Episode 96: Re-Shaping the Jaguars - GM Candidates Who Could Change Everything

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Can the Jaguars turn their losing streak around with a fresh perspective at the helm? Join James Johnson on a solo episode as he briefly dissected the recent humiliating defeat to the Buffalo Bills and spotlight the desperate need for change in the Jaguars' front office. With the trajectory of the season unlikely to change, James zeroed in on the role of General Manager, scrutinizing Trent Baalke's tenure and laying out why a new leader is essential for the franchise’s future. Tune in for a candid examination of Trevor Lawrence’s struggles, the frailty of our offensive line, and defensive woes amplified by injuries and depth issues.

Explore with James the impressive resumes of potential GM candidates who could transform the Jaguars into a winning team. From Will McClay’s success in building powerhouse offensive lines for the Dallas Cowboys to Ed Dodds' mastery in talent evaluation for the Colts, we break down the strategies these experts bring to the table. James also shined a light on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ front office, showcasing how their smart personnel decisions and robust organizational culture have kept them competitive, even without constantly drafting franchise quarterbacks.

The conversation doesn’t stop there. James also highlighted the remarkable drafting skills of the Lions, revealing how potential GM candidate Ray Agnew has what the Jags need to revive themselves. Lastly, learn about Mike Borgonzi’s strategic brilliance with the Kansas City Chiefs and how his approach could be the revolution the Jaguars need. As we chart a path forward for our beloved team, stay with us for future episodes where coaching candidates will be put under the microscope as it’s clear changes are needed.

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James Johnson and Phil Barrera bring you the best and most up to date Jacksonville Jaguars news. "Touchdown Jaguars!" is a tribute to the prospective ownership group "Touchdown Jacksonville!" In 1991, the NFL announced plans to add two expansion teams and "Touchdown Jacksonville!" announced its bid for a team, and Jacksonville was ultimately chosen as one of five finalists. In November 1993, the NFL owners voted 26–2 in favor of awarding the 30th franchise to Jacksonville. James and Phil have been fans of the franchise ever since and have had the honor (and sometimes dishonor) of covering the team professionally since 2017. The rest as they say, is history.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:46):
You.
Touchdown Jacksonville, lookingfor Jimmy in the end zone.
Touchdown Jaguars.
Touchdown Jaguars.
Touchdown Jaguars.
Welcome to the TouchdownJaguars podcast.
Here are your hosts, jamesJohnson and Phil Smith.

(01:08):
Ladies and gentlemen, the sighsays it all right, but
nonetheless, welcome to theTouchdown Jaguars podcast.
I am one half of your hostingpanel, james Johnson, here.
Typically, I am joined by myco-host, phil Smith, here, but

(01:30):
this week when we recorded theepisode right on brand with the
Jaguars, right, I forgot to putmy memory card in my Rodecaster
recorder.
So the episode that Phil and Iuh, actually did not get saved.
So I guess I was just, you know, following on brand with the

(01:51):
team there, uh.
So this will be a solo episode.
I told phil you know my b onthat, um, I'll have to rectify
this and just do a solo episodeand I am here, which that might
not have been a good idea,because to do this solo is going
to be hard, right.
But then again, you know what?

(02:11):
I probably won't spend a lot oftime on the game and my
disappointment in the game,because it's not much to say
that we haven't already said,right.
So, that being said, me andphil were thinking about what we
were going to do for thisepisode and how difficult it was

(02:32):
going to be.
It did dawn on us and I thinkmaybe my nephew boogie maybe
even have may have put it in thethread as well that we're with
with stodge and um.
You know, phil and myself.
But instead of maybe harping ona game and and sounding like a
broken record because a lot ofwhat we're going to say is kind

(02:53):
of what we've already said maybewe should start looking at the
future and that's what thisepisode is about in terms of
what we saw and realizing andcoming to the realization that
it's time to move on.
So what we're gonna do?
We'll briefly talk about thegame, but a lot of time and

(03:15):
effort and energy does not needto go into that, because what we
saw on the field was straightpitiful and embarrassment to the
city, embarrassment to fans.
I'm out here in my twitterpicture repping this team head
to toe with expensive gear.
You know they got us buyingexpensive throwbacks and all of
that good stuff and hyping us upfor the season, and they start

(03:38):
the season this way.
And not only that, when itcomes to going to a national
stage, they went out there onMonday night football, which we
rarely get Monday night footballopportunities and opportunities
on ESPN and they embarrassed usin a 47 to 10 blowout pretty
much, and right from the startit never felt like it was going

(04:01):
to be a game that went well forthe Jacksonville Jaguars right
out of the jump.
All of that said, we'll spendvery little time on the game and
box score and recapping it andthe topic more so of this
episode and the theme more so ofthis episode again.
And you know, boogie, I think,put this idea in our head and

(04:22):
thought process or maybe it wasPhil idea in our head and
thought process, or maybe it wasPhil, but we're going to look
at five GMs to keep in mindbecause, make no mistake about
it, the Jacksonville Jaguars andwe've long been critics of
Trent Baalke and hard on TrentBaalke, but make no mistake
about it, the JacksonvilleJaguars need to make changes and

(04:42):
obviously for us it startsthere and that's not to get
coaching off of the hook and howthey done with developing
players.
They've been terrible as well.
So we will also do down theroad, maybe even next week, an
episode on five coachingcandidates to look at as well.
So don't just because we're notdiscussing coaching as much in

(05:04):
this episode don't mean we letthem off the hook.
We're going to get on them toolater down the road too, because
what they've done and how thisteam has gone out there to look
these first three weeks is justutterly ridiculous.
So they got something comingtoo, but for now, we'll start at
the top, and by the top we meanat the GM position, the person

(05:25):
that we've been most critical ofof Trent Baalke, as it's clear
as day that he needs to go aswell.
Right, I see a lot of tweetsabout the coaching and press
Taylor and Ryan Nielsen and allof this and them needing to go,
and those are spot on too.
But when you look at the biggerpicture, don't don't miss the
bigger picture.

(05:45):
Here it all starts with TrentBaalke at the top and, of course
, it starts with Shaq Khan, whois above Trent Baalke.
But here's the thing you can'treplace an owner unless he wants
to sell the team.
So let's kill that noise rightnow that Shaq Khan needs to go,
because it's not happening,especially with how much he's
making year in and year out andhow much he's improved the

(06:06):
jaguars income and net worthyear in and year out.
Shotgun isn't going anywhereanytime soon, so we'll nip that
in the bud.
Right now that's not even atopic to discuss as much as
we've been on him too, and a lotof this is his fault too.
He's not blameless in this.
I know 1010XL was saying that.
You know it's not Sean Cunn'sfault or somebody from 1010XL

(06:28):
was saying that, but you can'tchange ownership at this point
unless he wants to sell the teamand you feel like, if it ever,
you know, came to a situationwhere Sean would be less
involved with the team right andage or whatever kicked in.
You know whatever, we see itall the time with owners.
You know they get up there inage and um, you know there's,

(06:50):
they're not around the team asmuch.
Then you know it's tony's teamto inherit, so the cons are
probably going to be around fora long time.
But all of that said, um, we aregoing to look at five gm
candidates for jaguars fans toknow and this is a personal list
, this is not something where Igot like sources or anything
going or you know anything I gothints on or anything like this.

