The Jaguars opted to keep head coach Doug Marrone and General Manager Dave Caldwell in place after firing executive vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin last month, but there was a clear mandate that better results are needed if that decision is going to be repeated after next season.
Attaining those results will take improving the roster, which is something Caldwell called “challenging” on Tuesday because of, in part, the team’s lack of cap space. They can create more by dropping players like cornerback A.J. Bouye, defensive end Calais Campbell and defensive tackle Marcell Dareus, although they’d have other holes to fill by going that route.
“That’s nothing we haven’t faced before,” Caldwell said, via the team’s website. “We’ve done it before in ’16 and ’17 and when we first got here, we had a lot of holes to fill. We didn’t have nearly as many to fill as we did in ’13 and ’14.”
The Jaguars have an extra first-round pick this year because of the Jalen Ramsey trade and Caldwell said “really supporting our players” currently on hand could bring better results. He also said the team’s top priority is making sure defensive end Yannick Ngakoue returns and the way they make that happen will have a lot to do with the overall approach to the offseason in Jacksonville.