The journals were surprisingly unanimous. And surprisingly … surprising.
“Huge value entry by CLV,” sent a text to a framework of the NFC.
“Horrible trade” for Jacksonville, an AFC assistant struck. “They have abandoned so much. They are trying to be smarter than everyone.”
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Maybe it was jealousy. Or perhaps a league anchored in its systems and traditions will prove to be fair that the dominant wisdom could have saved the Jacksonville Jaguars Of a puff.
But unlike the prospect of fans on Jacksonville is exchanged from the fifth to the second choice in total of the NFL 2025 draft to select the wide receiver of Colorado / Defensive back Travis HunterThe coaches and members of the front office through the league have constantly faced the profession.
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Sources of seven different teams preferred the Cleveland Browns“Result,” they said to Yahoo Sports. THE Browns has drafted the defensive platform of Michigan Mason Graham Fifth in the general classification while adding a high second round choice of 2025 and a first round choice in 2026, in addition to exchanging the choices of 104 and 200 for 126.
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The League respects the skills and the character of Hunter, expecting a successful career on his part. But the coaches and managers questioned the cost that Jacksonville paid.
An NFC assistant considered what the Jaguars would need to prove that the capital of the lost draft was worth jumping three places.
“Do Trevor (Lawrence) legitimate “, the assistant sent a text.” If it happens, it was worth it. »»
Otherwise?
“Jax was watered. Unless it is a temple of fame. ”
So how did this shocking business occur?
The wide receiver of Colorado Travis Hunter puts on the Jaguars cap, not a brown that many were waiting for. (Photo / jeff dresserson)
(Associated Press)
Travis Hunter meant more for the Jaguars than for the brown
The Jaguars and Browns worked in this business for “the best part of two weeks,” said Jacksonville Managing Director James Gladstone at a press conference on Thursday evening.
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The two parties intimately knew the cost of presenting the first round choices.
Cleveland treated a transport that included three first-round selections for the quarter-Arrière Deshaun Watson In 2022, a decision that the team's ownership recently described “a swing and a lack”. Gladstone grew up in the NFL with the Rams of Los AngelesWho won a Super Bowl with the aggressive strategy of the Director General Les SNEAD who has become affectionately known as “F *** the choices”.
“I probably have some familiarity with the F *** process – these picking,” said Gladstone. “So for our fans, I'm going to tell you: don't be afraid. This is something that I am only positioned to navigate. We ended up bringing Travis Hunter to Jacksonville.”
The jaguars have prioritized the acquisition of the generational two -way player because they believe that he will raise the club on and off the field, with features worthy in the first round to the receiver and the cornerback.
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Catch passes and exploit areas in defense as a sly receiver? Chef Liam Coen and Gladstone await him from their new Jaguar. Find the ball and slide it from the possession of the opponents? The brass club also expects to see that too.
The jaguars have drawn a concert vision with coaches, staff assessors, sports coaches, sports scientists and equipment staff. This vision could change.
“We will have a plan at the moment of (him) mainly in attack with learning the defensive system and practicing it on the defensive side of the ball also throughout this intersane program,” said Coen. “While we continue to grow, we must be fluid throughout this process.”
Coen and Gladstone know that the One line must raise in 2021 n ° 1 in the general classification of the good player that he was to the generational player that many thought he was going to become. They bench on a generational player plus a generational player equaling the performance of the generational team.
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“We have a plan in place,” said Coen, “and this is really where we will start.”
The Browns, on the other hand, needed significant capital to replenish a list that always hurts the choices they have lost in Watson's trade which did not bear fruit.
The goal of general manager Andrew Berry with the second overall choice was “to have a maximum impact on the team”. (For those who wonder if Hunter would have been his choice at two years, Berry joked: “It will have to go to my grave.”)
Graham excels as an interior rusher who can play online racing game and stretch areas, an NFC leader told Yahoo Sports. He is “a good adjustment for the front of” the attack “to Three Tech (nique),” said another AFC assistant.
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The Browns and the defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz have a value attacking the defensive line players who “use the movement, the speed, the power to really restore the melee line, to put himself up and finally to precipitate the smuggler,” said Berry. Cleveland expects Graham to disturb the quarters with his talent for penetration.
“To descend three places, always obtain a first -rate perspective in the trenches, adding a choice in what we consider is the ideal point for this year's draft class, and the addition of a first round choice next year in a class which, frankly, will be stronger in the first 30 choices?” Said Berry. “In the short term and on a multi -year time horizon, it was an adjustment for what we wanted to do.”
Could Jaguars and Browns finally win? For the moment, Hunter benefits the most
In the long term, there may not be to be a loser in this profession.
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The jaguars have taken a bold trade that the league decision -makers question. It could still bear fruit.
The Browns opted for a less sexy first round than much planned. They too could be better for that.
Cleveland has understood the reality of his list and his life cycle of the team, knowing that winning in 2025 is not really the most important thing at the moment. The reconstruction of a team that has weakened comes first. A defensive line with Graham alongside Star Edge Rusher Myles Garrett concerns AFC North opponents and more. There is patience to their strategy which contrasts the approach of New York GiantsWHO Selected at the Rusher of Penn State Abdul Carter third in the general classification Before returning to n ° 25 to take Ole Miss Quarterback Jaxson Dart.
Jacksonville, meanwhile, was comfortable for hunter rather than “settle” for a fifth player in the general classification in the direction of the ball carrier Ashon Jeanty or an elite offensive line player.
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Gladstone did not seem disturbed by the consequences. He knew that he would draw a new course, and philosophized by phraseology and manners recalling Snead when he explained his difference in opinion from most of the league.
“During your life, you feel moments in which you have not done something out of fear,” said Gladstone, “and you also feel the moments when you jump, and start to level and balance the sensations that accompany each. I know each step that I have not taken to the fear that I regret.
“It is therefore not something that I intend to do the rest of my life.”
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It is too early to say if the jaguars will be better off. But it seems likely, especially in 2025, that the Hunter ceiling is higher with Lawrence and the Jaguars than it would have been this year in the quarter-Wilderness Cleveland.
Gladstone said the strategy that stimulated this decision was not unique. Instead, consider this as an indicator of the to come from Jacksonville to come.
“It was certainly a declaration of how we plan to move, how we plan to operate,” said Gladstone. “When there is a possibility of being daring, we are not going to start.”
