Tony Boselli reassures fans: the Jaguars are actively building for success. Strategic offseason moves and untapped talent signal a team poised for improvement.
The Jacksonville Jaguars aim to improve on their 13-5 finish last season, and Tony Boselli said there is enough time in the offseason for the team to get better.
Boselli, the team's executive vice president of football operations, made an appearance on Jacksonville's sports radio show, 1010XL, on Wednesday.
He acknowledged general manager James Gladstone, coach Liam Coen and he are not sitting idly after a successful season and reassured Jaguars fans there is time for the team to improve.
"Are we where we need to be? No. Do we need to get better? Yes," Boselli said on "The Drill," hosted by Dan Hecken and Jeff Prosser. "We have a long time before we kick this thing off. I think the one thing that our fans and everyone listening can be confident of, if they paid attention over the last year, James, Liam, and myself are not going to sit idle."
This offseason, the Jaguars have retained some players from last year's roster, like cornerback Montaric Brown and linebacker Dennis Gardeck. They signed running back Chris Rodriguez Jr. to bolster positional depth after Travis Etienne Jr. signed with the New Orleans Saints.
It wasn't a splashy free agency for Jacksonville, but the front office became active in trades over the last few weeks. They acquired defensive tackle Ruke Orhorhoro from the Atlanta Falcons in exchange for Maason Smith, a rare player-for-player swap.
In last week's draft, the Jaguars traded up from the 124th pick to the 119th with the Carolina Panthers to select edge rusher Wesley Williams out of Duke. They traded up from the 196th to the 191st with the New England Patriots to select wide receiver Josh Cameron out of Baylor.
Shortly after the draft ended last Saturday, Jacksonville signed 18 undrafted free agents, and one of them was a player Boselli said the team considered drafting.
"We added J'mari Taylor out of Virginia, who we really considered drafting," Boselli said. "And the way the running back class went this year, and how the draft went, a lot of those guys got pushed to undrafted free agents. So, we made a calculation that he was the guy that we loved from the beginning."
Taylor spent his final season with the Cavaliers and rushed for 1,062 and 14 touchdowns on 222 carries. It was his second consecutive 1,000-plus yard season, the first coming the year before at the FCS level at North Carolina Central.
Boselli said the 5-foot-9 running back would compete with DeeJay Dallas, who's entering his second season with Jacksonville, for a depth spot at the position.
Coen said the Jaguars would lean on Bhayshul Tuten's strengths, and he is familiar with Rodriguez. Boselli noted LeQuint Allen Jr. is a third-down back for the team, which leaves the fourth spot open for grabs between Taylor and Dallas.
While Jacksonville drafted two edge rushers in Williams and Washington's Zach Durfee, Boselli highlighted the pass-rushing and coverage need to mesh together for an increase in pressures and sacks.
"If you go look at the statistics, quarterbacks got the ball out of their hands," Boselli said. "I think we were either the quickest or one of the quickest teams in the NFL for our opponents getting rid of the ball. And so we've got to tighten up coverage as well on the back half."
Travon Walker, Josh Hines-Allen and Arik Armstead combined for 185 quarterback pressures last season, but the team ranked 21st in passing yards allowed per game (218.1).
Improvement in the coverage game could freeze up opposing quarterbacks enough for the Jaguars' pass-rush to get home and record a sack. It's an area the team struggled in last year, and the draft helped add some depth to the pass-rushing attack.
The Jaguars are about to enter the fourth month of the offseason, after the hot period of free agency cooled down and the draft ended. OTAs will start in several weeks, and Boselli believes there is time for the team to reach the heights they want to next season.
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