One Former Jaguar Deserves Another Shot

Maybe Trent Baalke has learned from his mistakes

In the first year under their new regime, the Jacksonville Jaguars won 13 games, tying their second-best mark in franchise history, reclaimed the AFC South crown, and hosted a playoff bout with the Buffalo Bills. There's really no reason for the team to have any remorse over parting ways with Trent Baalke.

However, a closer examination will show that many of the key pieces responsible for Jacksonville's run this past season were Baalke products. 12 different starters for the 2025 Jaguars were his draft picks, including several breakout players like Devin Lloyd, Montaric Brown, Brenton Strange, and Cam Little. Of course, Baalke had plenty of misses, too, many of which new General Manager James Gladstone quickly made sure to cleanse from the roster.

But the NFL Draft is a crapshoot, and in retrospect, Baalke has a pretty decent record in that arena of general management. However, it's not the only part of a GM's job, and one could say that building relationships is possibly even more important than identifying talent. Due to his sour reputation, Baalke isn't even in the NFL right now, despite his successful record in the draft.

With how crucial finding impactful players on rookie-scale deals is to roster-building, though, it wouldn't be shocking to see him get another chance someday, at least in a smaller capacity as a scout or something along those lines.

That's going to be contingent on whether he can fix his fatal flaw: being such a pill of a colleague that several people literally turned down their dream jobs to avoid working with him. Purely from a performance perspective, Baalke deserves another shot — just not with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

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