The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network
Press Pass | Gladstone & Coen Preview Jags '26 Draft Strategy
09 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: How has the team's approach to the draft changed since last year?
A little less frantic, I guess you could call it, in terms of just how fast everything happened last year and getting not just the scouting staff onboarded, but the coaches then onboarded to new procedures and modes of operation. So I think just some of the familiarities really helped just the flow.
And the way that we operate on a day-to-day basis, the schedule, the routine, what the coaches expect, that's been very clear and concise throughout the process. And I think it's just allowed us to maybe get to different or deeper dialogue maybe a little bit quicker on some of the guys that we're really honing in on.
And for both of you, how different is it actually knowing your roster now? You've spent time with these guys, you kind of know what's in how compared to last year where it was kind of getting to know it.
That's the most helpful piece. I think being able to accelerate a lot of the conversations where at this point in time last year we were in true discovery mode, right? We were learning. on the fly and now we get to leverage all the information and experiences that we've had with everybody on our football team up to this point as a part of our decision making.
It allows those conversations, like Liam said, to be a bit deeper and get a little bit further into it in a more efficient manner.
I think it was a pretty important piece.
He's somebody that I think by season's end, and I shared with the majority of you in the room, that he was somebody we wanted to align ourselves with.
beyond just the the contract that we had at the time and you know his commitment to our football team his commitment to his teammates it seeps out of his soul and it was very easy to see what his his piece to our puzzle meant and the scheme fit the priorities that we have on our defense you know it just all really matches up in a real way and glad that he was able to
earn himself that opportunity and know that he's going to take advantage of it.
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Chapter 2: What insights do the coaches have about their current roster?
He doesn't take it for granted and he's the type of human being that you feel comfortable making a decision like that about and really excited for really the evolution that we'll see moving forward with not only his usage but that entire defensive front and those guys behind him as we get into year two of the system.
Hey, Leo, I tell you that you have Breton obviously established, but as you look at the draft, how much do you have to project whether a guy knows how to block?
Yeah, that's a tough one. It's like what you're projecting with both Y and F. It's like, okay, what Y has enough athletic movements and athleticism and hands and ball skills and feel. to be able to run the route tree and then what F essentially with so much of the spread offense and some of those guys not being in a lot of those situations that you're projecting a little bit. Can they do it?
Can they block maybe at the second level and linebacker safeties? What do those matchups look like for the player that we're talking about? And so, yeah, there's a little bit of a projection, especially at that position, because you're seeing so many different ways they're being used.
And then you look at how much the tight ends were used or the extra alignment were used in the NFL this year at the Y position, but also what the F or the U could be in some of those multiple tight end personnel groupings.
James, do you have a good idea in terms of it seems like you guys are operating from a position of strength in terms of the health of the roster, but you still have 11 picks. Are you happy with the positioning that you guys have put yourselves in going into year two? Yeah, really excited about it because those slots that you're thinking about are more contributing slots.
And when you're talking about first-year players, typically that's the expectation is finding a way to contribute and offer a positive impact. And
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Chapter 3: How do the coaches evaluate potential draft picks?
It can be a little bit more challenging on the early end of a season as a rookie or even towards mid-season to really feel that come to life. And in the instances that it does, that's great. But usually that's above the expectation, especially when you're talking about pick 50 and beyond, which is where we find ourselves at this point.
Excited about building off of last year's crop, knowing that it was just south of 11 picks. A couple in undrafted college free agency that were able to find their place. But look forward to sort of being in familiar territory this go-around and being able to leverage prior experience with navigating the waters here in about a two-week's time and have some fun with it.
Do you do the best available player approach? Do you limit that? Is it best available player, but if this happened or this guy's around?
Yeah. I think you'd like to say it's going to be best player available, and it's always going to come with a little nuance. You're going to compare across positions and where there's a clear visual for contributions and a vision from our coaching staff to seeing that player skill set come to life, and you would typically ā appreciate the fact that that could come to life sooner than later.
And all that stuff has to be weighted against each other. So when you've got two light players and one position allows maybe an earlier runway, you'd lean towards that direction.
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Chapter 4: What strategies do they use to project player capabilities?
But it's not so black and white all the time. I think that's the type of dynamic you would want to be able to walk in at each pick point with the idea that, hey, we're not pigeonholed to one or two positions, but we have all of them where we feel comfortable taking a shot if the right player or the best player presents themselves.
Let's go back here.
James, how hard is it to balance that, to piggyback off that a little bit, to balance that getting a guy for immediate impact that doesn't have as much upside with looking at another position where there's positional value where your roster is pretty set, but you've got to kind of look down the road a little bit and he has more blue sky as a player?
