Jaxson De Ville
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- Mar 19, 2019
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The already low expectations for the 2020 Jaguars season may have dipped even lower over the last week when the team traded defensive end Yannick Ngakoue and safety Ronnie Harrison while also cutting running back Leonard Fournette.
Both trades added to a sizable surplus of draft picks next season and the continuing teardown of the roster has led some to suggest that the team is tanking this season in order to position themselves for the future. Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone pushed back at that notion this week and quarterback Gardner Minshew did the same on Thursday.
“I think people see it from afar and see, ‘Oh they’re losing their biggest names.’ But that’s not how we feel,” Minshew said, via WJXT. “And I mean, realistically, I know if we’re tanking, coach Marrone, Dave Caldwell and are probably going to be out of jobs. So I know us three and a lot of those other guys in the locker room are not going to let that crap happen. So I feel very confidently in everybody’s desire to win and that’s absolutely not anything that we envision happening.”
Minshew’s probably not wrong about what totally bottoming out would mean for many futures, so there’s little reason to think the team won’t be trying hard once the season starts. That said, an underpowered roster may still result in the bad results that tanking would bring to Jacksonville.