When it comes to the Jacksonville Jaguars, they’ve been relegated to being cellar dwellers since 1999 when they went 14-2 before losing to the Tennessee Titans in the AFC title game.
The last couple of seasons have seen the Jaguars slowly build up towards having a halfway decent team through the draft. This year was another example with the drafting of former LSU Tiger Leonard Fournette. That first-round pick is going to be the way of the future for this franchise for a number of reasons.
The biggest reason is that there will be more of a balance between run and pass in 2017. The run-to-pass ratio last season was around 60-40 in favor of the passing game. That is a pretty decent balance, but having a guy like Fournette means that defenses will need to respect the run game. Look at the film of how he played when he was healthy, hardly anybody could stop him once he got some wide open spaces.
It also puts two players with slightly different styles in the backfield. TJ Yeldon works well as a scat back and on screen passes and if healthy he can be a good weapon for this offense. Having Fournette keeps the front seven on their toes and gives Blake Bortles a chance to improve as a quarterback because the playbook is going to become more open for the QB out of Central Florida.
The future of Jacksonville is looking brighter with Leonard Fournette possibly being a starter day one and with a lot of potential defensively if they can stay healthy. Look at what happened to Dante Fowler; drafted top five two years ago and gets injured day one of OTAs. The Jaguars could be a surprise team in 2017 due to the fact that the AFC South has become one of the worst divisions in the NFL.