(07:12):
This is a personal list afterdoing some research and, that
being said, when this idea cameabout and we talked about it.
You know, with me and Phil andBoogie, I kind of got excited a
little bit because I wasn'texcited to record this episode
when it came to expressing whatwent on, went down on the field.
But when we came to theconclusion, hey, like maybe we

(07:36):
should go another direction withthe episode and maybe the
direction should be looking intothe future, and maybe the
direction should be looking intothe future, I think I got a
little bit more excited about it, right?
So if you want a recap of thegame and all of that, you're
going to get it very brieflyhere.
But if you're looking forsomething in depth, due to the

(07:59):
fact that we've already gonethrough a lot of this and we
tried to prepare peoplebeforehand for this situation a
Trent Baalke-Rand team and howit could go, being that we tried
to prepare people beforehandand have been harping on this is
how it could go, possibly for along time now, we will instead
talk about the GM candidates.

(08:19):
There's plenty of otherpodcasts that can give you
in-game analysis on whathappened on Monday Night
Football Also too.
At the same time, just lookingback at it in hindsight, me and
Phil did give this team thebenefit of the doubt.
A lot of us did give the teamthe benefit of the doubt, saying
that they can have double digitwins, because I mean, well,

(08:40):
quite frankly, that wasn't wrongto do, because they do have the
talent.
That's what's so headscratching about this team is
the talent is there and the 0-3start that they have does not
match what they have on thefield.
We've seen talentless teams Meand Phil been doing this a long
time.
We've seen the Gus Bradleyteams that had no talent and you
could tell right off rip, theywere going to get boat raced
each week.

(09:02):
But this is different.
This team is different boatraced each week.
But this is different.
This team is different now.
They invested in the ericarmstead right.
They've invested in first roundpicks at the quarterback and
running back position.
They have a brian thomas jr whois a ascending star.
They have evan ingram, who'snot available right now because
of injury, but they have guysthat are of pro bowl magnitude.

(09:25):
So that's what's puzzling andthat's why it wasn't out of the
realm of possibilities that thisteam could actually be good and
get double digit wins.
But we just should have stuckwith our guns and just went with
that little inkling in the backof our mind that, hey, it's a
Trent Baalke ran team and it'sall gonna come crashing down
eventually.
So, um, that's my intro for thisepisode, before we get into the

(09:49):
brief recap of the game andbefore we get into the topic at
hand about the gms, of course,we got to get all our
information of how to follow usand keep tabs on us out there.
If I didn't say it in thebeginning of the podcast, you
can follow me on Twitter atSportsGrind, underscore Don.
You can follow my co-host, philSmith, at Phil the Filipino on

(10:12):
Twitter.
Feel free to hit us up Venturefrustrations.
Let us know how you're feeling,let us know what you agree with
that we said and what youdisagree with in terms of what
we said, and it'll be a lot totalk about.
I would especially love to hearsome thoughts about this list
of GM candidates that I'm veryexcited about, by the way, and I

(10:33):
know it does come down toshotgun being smart enough to
make the right decision to wanta GM in this, in this
organization, or hire somebodyto get the right GM in this
organization, but we'll worryabout that later down the road.
You can also follow the podcastat TD Jaguars pod on Twitter as

(10:54):
well, so feel free to follow usthere.
We have a website as well, andthat is wwwtouchdownjaguarscom,
and you know our archiveepisodes go on there and written
content from time to time goeson there too.
I will definitely have a lot ofwritten content to put on there
now, because it's going to be along season and it's going to
be hard to watch.

(11:15):
So for us it's time to startpivoting into the future.
Into the future, right, ifwe've already.
You know, if you kind ofmonitor the temperature of our
episodes throughout the past,we've already kind of been ready
to get there and get TrentBaalke out of here, right, and I

(11:37):
do want the coaches going too,so they're not exempt to this
too, but we've been long oneTrent Baalke gone.
Um, if you've been monitoringthe temperature of, you know how
we feel about the front office.
We've been ready to go to thefuture and they've given us a
reason after losing 47 to 10.
They've given us more thanenough reasons.
Even though it's just weekthree.

(11:58):
They've given us more thanenough of a reason to start
looking into the future.
One last thing before we getinto the episode, if you all
would be kind enough to shoutout or to check out our sponsor,
seatgeek, who have beensponsoring us for mostly the

(12:20):
whole entirety of this podcastor the time that we've been
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Go ahead and head on over toseek geek, who is your go-to
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Of course, we talk sports here.

(12:42):
We talk about the JacksonvilleJaguars here.
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That we did but wasn't recorded.
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You could do that, but if not,there are also many, many other

(13:03):
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(13:25):
You get 20 off of your firstorder with them.
So go ahead, save you some.
Save yourself 20.
Spend that on gas or food chips, whatever the case may be, but
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Save yourself some money byusing our code again.
That's touchdown jaguars andhead on, head on over to seat
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(13:48):
whatever event it is you'relooking for mlb.
I know we're cruising up on theplayoffs.
Hopefully the braves uh will goahead and and punch in that
wild card.
It's a tight race right now,but hopefully we'll make that
happen.
Go braves right.
At least I got something tolook forward to with them.
Maybe.
Maybe it's been a rough seasonfor them, but they have a excuse

(14:11):
.
They've been really banged up.
But whether it's the mlb, youknow when the nba is started,
has started again or will startagain.
You can get nba tickets.
You can get concert tickets toyour favorite musician, whoever
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Head on over there to SeatGeekand see if you can find what you
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(14:35):
have an app as well, so feelfree to download the SeatGeek
app.
All right on to the topics athand.
We'll get into the game itself.
I'll briefly go over the boxscore.
We'll start with offense.
They didn't put up many points,obviously.
Score was 47 to 10, right,trevor Lawrence really wasn't

(14:55):
able to get anything going.
Right, he hasn't been able toelevate the team like we wanted
out of a first round pick.
But he's far from the onlyissue here.
Right, they haven't builtcorrectly around him.
So, you know, that's anothertopic for another time.
But Trevor Lawrence 21 of 38,178 yards, one touchdown, one

(15:18):
pick a very, very terrible pick,albeit that was his first one
of the season.
That's one thing I think peopleare missing too.
By the way, you know theybrought up the pick statistic on
espn, if I'm not mistaken, butnot that this.
That trevor has played well,but that was his first pick of
the year.
Right, everybody was saying heneeded to get the picks and the

(15:39):
fumbles and all of that fixed.
Well, he hasn't turned the ballover a lot, but he hasn't been
effective either.
So all the criticism that he'sgetting has been warranted, but
in terms of a qbr 19.8, justyucky stats in every way, shape
and form.
I wanted to say something worsethan that, but just just
terrible, abysmal stats there.

