{"id":713506,"date":"2026-01-29T07:53:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T07:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/713506\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T07:53:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T07:53:17","slug":"how-big-board-compares-to-jaguars-positions-of-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/713506\/","title":{"rendered":"How big board compares to Jaguars positions of need"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 28, 2026, 10:43 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

How does the talent at the top of the 2026 NFL draft align with what the\u00a0Jacksonville Jaguars’\u00a0<\/a>needs are this offseason?<\/p>\n

Daniel Jeremiah<\/a>\u00a0recently put together his initial top 50 prospect rankings, providing us with some insight into which position groups are loaded with talent.<\/p>\n

Now, the tricky part for the Jaguars<\/a> when assessing this big board is that they do not own a first-round pick this year after trading it last April to move up and select Travis Hunter.<\/p>\n

However, these rankings help us identify the strengths of this year’s draft class.<\/p>\n

Here is a positional breakdown of Jeremiah’s top 50 prospects:<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a>Quarterback: 2Running back: 2Wide receiver: 11Tight end: 1Interior offensive line: 2Offensive tackle: 7Defensive tackle: 5Defensive end: 8Linebacker: 4Cornerback: 5Safety: 3<\/p>\n

As we look at the current state of the Jaguars’ roster<\/a>, this looks like it could be an offseason where GM James Gladstone invests fairly heavily into the defensive side of the ball.<\/p>\n

Cornerback is arguably a top need with Greg Newsome and Montaric Brown both set to be free agents. At safety, Andrew Wingard is going to be a free agent as well.<\/p>\n

Along the defensive front, depth and a more consistent pass-rush presence, particularly from the interior, are boxes that must be checked.<\/p>\n

Linebacker could become a larger need as well, depending on what happens with Devin Lloyd in free agency.<\/p>\n

On offense, adding to the offensive line and tight end positions could be on Gladstone’s radar as well.<\/p>\n

After trading up in the first round of last year’s draft to select Travis Hunter, the Jaguars do not have a first-round pick in 2026. Their first selection won’t come until Day 2.<\/p>\n

However, GM James Gladstone still maintains quite a bit of flexibility<\/a> with 11 total picks and four selections in the top 100.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 28, 2026, 10:43 a.m. ET How does the talent at the top of the 2026 NFL draft…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2060],"tags":[95878,7,212,125,2401,213,6,31186,95933,95882,98256,96041,96044,95936,98255,95896,95888,95895,95906,95883,98258,95881],"class_list":["post-713506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-accessfree","tag-football","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-jacksonvillejaguars","tag-jaguars","tag-nfl","tag-sstssportsnfljaguars","tag-sstsnjaguars","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagandrew-wingard","tag-tagdevin-lloyd","tag-taggreg-newsome-ii","tag-tagjacksonville-jaguars","tag-tagmontaric-brown","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagtravis-hunter","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115977309731731764","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}