Since this team came into existence they have proven themselves to be rather agile draft day experts. In the first draft they drafted two pieces of a core that took the team to the AFC championship game.
For 2009 this team needed to surround QB David Garrard with some more protection and a few new receivers. Jacksonville had purged their receiver corps in the time leading up to the draft. In March I had the pleasure to play Jaguars GM for the day in the big mock draft for Examiner.com. In that role I selected WR Jeremy Macklin out of Missouri. One can read my reasoning for that pick here
Of course in the mock draft all of the big OL had already been selected, and as one can already tell I am not sold on Andre Smith. I also though that there was a chance the Jags would go after another QB. If the Jags went that way maybe they would have taken Pat White out of West Virginia as a back up/long term project.
The Jaguars took a different direction. They decided to surround their QB with as much talent as they could find. It was lucky for them that Eugene Monroe the OT out of Virginia fell to them at the 8th overall pick. Monroe was the second highest ranked OT in this draft and he will be the Jags starting LT in 2009.
In the second round with the 39th overall pick they selected OT Eben Britton from Arizona. Briton was the 4th ranked OT in this draft so with two picks that Jaguars virtually remade their OL. This should give their QB more time to make better down the field decisions.
In the later rounds the Jaguars addressed their other needs by selecting a DT, a WR, and a few other projects to give their team depth at other positions. In the end the Jaguars resisted the urge to draft big name offensive players and draft two building blocks that may eventually lead them to get their name off the list of the 5 NFL teams have not won a Super Bowl.
With all of that being said here is a look at the Jaguars 2009 draft grades:
Round 1- A
Round 2- A
Talent- A+
Need- A
Average- A
A complete look at the 2009 Draft of the Jacksonville Jaguars:
Round One- 8th overall Eugene Monroe OT Virginia
Round Two- 39th overall Eben Britton OT Arizona
Round Three- 72nd overall Terrance Knighton DT Temple
Round Three- 73rd overall Derek Cox CB William & Mary
Round Four- 107th overall Mike Thomas WR Arizona
Round Five- Jarett Dillard WR Rice
Round Six- Zach Miller TE Nebraska-Omaha
Round Seven- 250th overall Rashad Jennings RB Liberty
Round Seven- Tiquan Underwood WR Rutgers
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