(16:01):
On his end, matt jones got inthe game as well.
He threw about five passes orso as well.
So that's how bad it went forthe jacksonville jaguars.
Just wasn't able to get nothinggoing behind center, and it's
probably hard to do that whenyou have the offensive line that
we have and how they areplaying and how cam robinson has
played at left tackle, and justnot not just him but the whole

(16:24):
unit in general.
They have been underwhelming.
Travis Etienne had 11 carriesfor 68 yards.
Wasn't really able to get muchgoing on his end.
The receivers also weren't ableto get much going.
Christian Kirk had 79 yards oneight catches.
Brian Thomas Jr had fivecatches for 48 yards.

(16:46):
There was one touchdown in thegame for the Jacksonville
Jaguars and it came viareception and it was Brenton
Strange who got that.
That was one of his tworeceptions for 12 yards.
And then on the defensive side,montaric Brown led the way with
seven tackles.
He had a rough game the gamebefore against the Browns.

(17:07):
He looked pretty good, but hehad a rough game here, and
behind him was Chad Moomer, whoalso had seven tackles as well.
There were no turnovers on theJazz part, to my recollection,
because the Bills just flat outdid what they wanted to do in
terms of just taking advantageof the Jazz scheme, and a lot of

(17:29):
people will say and I thinkthis is where we can end this
right, this gives me an out interms of recapping this straight
up bloodbath here.
Straight up bloodbath here.
But the the biggest talkingpoint, or one of the biggest

(17:49):
talking points about this gamewas, of course, that the jaguars
almost allowed 50 points andtheir defense could do nothing
to stop joe brady's offense andstop josh allen from throwing
the ball wherever he wanted,whenever he wanted.
But this goes back to the topicat hand, right, gm's, who we're
going to talk about, and andnot just that, the again.

(18:11):
A lot of this falls on coachingtoo.
We'll get on them in anotherepisode, though, but I think I
think, when you look at thisBills team almost dropping 50 on
the Jacksonville Jaguars, it'sstill inexcusable, despite not
having some key players.
I know they're minus TysonCampbell that was one of the

(18:32):
topics Louis Riddick mentioneduh, him, I know they are missing
.
Darnell Savage, who was veryimpressive week one.
I know Foye got hurt in thegame as well, and and he is
going to miss some time forplantar fissiitis as well.
I know all of that.
But Trent Baalke has beenbuilding this team since Urban

(18:53):
Meyer got here, right, and heeven had a draft last year where
he was able to make the mostamount of draft picks that has
been made for the JacksonvilleJaguars in their history.
What was it?
Ten picks or so, something likethat.
Double digit picks Crazy amountof picks, right?
So somebody who's had fouryears has had enough, more than

(19:16):
enough time to build the depththat is needed to overcome these
injuries, especially when youlook at all of the names were
mentioned and a lot of guys inthe secondary.
Well, guess what y'all?
Trent Baalke has been draftingdefensive backs late for the
last three years or so, so he'sput the at least the effort into

(19:40):
sustaining injuries in thedefensive backfield.
They just haven't been able tohit on those picks.
Right, and that's part of being, that's part of your job as a
GM.
You have to hit on some of thelate round picks.
You don't have to hit on all ofthem, but the many, many picks
that the Jaguars have put intotheir secondary injuries
shouldn't hurt them this bad, tothe point where they're getting

(20:00):
beat 10 to 47.
I can remember Pete Prisco, alsoa big critic of Trent Balky,
when he was saying that TrentBalky sat in on the defensive
interviews they were having fora defensive coordinator right
earlier this offseason and ittook me off a little bit.
But then when I thought aboutit in the session I was like,

(20:21):
well, you know, the gm is goingto be drafting the players for
this scheme, so it kind of doesmake sense that he would sit in
on the interviews he needs.
He needs to know what kind ofplayers, um, it is that he needs
to draft.
So I kind of down a little bit.
But also with that, with yousitting in on the interviews for

(20:41):
the defensive coordinator right, that just shows you how
hands-on you've been, trentBaalke, with making sure the
defensive coordinator has whathe needs when injuries occur.
All right, so you're sitting inon the interview process before
the man, ryan Nielsen, even gotthe job.
You're assessing what itrequires for this defensive

(21:04):
scheme to go well and what'sneeded.
And with that you also knowwhat, where your weak spots are
and where you need to address interms of depth, wise.
And yet here we are with a 10 to47 loss, an egg on our face and
the people that were backing upthe starters just look flat out
.
Loss that boils down toevaluations.
The evaluation part falls onyou as a gm, trent balky, so

(21:28):
we'll leave that at that.
No need to spend any moreenergy on that box score or this
game or recapping it.
Let's get into the topic athand.
That'll segue us right intowhere we need to be and looking
at the future and looking atpeople who can evaluate and fix
this issue and have it to wherethe Jaguars, if they lose
players, they can continue tolook like a watchable team and a

(21:51):
team that can win and a teamthat has a chance despite the
injuries that they've sustained.
So we will start.
I'll start.
I have five candidates or fivepeople that I really like.
I have five candidates or fivepeople that I really like and
we'll start from five and we'llwork our way up to one.
And number five on my list isprobably number five and could
be ranked higher.

(22:11):
But he's probably number fiveon my list because it's just
hard to see him leaving where heis, and that's Will McClay of
the Dallas Cowboys.
He's the VP of player personnel,an article I was looking at
earlier.
Kind of put it perfectly.
He's basically a GM without atitle.
As we all know, jerry Jones andhis sons are like the

(22:33):
mouthpiece or or like the, themegaphone for the front office,
so they're the leaders of thefront office, and that puts Will
McClay in a position where he'sa GM, but he doesn't have the
title.
And Will McClay has been withthem for a long time at least a
decade to my knowledge, and Ican actually pull it off right

(22:55):
now.
Yeah, he's been there since2002.
And guess where he was beforethat?
With the Jacksonville Jaguars,as a assistant director of pro
scouting in 2021.
Excuse me, I'm so used tosaying 2020 something.
So he's been with the Cowboysfor over a decade, excuse me,

(23:20):
there.
So he's been with them longerthan that and he's worked his
way up the ranks and he's apivotal part of their player
intel, their player acquisitionand their player evaluation is,
needless to say, current themethat is going to surface in this

(23:45):
podcast.
Right is a lot of thesecandidates.
A lot of what drew me to themis what they can build in the
trenches, especially theoffensive line, because that has
been a weakness for the currentregime.
That's been a weakness forTrent Baalke.
It's not that Trent Baalkehasn't tried to draft people,
the right people, in thetrenches.
He's been ineffective in doingit, especially on the offensive
line right.
It just looks like he has nosense of direction or no sense

(24:06):
of evaluation as well.
At that position, drafting lukefortner probably the worst start
was the worst starting centerin the league before mitch
morris replacing.
Drafting Walker Little, who's aswing tackle Drafted him in the
second round, by the way, swingtackle a guy that when you

(24:28):
draft him in the second roundyou're looking at your left
tackle of the future or theright tackle of the future, and
we have yet to see him on thefield consistently enough to
even know that right now.
After drafting Walker Little,you extended cam robertson but
dave caldwell pick, so that kindof had us scratching our head,