It's hard to say it's some black and white answer. It's typically going to come with a lot of layers to it. Ultimately, you've got to make what you feel like is in the best interest of our team in the now and the team for the future. We're ready to go win some football games. Whoever can help us do that, we're going to try and go ahead and add to the fold.
A follow-up as far as Travis Hunter. Without getting too far into it, is he tracking to be ready to go for whatever timeline you guys have established for him to be a full coach?
Yeah, he'll be, for all intents and purposes, a limited participant throughout the off-season program with eyes on return to play at full tech and training camp.
How much do you enjoy evaluating defensive players?
Good question. Almost as good as your tight end question.
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Chapter 5: How do they balance immediate impact versus long-term potential in draft picks?
Yeah. I've always enjoyed watching tape. I've watched a lot of evaluations of when my dad was recruiting D3 players in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, watching all positions. You gain an appreciation for the game as much as anything, and so you gain an appreciation for all that comes with it.
Now, is it easier or more fun to watch some other positions at times that have a ball? Usually, I tend to lean that way. But
No, I think it's cool to see the impact and effect that the other side of the ball has, what that player can maybe do to help truly our team, not just in defense, but also on teams and special teams and what that looks like, and trying to have an open mind to some of those nuances that a defensive player could possess a little bit more or different value than a tight end, right, or a different position that we're talking about on offense.
So, I've actually come to enjoy it. I found that there's a lot of ways, obviously, that you can impact the game without touching the football and having an impact on every single play.
As boring as it is.
No, I'm kidding.
The most fun about watching film with Liam, right? So when I'm just doing it by myself, I'm focused in on typically a single player going from one play to the next.
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Chapter 6: What challenges do they face with a late first-round pick?
in large part, just evaluating what that guy's doing. When you start bringing a coach's lens into the conversation, they start diagnosing scheme across all 11 on offense. How's that matching up against what we're getting in the look from the defense? And then three minutes later, we're moving on to the next fight. It's a classic.
But you get a PhD every off-season of trends schematically when you start diving in with our coaching staff on a lot of the draft work and free agent work. So that's always a level up for our scouting staff, analytics staff that are in on those conversations and get an idea of some of those layers that you may not otherwise keep top of mind unless you're focused on the schematics.
Does that make your job harder, though? Of course it does.
Absolutely not. I get to process it a slower tick. I don't have to be so rapid fire. No, it's good. I get to take a pause a little bit and think about it differently.
It opens my mind.
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Chapter 7: How do they track other teams' tendencies during the draft?
It just gets a little drawn out.
That's a critical piece. As I think back to our opening dialogue as to taking a position, me sitting at the podium with Tony and Liam, John, Mark, and TK, pure collaboration was what came to mind in our decision making.
Without it, it becomes very challenging to showcase a clear visual for how a player is going to fit our environment, how a player is going to fit into our team or a position group. So I think in order to come to that conclusion, we gotta have a lot of back and forth. We gotta have a lot of insights being brought to the table and see where it is that we have alignment and where we don't.
And in the instances that we don't, we keep watching more. And if we're unable to find a common space, which we are in some instances, you gotta move on to the ones that you can. And be okay with whether or not the players that you're not go find success elsewhere.
knowing that hey it just wasn't going to be a match for us or it wasn't going to come with clarity and when it isn't it's hard to to try to say like let's force this you feel me on that what are the challenges of having to wait until 56 we never say never moved up but are there challenges that come with that is it will be an excruciating first round to sit through knowing
You don't have that option.
You know, Liam's been through with me before. A lot longer before. Yeah, there is no doubt about it. We have waited longer.
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Chapter 8: What is their philosophy on selecting players that fit their system?
There is no doubt.
It's fun. We were having a blast.
104 was our first pick.
Okay.
So we at least get to cut that in half a little bit. You know what I mean? So there's a ā what do we got? Two weeks, one day for now. So that's ā Two weeks.
Yeah. Well, until our pick.
For now, right? So that kind of thing. You always have the, you're always going to stay agile. And so you're never bored. You're always thinking through what might we be able to do. And I think that mental gymnastics certainly is an engaging element, regardless of where your first pick point is.
Do you not do mocks when you're that late?
No, we do scenarios. Yeah, we walk through, hey, if this pot of players is there, which one do we feel most comfortable targeting, knowing that at our next pick point or our next few pick points, these are the players that we feel like maybe in scope, how do we feel about the combination of these different players together, so on and so forth.
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