Atualizar para Plus

To be clear: They absolutely were not equally productive players

If you’re looking for a solid, Pro Bowl player  Mut 24 coins who will start for a decade, 2022 is your year. If you’re wanting a league-defining All-Pro, that’s when this all gets more difficult. The Jaguars seem intent on trying to find that high upside guy, overlooking potential issues and gambling on promise. It’s something we’ve seen before in the draft, but never with the No. 1 overall pick, and of course it would be GM Trent Baalke and the Jaguars to take this risk.

Baalke loves taking risks on draft picks. It’s his favorite pastime, and he is actively terrible at making selections. Honestly, it’s unclear who needs to shoulder the blame when it comes to Baalke’s selections, but whether it’s the scouting departments under him, or if he likes to go rogue and pick with his gut, there is an established history of him missing in almost every round. In 2018 when Niners Nation looked at Baalke’s selections it was astonishing how bad the team’s drafts were under his watch. We’re not talking about players just not living up to their potential, it’s them being so bad they were either traded, or out of the league. An unreal 41 percent of his selections didn’t last seven years on the team, and he was the biggest catalyst for the downfall, and rebuild of the dominant Jim Harbaugh Niners.

The shift in thinking from Aidan Hutchinson to Walker began a couple of weeks ago, when “chatter” began that the Jags could be looking at the Georgia pass rusher. It’s only picked up steam since then. As recently as last week Baalke seemed to already be justifying picking Walker to the media, trying to advocate that Walker and Hutchinson were equally productive players in college.

“[They’re] used differently, totally different schemes, used differently within those schemes,” said Baalke. “Again, you’re looking at them, you’re looking at how they made their plays, how they were used, and then you have a vision for how you can use them. All of that plays a part, but traits are important, production is important. You weigh it all.”

To be clear: They absolutely were not equally productive players in college. There is literally no evidence of that being the case, and any argument to the contrary is just an effort to assuage concern. Hutchinson had 14.0 sacks last year, 16.5 tackles for a loss — he forced two fumbles, and batted down three passes at the line of scrimmage. Walker had 9.5 sacks ... in his career, 13.0 tackles for a loss ... in his career, three passes defended ... in his career, and forced cheap madden 24 coins  one fumble, you guessed it ... in his career.