(24:48):
okay.
So why did they draft walk alittle?
Maybe they're looking at him asbookends of the future?
That never came into fruitionbecause eventually he drafted
anton harrison, who he you knowwe're pretty high on Anton.
He'll figure it out.
He's a young player, thathappens.
But between the massive miss onLuke Fortner, the lack of a

(25:13):
direction for Walker Little,paying Brandon Scherff crazy
money when he doesn't even lookclosely like remotely close to
the pro bowler he was inWashington Resigning Ezra
Cleveland who easily looks likethe weakest offensive lineman on
the unit in terms ofphysicality, and you gave him a

(25:35):
three-year extension at that,confidently confidently wanted
the guy to stay right and, as aresult, you have arguably the
worst offensive line in the NFL.
But I digress from my point.
The theme here, when looking atthese GMs, are, you know, gms
that can build the offensiveline that Trevor Lawrence needs
to thrive, and the reason forthat is because Trevor Lawrence

(25:56):
just signed for $200 million.
It feels like he's going to bearound here a long time, so it's
about building around him andbuilding, uh, the giving him the
resources he needs to succeed.
And when it comes to offensivelines and how consistent an
organization has been withbuilding big, physical offensive

(26:16):
lines, you look no further thanthe Dallas Cowboys in terms of
consistency in doing it.
So that was a big part ofputting Will McClay on this list
.
And not just that, though, notjust putting him on the list,
but the others that are on thislist, right?
I mean, you look at what theDallas Cowboys have done over
time.
It was one point in time thiswas probably a while ago, five,

(26:38):
six years ago they had all firstround picks on their offensive
line.
And when you look at this teamlike we can't help but see the
Dallas Cowboys.
They play in 90 freaking Primetime games.
They're forced on our TVscreens so you can't help but
see them.
And every time we see theDallas Cowboys, for the most

(26:58):
part it looks like offensiveline has not been an issue for
them.
They've had other issues.
Right, can't do anything in theplayoffs.
You know constantly one anddone in the playoffs.
If they do make noise in theplayoffs, it's just one round
and that's it.
Maybe you know.
But one thing that you can'thelp but notice with the Dallas
Cowboys organization is thatthey bring physical, massive

(27:19):
offensive lines to the tableyear in and year out.
Just this year they draftedTyler Guyton, a physical
presence at the tackle position.
A lot of people are familiarwith Guyton because he played
with Anton Harrison and also hewas the ideal bulky pick.
But he ended up going to theDallas Cowboys 24th overall.

(27:43):
Another guy that we frequentlymocked to the team right in the
offseason Cooper Beebe.
Right, that just goes to showyou in the top three rounds,
right there the attention todetail in terms of getting that
offensive line where it needs tobe, two of their top three
picks were spent on theoffensive line, and not only
that was spent doing was spenton straight-up maulers who bring

(28:04):
physicality and strength to theunit.
And even before that, though,right, they drafted Tyler Smith
back in 2022, right, he's theirguard currently as well out of
Tulsa.
That goes to show you, rightagain, their desire for building
in the trenches.
It looks like they're alwaystargeting somebody in the first

(28:27):
round in the trenches, whetherit's in the offensive line,
defensive line, and then, evenbefore that, you know, in terms
of getting their pass rush right, getting their front seven
right.
Micah Parsons we all know thathe pretty much is unstoppable
when it comes to his ability onthe field and rushing the passer
and the other things he can do.
And you know, this team hasn'tjust drafted well in the

(28:49):
trenches as well, like we see.
Again, we can't help but seehim because they're on primetime
football all the time.
Right, but they've also gotsome other players you know in
this draft that are notable orin this organization that are
notable players.
They draft very well.
You know they do dabble in freeagency, but a lot of the people

(29:10):
that we hear In primetime gameswhen we see them, our players
that they drafted Right.
There's others like Deron Blandwho I know he is currently on
injured reserve right now butled the league and I think he
hit the record for picks for acornerback as position.
Cd lamb Right, which that helpsas another premium position.

(29:31):
So that's another feather inthe cap of Will McClay and
company Trayvon Diggs Right, whohe at one point in time you
know know he was going crazywith the picks as well.
Tony pollard, no longer there,but still a running back.
That was very exciting to watch.
You know, the list goes on andon and on in terms of what

(29:52):
they've been able to draft, butI guess what I was trying to say
is their most notable picks andwhat they're known for is how
they draft in the trenches.
Right, they have zach mart inthe trenches.
They have, as I said, tylerGuyton in the trenches as well,
even though he's a rookie andtime will tell you know how he
looks.
They also have again the otheryoung man I mentioned, tyler

(30:14):
Smith.
Got him from Tulsa guard and Ijust want that mindset in terms
of my front office of buildingin the trenches, because that
would feel more so like the oldschool Jaguars used to build
right when we had Jack Del Riohere and we had guys on the

(30:34):
offensive line like Brad Meesterand Vince Manowai rest in peace
, right and all of these guysthat were straight-up maulers
that you know Fred Taylor wasable to have a very successful
career with and Maurice Jonesdrew and that's another thing
too, man is, when you movepeople off the offensive line,
you make life easier on yourquarterbacks, right, we didn't

(30:55):
have great quarterbacks then.
The reason those franchiseswere successful when they had
the success that they had wasbecause they were able to run
the ball well.
Right, and that has beensomething this Jaguars team has
struggled with since.
Trevor Lawrence has been herefor the most part, and I think
Will McClay is a guy who, onceagain a former Jaguars executive

(31:17):
, right is a guy that will getus back to that mindset and that
culture in terms of controllingthe line of scrimmage.
Now, a lot of people will saythis now, will mcclay has been
there a long time, as Imentioned, since 2002, and when
you read about him, the thing islike it's really hard to pry
him, even though he do what hedoes want to become a gm

(31:37):
eventually.
It's really hard to pry himfrom the dallas cowboys
organization, and I can see whythat's a thing, right?
Jerry Jones is probably payinghim good money.
It's hard to probably takepeople out of their front office
, and you know you?
Probably the question you'llask yourself and this is why
he's number five on my list whywould he leave Dallas?
It's been hard for him to leaveDallas, and he does want to be

(31:58):
a GM, but nonetheless he's stillthere and has been there for a
very, very long time.
It's Jaguars fans that weren'teven born when Will McClay
started his journey as a DallasCowboys executive.
That's how long he's been there.
All of that said, though andthis will be a theme for the GMs
, the other GMs I mentioned too,or at least some of them is

(32:19):
what could entice these GMs andexecutives to Jacksonville is
that Sean Conn is a hand, is ahands-off owner, the very
opposite of Jerry Jones, right?
If you're Will McClay andyou've been looking for the
right opportunity, one of thethings you're looking for is a
very hands-off owner, but alsovery, a very wealthy owner like
Jerry Jones is the best of bothworlds, right, you're getting

