star.
We all see rumors.
Do you follow the TV coverage of draft and all the rumors Draft Day things that may or may not happen, And how busy has.
It been on the phones with the Jaguars.
Well, yeah, I think I've got a pulse for what has seemingly been pushed out, which seems like every single scenario on planet Earth, which is exciting, entertaining. I mean, that's the business that we're in, and I think at pick number five we'll see some fireworks.
One way or another.
James, you luck to you appreciate the time.
I appreciate it as well.
Game on, game on logs, James Gladstone, the general manager could see some fireworks one way or another.
That's what you like to hear.
That's that killer mentality that Tony Boselli was talking about here a little bit ago. You know, I love listening to him talk very seamless. I mean, he should have considered a job in broadcasting, right. I mean, he's just something. He's quick on his feet, he's very direct and doesn't have any kind of a catchword to kind of gather a thought. I mean, he's just impressed. And look, part of being a leader also is being a great communicator, and and Tony's dead on the money about that aspect
of him. It's fun to watch.
There is a fascinating article in The Athletic that just came out recently about his rise through the RAMS organization and now his step forward as a general manager and some of the processes he's used to get.
To this point.
That's kind of what I was trying to get out of there a little bit was some of the behind the scenes data things that he'll use now in the past year, we've seen a draft room with you know, thirty people in there and ringing the room and all that. I don't know if we'll have that this year with James and he'll have access to people close by, it's going to be a select few that are actually right there.
Yeah, I think it kind of focuses the room. I think in a lot of different ways. I would probably do something somewhere if I were ever in James's shoes, just because you don't want to have a whole lot of things that are moving parts, etc. But everything he's done to date has been very impressive so far. But this day, today is the start of the lifeblood of
this franchise. The reality is is that the organization has not drafted very well in the past, and that's a fact, and the fact is shown in the record that this team has had and that needs to change. And how it changes is that you bring better players into the organization. James Gladstone is the key to this whole thing. He lives the key to this whole success of this organization
going forward, and it starts today with him. It started in free agency a little bit, but this is the meat, and this is the potatoes of any organization today, tomorrow and the next day.
It's pretty fascinating that you come in as a new GM, but you inherit the scouting staff you don't bring. There's been a couple of additions, right. The big change addition a lot of times happens after the draft. So he's inherited scouting staff and personnel staff and has from all accounts, enjoyed that process. They've done a good job in figuring out how he wants to communicate and work. And that's
got to be a difficult transition. I mean, you come in and all of a sudden the staff's already in place.
Yeah, I mean, just I mean for me personally, I would probably have a very difficult kind of time of trusting people, right, I mean, because look, there's a lot of holdovers from the Trent Ball general manager era. And you know, from what I understand, James has been very open and honest and has worked with everybody and that's
that's amazing. But I'm sure, just like anybody else would do that, there will be changes within the staff in and around James Gladstone's room, and as it should be, because as a general manager, you want to make sure that you have voices that you trust and also ears that you can trust.
Tonight, it's the first round of the twenty twenty five NFL Drafts at eight o'clock start time, and we will come back in this moment. We'll have John Oser, Jaguars dot Com senior writer. He'll join us on set and we're gonna make some picks.
We kind of already have logs, haven't we.
We kind of have I'm sticking with my Okay, well, well don't ruin it now. We'll come back if you've.
Just joined us logs.
Is gonna make another pick, but it's probably the same pick.
That is this Jaguars happy.
Hour anytime somebody's excelling on the level the highest level in the football league, for sure. But I also think we can't overlook, you know, also guys in you know, college football doing amazing things. Also in the NFL, there's a lot of other greer running backs. Now, is he the number one guy leading that?
For sure? Yeah?
That is Ashton Gent, the running back from Boise State and the Heisman Trophy runner up last year, only a little over two hundred points behind Travis Hunter and the Heisman voting massive season a year ago, five foot eight to eleven, tough to tackle. We'll see if he's there at five, if he's the picker or not. JP, Shadwick, Jeff Logan, John Osier joining us in the studio.
Now, Hi, John, I like the dramatic pause there. Yeah. Well, when you're bringing me in said, uh, it's draft night. I mean it's it's Uh, We've been through a lot of these, and I think it's James Gladstone said a couple of weeks ago. Uh, when you're picking number five and it's the first pick of a new regime, Uh, it's a tone center. So this is a big night. And I think over all, Jeff, it's a big weekend for me to see sort of what a James Gladstone
draft looks like. He does things differently. I'm curiously what this looks like by the end of Saturday.
Yeah, and I think all three days are really tone setters. I mean, look, you're you're adding ten. You know that's the number you're at now, you know, prospects to your roster. And by the way, JP, you kind of short changed Jenny a little bit. Was a five, nine, two fifteen, you know, and when you're five foot nine, okay, and you get called to be five foot eight that that that.
First five and a half.
Yeah, that's he's five five foot eight and a half. Oh, you're rounding up.
