2020 NFL Draft Grades: Jacksonville Jaguars swing for the fences
By Evan Bachman
Grading and analyzing each of the 12 selections made by Dave Caldwell and the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2020 NFL draft.
The Jacksonville Jaguars came into this draft as an obvious rebuilding team. They have one of the worst rosters in the league, but they’ve accumulated a lot of draft capital and have set themselves up very nicely for a rebuild. They came in well-positioned to potentially have a big haul with two first-rounders and 12 total selections.
Going in, they had a lot of holes to fill, but their biggest needs were at wide receiver, corner, and offensive tackle. Edge rusher was also considered a potential need as well with the trade rumors surrounding franchise-tagged star edge rusher Yannick Ngakoue.
Last year’s sixth-round pick Gardner Minshew will go into next year as the starting quarterback. Whether he’s the quarterback of the future or not remains to be seen, but I think the approach they’re taking is to give Minshew his chance this year and if isn’t their guy, they’ll be in a position to land one of the top quarterbacks next year.
Unless otherwise noted, all combine results were found at 247 Sports.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at all 12 of their picks.
player. CB. Florida. C.J. Henderson. 1. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. 52
After trading Jalen Ramsey to the Rams earlier this season, the Jaguars came into the offseason with a big need at cornerback. That need only grew after they traded A.J. Bouye to the Broncos. These trades left them with only Tre Herndon and Rashaan Melvin to play outside cornerback, so it was known they needed to address the position at some point early in the draft and they didn’t wait long.
C.J. Henderson has all the physical traits needed to turn into a lockdown cornerback in the NFL. He has good size (6-foot-1, 204 pounds) and good speed (4.39 40 yard dash time), good movement skills and solid leaping ability. When you turn on the tape he simply just looks like a cornerback that scouts covet.
He was a three-year starter at Florida, a school that has consistently produced NFL defensive backs, but Henderson is the best in recent memory. He’s proved he’s fully capable of making plays on the ball when targeted as he had six interceptions and 20 passes defended in his career.
My biggest concern with him is that he had an up and down season last year. Henderson missed some games early with an ankle injury and ultimately struggled with consistently from that point on. He received a 62.6 overall grade from Pro Football Focus, which is not what you would expect from a top 10 pick.
It’s impossible to not get beat as a cornerback, but he got beat way too often and at all levels of the field. While he did have a disappointing season last year, the fact he’s started three years in the SEC definitely should ease the transition to the NFL.
Ultimately, if it was my decision I would taken a wide receiver or offensive tackle and addressed cornerback with their other first-round pick, but Henderson has a lot of potential, so while I don’t love this selection, I definitely understand the Jaguars approach of trying to a home run at a valuable position because they aren’t a team that is going to contending next year.