(32:43):
somebody with the wealth ofJerry Jones, but you're getting
somebody who is not going to bein the way when it comes to
football decisions and what haveyou and you're going to an
organization where you have somefamiliarity with although Sean
Conn was not the owner at thetime that Will McClay was with
the Jacksonville Jaguars but allof that, will McClay is number
five on my list and when I lookat what the Dallas Cowboys have

(33:05):
and how consistent they are youknow that's Phil's second team
how consistent they are with atleast being a postseason caliber
team or getting into thepostseason caliber or into the
postseason.
That is what draws me to WillMcClay as an executive and
potential GM candidate for theJacksonville Jaguars.
Moving on to number four on mylist, I have John Spitek, who is

(33:32):
one of two assistant GMs forthe Tampa Bay Bucks, so he's one
of Jason Litch's twolieutenants, basically with how
their front office is structured.
The other one is Mike Greenberg, who also wears the title of
assistant GM, so it's JasonLitch, his two lieutenants, John

(33:54):
Spitek and Mike Greenberg.
And the Bucs are a team that youknow.
When you talk about frontoffices, they consistently rank
in the top 10.
They are a team that you know.
When you talk about frontoffices, they consistently rank
in the top 10.
They are an organization thatgets the importance of having
the right front office and, youknow, in terms of having the
right people to make personneldecisions.
Right, they haven't always beena team that year in and year

(34:15):
out, is in the playoffs, but forthe most part they've been a
consistently watchable team, ifnot better.
Right, they've won Super Bowls.
As the most part, they've beena consistently watchable team,
if not better right, they've wonsuper bowls as well.
So they've been eitherwatchable or better or exciting.
Right, and they're never really.
They're a team that every timeyou look at their roster,
they're never really out of thepossibility of going to the

(34:37):
postseason.
So so that just shows theconsistency there.
But what drew me to John Spitekis that I'm a big fan of a lot
of picks that the Bucs have madeover the years.
Right, vita Vey is one of myfavorite players in the league.
Right, and we all know he isprobably one of the top.
I mean not probably in it, buthe's one of the top nose tackles

(34:58):
in football and is astraight-up force.
Right, and if you get that manone-on-one, chances are that's a
battle that you're going tolose and you're going to end up
looking silly, uh, but just likeI was saying with will mcclay,
they have that mindset ofwanting to build through the
trenches as well, and I thinkwhat's telling of that is this
team has been in a positionwhere they haven't had to really

(35:23):
draft a franchise quarterback,and it's crazy because we've
seen the statistics right interms of how a team has success.
Chances are you have to draft aquarterback first and foremost,
and chances are you have to getthat quarterback in the first
round, and the bucks havesomehow mastered the algorithm
of how to do that withoutgetting a quarterback and
without drafting one in thefirst round.

(35:44):
They got Tom Brady in freeagency.
A big reason for that right wasbecause they already drafted so
well around the quarterbackposition and they only just
needed that one piece.
You look at what Baker Mayfieldis doing and the success he's
having.
Everything was already in placefor him to come there and have
success.
So this is a franchise thatunderstands how to win without

(36:09):
having him at quarterback.
And that may be you know,something that jaguars need to
consider that they might nothave him at the quarterback
position, but they got somebody.
That's good enough right.
Tom Brady was still playing ata high level, but he was up
there in age right.
Baker Mayfield clearly isn't,you know, a top tier quarterback
, but good enough, and they'remaking noise with him and

(36:30):
they're having success with him.
So in this search for the nextGM, maybe you should find a GM
that has mastered or knows howto rack up games without having,
you know, a top 10 quarterback.
And look no further than TampaBay Bucks in terms of a team
that has that down to a sciencewhich, again, that's just insane

(36:51):
that they haven't, and a partof it is because they are never
bad enough to draft in the top10, but they haven't had a need
to draft quarterback in thefirst round for a very long time
, if at all.
Uh, you know, if my memoryserves me correctly.
But going back to um, theirorganization and how they've

(37:11):
built the roster that they have,they obviously believe in
building in the trenches too.
Right, I just mentioned vita ve.
This year they drafted grahambarton.
I liked him as a prospect.
The center from duke.
Uh, well, he was.
He was a utility guy.
He played a lot of positions,but most people thought he'd be
a good center or a guard in theleague.
But him um year before lastthey drafted uh khaled jacancy

(37:36):
from uh pittsburgh I think hewas there what first round pick
the year before that.
So two straight back-to-backyears.
They are building in thetrenches defensive line and
offensive line Barton on theoffensive line, cansey on the
defensive line and they alsohave picked up a lot of people
that when we're doing these mockdrafts that we've done for the
Jaguars and would you look atwhat's going on on Twitter in

(37:59):
terms of the mock drafts thatpeople are putting together.
They drafted a lot of peoplementioned in these mock drafts.
Yaya Diaby, right fromLouisville Barton, was one of
them as well.
I also really, really likeTristan Wirfs.
He was one of my favoriteprospects of his draft.
He has come along quite well interms of being one of the
better tackles in football aswell.

(38:20):
So that's another notable name.
And then you have others outsideof the offensive line again,
kind of like I did with Dallas.
It's not just the offensiveline.
They had hits outside of it aswell.
Anton Winfield, of course, sonof Anton Winfield Sr.
He's been a great safety forthem.
And you look at the OGs tooLevante David, still hanging in

(38:42):
there, still playing decentfootball, right as well, like
they have guys that stick aroundfor years and years and years
so that's something of note too,to keep in mind too is like
once they get somebody in theorganization, they stay around
for a good amount of time, and Ithink that's telling of the
culture of an organization,because most of these guys you

(39:04):
know when you draft them, ifthey endure their whole rookie
contract with a team, they gosomewhere else nine times out of
ten.
So I would definitely look attampa bay and what they have in
terms of not, it isn't just spytech, as I said, it's greenberg.
Um, they have jacquelinedavidson in that front office as
well.
Uh, who I think she has thesalary cap stuff.

(39:26):
I've tweeted about her beforewhen we thought we were going to
get Brian Lefwich.
But that's an organization thatunderstands the importance of
having the right personnel anddrafting right, like that's kind
of their thing and that's whatthey kind of been known for.
And also to something elsebefore we move on to the next
candidate is they?
They obviously know how to findcoaches as well, and that's

(39:47):
something that might fall on theGM here.
We don't know that yet, butwhen it comes to Doug Peterson
being out of here, who's goingto make the decision on the head
coach.
If you need a GM to make thatdecision and to go through that
search, well, the tampa baybucks.
They obviously know how to findcoaches.
They had bruce arians right,who they won a super bowl with

(40:12):
and still with the organizationto this day on an executive
level or something like that,and they also, at that time,
they had their successor to himin Todd Bowles, so the successor
was on Bruce Arians staff.
When Bruce Arians retired, theyjust handed the keys to Todd
Bowles, a franchise thatobviously gets not just front

(40:33):
office personnel and theimportance of drafting, but also
understands how to pick andfind coaches.
So John Spitek is my number four.
My number three is somebodythat you all have probably heard
me talk about and tweet abouton Twitter, because I always
mention the Colts front office,and while they aren't a great