Okay, but a round up okay's not a round up first okay.
But I will say just real quick about Jenny watching the film with a guy, it's amazing to watch him and how powerful he is. And the one area that the Jacksonville Jaguars have great history with is the running back position. Fred Taylor, Maurice Jones, Drew And how fitting would it be to have a guy like Jenny to follow up from those two.
Well, if it's at five, he's going to be at that level, right to be a successful pick.
John, Yeah, it's making a mistake if you take a running back at five. I said, I called this morning. I called Leonard Frend you know, a mistake pick. And I like Leonard. But when you take a guy four and he's not a franchised, defining guy, all pro guy at that position, then it didn't work. So if you're going to take that position that high, really any position that I five, but especially running back, when you're going there and saying okay, it's maybe a five or six
seven year peak person. It's got to be Derrick, Henry Saquon.
Barkley level production.
Ap that's what you're expecting. So that's you know, whether they say it or not tonight, if you take a running back in five, that's what you're thinking is gonna be.
The position has been devalued, I mean over the years, and people are saying, well, how can you can't use high draft capital anymore to draft a running back? But if you listen to Liam Cohene talking about helping Trevor out, what's the one thing that he's talked about all off season? Getting a running game and better up front around them? And look, I want to get a better running game. Bam Jenny.
Right now.
Number two gives you an instant running game. I don't think there's any doubt on that.
And the position has been devalued, and that's a big theme. It's always a big pre pre draft theme. Now hall of famers haven't been devalued, so you're thinking, and I say hall of famers, I mean with Derek Henry, the guys we just mentioned, Henry Saquon Barkley, those are Hall of Fame level talent. Fred Taylor Hall of Fame level talent. That level of talent at that position hasn't been the value, So that would be the counter argument to the devalued position.
Well, and it's kind of interesting to see all of the draft talk kind of over the last six weeks and where it's been with Jenny. I mean, there were so many different people that were forecasting him going to Chicago and then all of a sudden here recently now some people are picking that he may come here to the Jacksonville Jaguars. And it's interesting too because if you look at what is in what's the common theme with
Chicago and the Jaguars. They have a very young quarterback that really hasn't shown that he's going to be an elite player yet, and so both teams may be looking to get a running back to help out these young quarterbacks, and he's a really good one. I said this to you JP and Brian Sexton, I think last week, and I said that, you know, there's three great players in this draft, and I'm just talking just from watching film that are head and shoulders above everybody. They are, and
that's Jenny, Travis Hunter, and Abdul Carter. Those three guys are just ridiculously at high levels. I mean, they're so separate from everybody else and at the top, and I don't cam Ward's not even in that category, not even close. But those three guys I think are just And the future may say that there's more than just those three, and maybe even not one of those three, but I think right now, in my opinion watching the film, those three guys are it.
And when people ask to a people, when is it okay to take it back in the top five, it's when what Jeff said is true. Meaning if that back is one of three great players in the draft, and there's another quarterback in there and maybe some team things offensive lineman, that's the scenario where it's okay because any GM you know, why did the Eagles win the Super Bowl at year because they had a bunch of players
who were really really really good. How many really really really good players the Jaguars have right now, BTJ and a couple you know, So if you're adding that to your group, then nets when top five running back makes sense?
John Ozier with us it is Jaguars happy hour, JP Shatter because Jeff Loghman just a few minutes to go here. This is the latest that we've been to an NFL draft where every team has their original pick in the draft. I think it was ninety three when the Chiefs and the Niners made the deal for Joe Montana and traded picks and such just a few days before the draft. That was previously the latest it had gone. But all even the years before this draft, everybody still has their picks.
It's an oddity. We'll see how long it lasts. I guess tonight it feels like, you know, with with the top four kind of there, the Jaguars might be that fulcrum point in this first round tonight.
Well, it's good that you said the thing about the trades now, because I think by eight forty five or so, yeah, oh, it's gonna be. I think it'll be a lot of trades once it starts. I think you got a little momentum Jeff of Okay, Well, once teams hadn't traded by a couple of weeks ago, then you wait and see what Tennessee does, and then other teams can start talking about it. My guess is there's been a lot of calls around the league where the button's ready to be pushed.
As soon as you're on the clock, So I think that would change.
Yeah, a lot of groundwork probably already been done. But John's right. I think once once cam Ward goes number one to Tennessee, then I think then the phones are going to start ringing after the top five happened, because the next two quarterbacks, which is obviously going to be a big part of that conversation about who trades and who doesn't. Where those guys end up fitting. I think it's gonna be very interesting because you know, for a long time people just thought that the trade was going
to be mainly around the Sheder Sanders. But Jackson Dart is now in the conversation as to moving up into the top half of the first round, which could make that even more interesting.
Quarterbacks always figured out a way to get up there.
It's fascinating how that works.
I mean, that's all the media we've been seeing the last couple of days is on Jackson dark But I mean, I mean, I guess that boards have had him up there all the whole time, Like they don't change their boards.
