We had heard all day that the Jaguars were pushing to move up and draft Oklahoma State wide receiver Justin Blackmon, and with the fifth overall pick, the Jaguars did just that.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers weren’t able to move up and draft Trent Richardson, so instead the Bucs moved down, where the Jaguars were happy to move up from No. 7 to No. 5 and grab Blackmon. The Jaguars gave up a fourth-round draft pick to move up to the seventh overall pick in the first round.
Blackmon is an explosive playmaker at wide receiver who will give Jaguars quarterback Blaine Gabbert exactly the kind of weapon he needs. Last year the Jaguars’ top wide receiver was Mike Thomas, with 44 catches, and no other wide receiver in Jacksonville even had 30 catches. This year Blackmon will be counted on to step in and doing better than that as a rookie.
Jacksonville’s offense needed a lot of help. It just got a big playmaker.