(40:56):
team right now, I do think theyhave a good front office and I
think a lot of their lack ofsuccess has been because it's
not their front office, but it'smore so because they've always
even when they lost Andrew Luckthey've always been good enough
to not be in the top of thedraft to draft the replacement
for Andrew Luck, and I think alot of their shortcomings is

(41:17):
because of that.
And you know, with TrevorLawrence making 200 million
dollars, he's not going anywhereanytime soon.
So if they are a franchise thatunderstands his talent and
their front office understandshis talent and his skill level,
then they will be.
You know, they could be okaywith keeping Trevor Lawrence and
having a quarterback in placethat has experience and has the

(41:41):
tools at the very least.
That being said, the member fromtheir front office that I'm
referring to is not ChrisBallard, of course, who I
mentioned a lot, and I likeChris Ballard but his second in
chief, which is Ed Dodds.
And Ed Dodds, his name has comeup frequently In terms of GM
searches and what have you interms of GM searches and what
have you.
And every year, you know he hasremained with the Colts and

(42:04):
he's one of those candidates,kind of like Will McClay,
probably even to a strongerdegree that has been very
selective.
He wants to go to the rightopportunity, right.
So he's not just interviewinganybody.
He is looking for somethingvery specific in a franchise
before he becomes a GM.
And you look at the Jaguars,they do have some enticing

(42:25):
things about them, right.
They have a hands-off owner andDodds would love that right A
owner that doesn't meddle andstays out of the way.
They also have somebody that,as I said earlier, an executive

(42:47):
would look at and say theypotentially got something to
work with it there atquarterback.
It depends on, you know, ifthese executives feel like
Trevor Lawrence has been ruinedor not, but if they don't feel
like he's been ruined, that'sanother enticing thing is like
hey, we got a quarterback withall the tools and the ability.
I don't have to draft aquarterback, possibly at least
in the beginning stages of mytenure there, and I have a
quarterback with the experiencethat I can hit the ground
running with.
So that could be enticing too.

(43:09):
So for picky GMs, theJacksonville Jaguars could be
enticing for picky GMs.
As for his background, he wassomebody that spent a lot of
time when he was young with AlDavis.
We all know Al Davis liked tobe very hands-on in terms of his
draft picks and makingpersonnel decisions and what

(43:31):
have you, and a lot of peoplehave, uh, bless his soul.
A lot of people have criticizedhis picks and then there's been
times where you know he's madepicks that made people scratch
their heads and it's like, oh,that actually wasn't a bad pick
at all, right?
So when, when you talk aboutowners and owners who have been
really high on making their ownpersonnel decisions, you know

(43:54):
that's one of the people youstart with is with al davis.
So he, you know he was with alAl Davis a lot.
When he was younger, dodds wasspent time in the Seahawks front
office.
The Seahawks front office is avery respected front office as
well and some of theirexecutives are going on to you
know other teams.
Most notably, one is going toCarolina.

(44:15):
His name is escaping me rightnow, but he came from Seattle
Seattle, if I'm not mistaken.
And when Chris Ballard got thejob with the Colts, you know
Dodds was his hand-picked choiceto be his right hand.
So a lot of that is becausewhen, when you look at Dodds and
his evaluation skills, he is avery good evaluator.
So the reports say and you know, according to the people around

(44:38):
, a lot of the key decisionsthat have been made in terms of
evaluations and playerevaluations, ed Dodds was behind
those decisions, whether it was, you know, seattle or, most
notably, now with the Colts.
And when you look at the Coltsorganization, I like how they
draft as well.
You know, I think I saw on PFFthey have the third best

(45:01):
offensive line.
I know it's not translating thewins necessarily.
They only have one win rightnow but it's because they have a
super raw quarterback thatplayed in a very limited amount
of games before coming into theNFL.
But they have the pieces in thetrenches and they've drafted
well in the trenches.
They've drafted well in thetrenches most notably, of course

(45:25):
, quentin Nelson, arguably topguard in the league or best
guard in the league.
Ryan Kelly has been a staplefor them, for a former Alabama
guy, a center there that's beenthere a very long time, braden
Smith, who you know he has beendoing well by PFF standards.
I think he's one of the topguard at tackles in football

(45:45):
Last time I checked.
And the Raymond kid that theygot about two years ago at
tackle as well.
He's a guy I've been seeingfrequently in PFF with high
grades as well.
So they again another team thatbelieves in building in the
trenches and building right inthe trenches.
Also another guy I would knowis Grover Stewart, one of their

(46:07):
defensive tackles.
He went to Albany StateUniversity.
Shout out to the Golden Rams,you know we'll always shout out
HBCU colleges here.
But yeah, that's.
You know, that's a guy that youhave to dig deep to find Right
and a guy from Albany State thatshows their scouting acumen and
their thoroughness Right.
And it's nothing for the ColtsThey've always been kind of high

(46:29):
on this.
It's nothing for the Colts tocome down to scout at Albany
State or Fordham but I digressfrom my point or for them, but I
digress from my point.
But they're a team that reallyseems thorough with their
evaluations and going to thesmaller schools as well, and
that's what you like.
I mean, when you look at theJaguars history right, a lot of
their history there, you know,in terms of undrafted guys and

(46:51):
late round guys a lot of theirhistory in terms of success
there has been from small schoolguys, especially, you know,
back in the Gene Smith era.
He didn't hit on a lot of draftpicks at all but you know, when
they did find somebody who wasfrom a small school that was a
very respectable player on theNFL level and same for, like you
know, shaq Harris.
So their thoroughness and theirscouting process kind of

(47:18):
reminds me of those days back inthe day with the Jacksonville
Jaguars, except for they hit ontheir first round picks too.
Right, they're not just hittingon small school guys, they're
hit on.
They hit on the most importantpicks.
That's the difference.
And I think for a guy like EdDodds, who don't want to go to
an organization full of nonsenseand I guess that's not

(47:39):
something that we wouldassociate with the Jazz, but
they're not full of a lot ofnonsense in terms of Trodcom
meddling with the personnel andin terms of him meddling with
football operations, that couldbe something that I think Ed
Dodds would be intrigued with.
And also, too, ed Dodds isalready familiar with the AFC
South, so that's something toconsider, although the Colts

(48:00):
could block it, but I don't knowif they are the type of
franchise that would stopsomebody from getting the
opportunity, but that'ssomething to mention here too.
He's familiar with the AFCSouth.
He can hit the ground running.
He already has done thescouting on the Colts.
He's already done the scoutingon us as well and what we have
in the Titans right, he'sfamiliar with the division.
That's a guy you can bring intothe organization and maybe have

(48:24):
immediate success with, becausehe's already familiar with the
personnel in the AFC South.
So he's intriguing.
That's why he's number three onmy list, and then I have my 1A
and 2B here.
So or excuse me, my 1A and 2Bhere.
So or excuse me, my 1A and 1Bhere.
So it's two people atop my list.
I'll start with 1B, and that isRay Agnew from the Detroit

(48:46):
Lions.
He's the assistant GM for themcurrently under Brad Holmes.
I've always been intrigued withdisciples of the Les Snead tree.
As we all know, les Snead isthe GM with the Rams and he's
been with the Rams even whenthey were in St Louis.
He had been with them for along time and it seems like a

(49:06):
lot of what Les Snead and hisdisciples have done have pretty
much been gold, has pretty muchbeen gold.
You know Les Snead is a guy.
While with the Rams we madejokes about it and how willing
they were to give away draftpicks and just build with free
agents and trades.
But it worked and they wonSuper Bowl as a result.