Just leave the process.
That's a huge isnamic in the draft too, is the media sort of hops into this on an increasing level after about the combine. So a lot of players whose stock is rising, it's because a GM finally told somebody in the media, hey, this guy's pretty good too. Oh now his stock's rising exactly. And I think that's what happened with Genti. Frankly, I think I think a lot of NFL people knew that this kid was special. Everybody
assumed the back wouldn't get taken that high. So then once it starts sort of flushing itself out, everybody realized, oh, there's only three guys, this guy should be up there. Some of that's finding out the information later.
And the other thing I think is going to be fun to watch tonight, aside from the top of the draft and the quarterbacks and Jenny and what the Jaguars do. For me, just an interesting standpoint. This football team here
in Jacksonville's offensive lineman. Okay, so what happens in the first round with all of these tackles that are there's a lot of them that have a first round grade, And so I'm going to be watching this first round with an eye on what can the Jaguars do in round two and who goes undrafted in Round one to give this football team options at a position of need, which is offensive line.
You always say it, You've been saying it for months. If you're going to rebuild the offensive line, you better start drafting offensive lineman high.
Yeah, And I think that's the dilemma when you're talking about Jenny or you're talking about offensive skill player high. I do believe that at some point point the Eagles, right all those years where they invested in it and it's not a sexy pick and your fans kind of go, Okay, well, it's fine, But at some point you have to sacrifice some next day pop to get that on one side of the ball or the other. If you're going to be a line centric team, you have start taking them early.
But I don't think. I don't think they're gonna be a line centric tonight.
And I would add one thing here that you made about the Eagles, right. The Eagles have drafted so well over the years, and that's the key of this whole thing. You've got to be able to stack good draft after good draft after good draft. I'm talking consistently good drafts to build a franchise. If you can do that, then you can be where the Eagles are you know? And look, they're winning super Bowls without a truly truly elite quarterback. I think of Passer now, he's got his great traits
and special characteristics in his own right. Yes, But the talent, the overall talent of that Eagles team is what has carried that football team to where they are today. And you hope that James Gladstone leaves this team in that direction going forward.
In James, you trust, right, j Yes, yes we do.
And that begins tonight final couple of minutes here, guys.
So John, let's let's.
Get your pick.
If the Jags are at five, what are they like?
Look, I think there's guys out of their reach at five that they love. I think Carter and Hunter, who I don't think will be there at five. If they could get those guys, boy, I think they love them. I don't know if it's going to be too expensive. There's reports out there about all kinds of different things. The expense to move up I just wonder about. So I'm gonna go genty if they stick at five.
Blogs, Oh goodness, we went through this earlier.
We know what you want.
Yeah, I wanted to trade up to get trash but if they're.
At five, a lot of things.
Yeah, yeah, I know.
Look, I love Jenny, like I said, I think he's one of the three elite players in this draft, and I think that you can't go wrong there. But I will say this, Mason Graham, Banks, the tackle out of Texas. There's a lot of great players in this draft, and I think that it's gonna be hard to mess this fifth overall pickup.
I don't know if there's a long scenic route to a pick, said Jenny.
Yeah, okay, but look, I like again, I like Mason Graham, I like Banks the tackle from Texas, and those two, all three of those guys are worthy at five. But the truly elite player again, like I said, Hunter Carter and then of course Jenny, those three are the elites.
In this dram.
See what happens ahead of the Jaguars tonight. It's at eight o'clock start time. We're going to have pre draft coverage. Apprecio is at seven point thirty. It's at Jaguars dot com. All the Jaguars social media channels, including Facebook and x Tonight will also be on Jaguars YouTube this evening, so check that out. Seven point thirty for some final thoughts leading into the NFL Draft, And we'll also have Bucky
Brooks on that show coming up tonight as well. John, You're gonna have writing all night and all weekend long.
That's what I'm told. It will be on the website, free website.
Free website, Jaguars dot com. Check it out, logs. You're gonna be with us all weekend? What's the story or just tonight?
I think tonight? Okay, tonight today? Yeah, I'm gonna bounce around a little bit tonight.
Okay, love that.
Yeah, you got radio tonight, right, yeah.
Radio tonight, and I think it's pop on Martin now a little bit. Maybe even with you, I don't know.
Oh wow, love all that. We'll see Jack of all trades.
I'm gonna try, you know again film. I've been watching film for months of these guys.
Yeah, so use your analysis.
Look, I'm looking forward to this strap just because you know, when you when you spend time watching these guys, you really want to kind of see what your thoughts kind of how they compare to the other, the true professionals. You understood just a Draftnick, that's all.
That's it.
You're a whole lot more than that. Logs, you're a tremendous slouch. Don't worry, I think. Jaguars Half Hours presented by Dreampinders Homes, official homebuilder of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and we are closing in eight o'clock the start time and if you're watching on Jaguars dot Com, a live look inside the Jaguars draft room at the Miller Electric Center. A busy night ahead, enjoy