{"id":860256,"date":"2026-04-08T04:53:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T04:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/860256\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T04:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T04:53:16","slug":"florida-ot-austin-barber-has-jaguars-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/860256\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida OT Austin Barber has Jaguars’ interest"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 7, 2026, 2:14 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

One offensive line draft prospect on the Jacksonville Jaguars’<\/a> radar ahead of the 2026 NFL draft is Florida’s Austin Barber.<\/p>\n

As we discussed recently, the Jaguars<\/a> won’t be hosting<\/a> prospects on official pre-draft visits. However, in an interview with Sports Illustrated’s<\/a> Justin Melo, Barber mentioned having a Zoom meeting with Jacksonville, among other teams.<\/p>\n

Jaguars’ 2026 NFL draft prospect to watch: OL Austin Barber<\/p>\n

Barber is an experienced player with over 2,700 career snaps on offense, the bulk of which have come at left tackle, but he has right tackle experience as well.<\/p>\n

Last season, Barber was one of PFF’s<\/a> highest graded run-blocking offensive tackles. In pass protection, he allowed three sacks and 17 pressures over 422 pass-blocking snaps, ranking 73rd in pass-blocking efficiency out of 213 eligible tackles. He was also penalized seven times.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a>Austin Barber’s athletic profileAustin Barber’s draft profile<\/p>\n

Here is what NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein<\/a> wrote in his pre-draft scouting report:<\/p>\n

“Tall tackle prospect with starting experience at both tackle spots. He\u2019s played against top-tier talent in the SEC, which bolsters his case, but his struggles against Texas A&M and Miami provide an idea of his ceiling. He has good feet and strong hands. He knows how to play but he struggles to bend and drive at the point of attack. Same goes for anchoring or defending his edges against power rushers. Barber projects as a Day 3 pick with a chance of becoming a swing tackle.”<\/p>\n

Austin Barber on his game<\/p>\n

Melo concluded the interview by asking Barber what he can bring to an NFL team:<\/p>\n

“I want to help the team win. However I can do that as a rookie, I\u2019m going to commit myself to the plan. If that means I have to play every position on the offensive line, I\u2019ll do that. I just want to help the team win. I feel like I have the tools to do that. I can\u2019t wait to go out there and play my best football. I think I\u2019m coming off a strong 2025 season, especially the five-game stretch at the end of our season. That was the best stretch of my career.”<\/p>\n

What is the Jaguars’ need along the offensive line?<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Jaguars<\/a>\u00a0will enter the offseason positioned well on the offensive line. Their starting five from last season is all still under contract, along with a few of their first options off the bench.<\/p>\n

However, that doesn’t mean we won’t see GM James Gladstone add to this unit either in the NFL draft — especially with 11 selections. For one, even with the success the offense had down the stretch, the Jaguars’ offensive line really struggled during the second half of the season to carve out running lanes.<\/p>\n

As we look for ways that Jacksonville can take a step forward in Year 2 under Liam Coen, a more consistent running game would go a long way.<\/p>\n

In addition to that, the draft is about planning ahead, and looking ahead to 2027, there could be turnover within this position group. Jacksonville could move on at that point from Little, Mekari, and\/or Hainsey by getting out of their contracts with a good amount of salary cap savings, while Edoga will be a free agent.<\/p>\n

During last year’s training camp, the Jaguars stressed competition along the offensive line. There’s no reason to think they won’t take that same approach again this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 7, 2026, 2:14 p.m. ET One offensive line draft prospect on the Jacksonville Jaguars’ radar ahead of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2060],"tags":[95878,7,212,125,2401,213,6,31186,95933,95882,103418,95936,95896,96097,95888,95899,96716,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-860256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville-jaguars","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jacksonville","11":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","12":"tag-jacksonvillejaguars","13":"tag-jaguars","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnfljaguars","16":"tag-sstsnjaguars","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagchuma-edoga","19":"tag-tagjacksonville-jaguars","20":"tag-tagnational-sports","21":"tag-tagncaa-southeastern-conference","22":"tag-tagnfl","23":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","24":"tag-tagsports-illustrated","25":"tag-tagsports-news","26":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116367301647418101","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860256","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=860256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}