(49:29):
Right, and when they did havethe draft picks and they
currently do now they're not inthat position where they're
without first and second roundpicks now now, but it took them
a while to get past that pointin terms of having those picks,
but they were still winning whenthey didn't have them, but now
that they have have those picks,they are making the most of
them as well.
Right, and they've always beenan organization that has drafted

(49:52):
well from the get-go, whetherthey had a lot of picks or not.
Obviously, you know, aaronDonald was the most notable one
and a guy that will be in theHall of Fame down the road.
But when it comes to theless-need tree and less-need
disciples, they know their stuff.
And when Brad Holmes was sentto Detroit, a team that has

(50:14):
traditionally or hadtraditionally bad culture, had
been in the mud a long time,much like the Jacksonville
Jaguars Brad Holmes touched onthat organization, turned things
around and now they look like aSuper Bowl contender.
You heard me right.
The Lions went from atraditionally poor organization

(50:36):
to under Brad Holmes to wherethey are now, a team that we
would no longer be shocked.
Nobody would be shocked if theLions were representing the NFC
in the Super Bowl.
Ray Agnew is also another one ofthose guys that learned a lot
from Les Snead, alongside BradHolmes, who is time.
He's a little bit up there inage he might be 56 or you know

(50:58):
older, but that's okay.
We're looking for a frontoffice executive, not a player
or a coach, so that age is notreally a big deal here, but,
much like Brad Holmes, hereminds me.
Agnew reminds me a lot of BradHolmes in terms of just
longevity under less need andlearning a lot under less need.
And when Brad Holmes went tothe Lions, he eventually brought

(51:20):
Agnew with him and made him theassistant GM for the Detroit
Lions.
So, that being said, agnew hewas with the Los Angeles Rams in
2017 to 2020.
Then, when Brad Holmes came onover to Detroit in 2021, he

(51:40):
joined him there and not had.
Not only has everything theRams have have built has been
impressive, but everything thatBrad Holmes has done with Ray
Agnew as his second hand manwith the Lions has been very
impressive.
I put a tweet out about thislast year, I think it was, and I
already knew Brad Holmes was agood executive, but it was

(52:02):
during a playoff game last yearthat we were watching the the
Lions and it dawned on me thateverybody that the announcers
were talking about were peoplethat the Lions had drafted
within the last three years orsince Brad Holmes has been there
, and when I pulled up theirdraft history, it was crazy how
many hits they had.
Like they might be the bestteam right now in terms of draft

(52:25):
pick and hit picks and hittingon them at least the early ones
and some late ones too.
They might be the best team interms of hitting on their draft
picks and building through thedraft, and in the tweet that I
was referring to, I put ascreenshot of just all of the
draft picks they made within thelast three years or so, and the
list included Jameer Gibbs,jack Campbell, sam LaPorta, who

(52:48):
is probably I think he is goingto have to go on IR, but Sam
LaPorta is an up and comingtight end and was able to
produce as a rookie.
Aiden Hutchinson, who I know isa person that we don't like to
mention a lot, but let's face it.
Aiden Hutchinson is a very goodplayer and he has done great
things for that organization.
Jameson Williams loved him.
Coming out of Alabama was a deepthreat guy that I was

(53:12):
interested in as well.
Kirby Joseph you always see himaround the ball when they're
playing on tv and you see themon tv.
Panacea levi on wuzeriki.
Aline mcneil another guy um,all of those last three were
from 2021.
Amin ross, st brown, who theyfound in the fourth round y'all

(53:33):
in the fourth round and he hasbeen magnificent for them.
As a matter of fact, they justgave him a contract extension
and he's one of the highest paidreceivers in the league, so
that shows how deep they candraft.
Right that that was after thethird round, right there they
found the number one receiverafter the third round, right,
and they they've had thesespurts of finding late round

(53:54):
guys that can contribute.
James houston from jack JacksonState gave them 10 sacks as a
rookie.
He was somebody they draftedout of 2022.
So these guys can hit late too,and I think the years that
Agnew has spent with Brad Holmesand Les Snead, I think it's
time for him to not only becomea GM himself, but I think, like

(54:18):
the knowledge that they passedalong has rubbed off on him and
he's well equipped to turn ateam around like the
Jacksonville Jaguars.
Again, when you look atfranchises who have had
traditionally poor success onthe field, going to the Lions
and changing that culture was noeasy task at all, not easy at
all.
And changing that culture wasno easy task at all, not easy at

(54:41):
all, and Ray Agnew hasexperience in that.
Now Right and turning a bottomfeeder franchise organization
into an elite team or, arguably,a Super Bowl team.
And that's what shotgun shouldbe looking for Somebody who can
just change a poor culturedorganization into something
better.
So ray agnew should be on hislist, and not only ray agnew,

(55:03):
but some coaches and we'll getinto the coaching list on
another episode but it's coachesover there that shotgun should
be looking at.
Or the jaguars organizationshould be looking at too,
because what they've done interms of turning that franchise
around is nothing short ofmiraculous.
And then, lastly, my one, a um.
You know those of you who'veseen my tweets in the past
probably know who I'm going withhere and that is mike borgonzi,

(55:25):
who is the assistant gm withthe kansas city chiefs.
Y'all have heard me rave aboutthe chief's front office for
quite some time.
I know a lot of people say,well, hey, they got patrick
mahomes.
How hard is it to build withPatrick Mahomes leading the way?
But make no mistake about it,man, they've hit on more than
just Patrick Mahomes and they'vebuilt a structure and a

(55:47):
foundation in place for him tocontinue to be successful,
despite having to give up a lotof, you know, high-quality
players.
Right, they lost Tyreek Hillarguably Well.
Arguably well, I mean, there'sno arguably in it.
Tyreek Hill was voted as thebest player in football.
They gave up the best player infootball.
Listen to me, y'all.
They gave up the best player infootball.

(56:08):
They traded him to the Dolphinsand still won the Super Bowl.
That's indicative of how theydrafted and it just seems to
never really matter.
Again, a lot of it is becausethey have Patrick Mahomes, but
never really matter who theyhave at receiver.
They've still been able toovercome adversity and overcome
their flaws and get back to theSuper Bowl.

(56:29):
Right, and you look at theirdraft history.
Even when they you know theytraded Tyreek Hill to Miami,
they've done a somewhat good jobof finding people that can
produce at the wide receiverposition between Xavier Worthy,
who I think is going to be astar we already kind of have
seen it in the early stages ofhis rookie career this year.

(56:50):
I have him on my fantasy teambut he looks like Tyreek Hill,
like he looks like he's notgoing to have an issue replacing
Tyreek Hill.
But you look at Hill, but youlook at him.
And you look at Rasheed Ricewho's making noise.
He's you know, arguably he'stheir favorite target right now.
They got him in the secondround um of last year's draft
out of SMU, if I'm not mistaken.

(57:10):
So, yeah, you look at him andWorthy and what they could be.
Tyreek Holmes isn't gonna um,excuse me, patrick Mahomes isn't
gonna drop off in terms of playanytime soon.
Going back to what I was sayingabout the offensive line and GMs
that can build an offensiveline, they have done that too
for Patrick Mahomes.
Their center, creed Humphrey,got him in the third round,

(57:32):
arguably one of the bettercenters in football.
They also drafted a guard.
His name is, uh, trey Smith, Ithink.
Uh, out of Tennessee.
I'm a big SEC guy so, of course, like he would stand out as
well, trey Smith has been one ofthe better guards in football
as well, so putting thatinterior foundation in front of

(57:52):
Patrick Mahomes has been noissue for them.
You know, while things are alittle suspect on the edge,
right, they have juwan taylorover there right now, who they
got out of free agency.
There's no doubt in my mindthat they have the drafting
ability, or had the draftingability, to find the answer at
right tackle too as well, butthey just decided to go the free

(58:13):
agency route, and I mean.
That's another thing, too thatI found interesting is they paid
juwan Taylor a lot of money.
They're not scared to spendmoney, even when they're tight
against the cap, right, andthat's what it takes to win a
Superbowl.
That's why they have wonSuperbowls with Trent.
You get a sense that Trentalways feels that you know,

(58:35):
enough spending is enough, right, and the chiefs are the exact
opposite, right.
That's the kind of mindset thatI like is that the chiefs are
always willing to get better andnothing, nothing feels like
it's off the table for them.
I guess is how I would put itagain.
They traded tarik hill, right?
How could that even be on thetable for a franchise?

(58:57):
They traded him and did it, gotdraft compensation or received
draft compensation for him andstill went to the Super Bowl,
and they probably have hissuccessor, right.
So that's a franchise thatnothing really seems off the
table.
And the reason for that isbecause they believe in their
draftability and they believe intheir front office, and we

(59:18):
would not be shocked if thisKansas City Chiefs team is back
in the Super Bowl once again.
And when you look at a GM, brettVeach Mike Berngunzi has been
there with Brett Veach for avery long time.
If I'm not mistaken, mikeBerngunzi has been in the Chiefs
organization since at leastlike 2011, and I'm actually
shocked that he's still there.

(59:39):
And as the years go by, I keep.
I'm just so terrified thatsomebody is going to pick him up
and the Jaguars won't even havea shot to interview him.
And it is odd because you know,this guy has been out there and
he's been passed I don't wantto say passed on.
He might be one of those guyswho has kind of been selective
of where he's um interviewedwith, but you see, a guy like

(01:00:01):
mike berngunzi out there, orborgunzi out there, and the
jaguars keep rolling with a guylike trent balky, right like
it's shotgun, not watching thechiefs organization and seeing
how, year in and year out, theyare, you know, a consistently
good team, consistently in theSuper Bowl, and you stay

(01:00:22):
complacent with Trent Baalke isvery puzzling with me.
But one day we're going to wakeup and Mike Borgunzi is going
to have a job and he's probablygoing to turn a franchise around
, probably.
I have faith that he'll be ableto do it and if I'm the
Jacksonville Jaguars, the momentthat he'll be able to do it and
if I'm the Jacksonville Jaguarsthe moment that last game takes
place against the Titans Ithink we played the Titans last

(01:00:45):
and that clock hits 0-0-0, theseason is over and I would think
that we're not going to be inthe playoffs at the rate it's
going right now.
He is a guy that I would haveon the phone right that instant.
They'll probably be in theplayoffs, so they might have to
wait to interview him.
I don't know how it works withGM interviews in terms of if the
team's in the playoffs, buthe's worth the wait.

(01:01:07):
He is well worth the wait,whether it's Shotgun doing it or
Shotgun simply needs to hirepeople to hire the GM or hire
the head up.
Just hire some people to dosome interviews, do a thorough
process and if that is done, Ithink Mike Borgonzi would get an
interview with the JacksonvilleJaguars, as he rightfully

(01:01:28):
should.
But if it's down to Khan, Ithink Khan would overlook him
and just go with a layup type ofsituation like Bill Belichick.
But I digress from my point.
So, that being said, mike isthe top guy on my list and,
needless to say, just based onall the information I just gave
you all I am ready for theseason to end.

(01:01:49):
I do not want to stomach orwatch any more of what we've
seen.
You know they probably will wina game or two or three here.
They got a stretch in Londonwhere they got two.
You know young franchisescoming game or two or three here
.
They got a stretch in Londonwhere they got two.
You know young franchisescoming in where they'll win.
But even with that being thecase, this team is probably not
going to the playoffs.
And even if they were I toldthis to Phil even if this team
was going to the playoffs, theyneed a reset regardless, because

(01:02:13):
we now know that the coachingstaff and front office aren't
seeing eye to eye, and thatwould mean any success that they
do have this year if they haveany success is not sustainable.
Right, it'll be a one and donetype of situation.
If, by some miracle, they madeit to the playoffs, it would be
a one and done situation.
We've seen that before 2017.
Tom Coughlin and his crewalmost went to the Super Bowl,

(01:02:37):
fell off the cliff the next year, right.
So, that being said, I am firmlyin the camp of getting Trent
Balki out of here, as well asDoug Peterson.
We'll have the coachingcandidates list in one of the
next four episodes at the rateit's going.
So be on the lookout for that.

(01:02:58):
But that's a good place to endthe topics part of this podcast.
As I said earlier, you can findme on Twitter at Sports Grind,
underscore Dunn, and you canfind my co-host, phil Smith, on
Twitter as well, under Phil theFilipino.
If you want to give us yourfeedback and thoughts on this

(01:03:19):
list and on this episode, pleasefeel free to.
Also, again, the website,touchdownjadwarscom, and the
Twitter handle for the podcastis at tdjadwarspod.
So those are all the handles tofollow.
As we said, feel free to checkout our sponsor in terms of
getting your ticketing needstaken care, taken care of in

(01:03:40):
seat geek.
They also have an app there.
You can use our promotion code,whether it's on the app or the
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(01:04:00):
So, that being said, I willwrap this episode up.
Here's to hoping the jaguarsfigure it out, but that's a lot
to ask for for this franchiseright now, and it seems we are
in store for a very, very longseason, but if that's the case,
we'll be here every step of theway at the Touchdown Jaguars

(01:04:21):
podcast.
Until then, everybody out there, take care of each other.
I know it's a hurricane brewingout there that can hit the
Florida area and the Georgiaarea.
It's coming to my area too.
So, everybody out there, besafe and take care of each other
.
Until next time, you all holdit down.