Jacksonville Jaguars fantasy preview

Warren Sharp’s Strength of Schedule and a brief injury note: Warren Sharp projects the Jaguars to face the 9th-easiest overall offensive schedule and the 2nd-easiest slate of pass-defenses.

In his 2019 Football Preview, Sharp also points out that Jacksonville lost 4 of its 5 offensive linemen to injured reserve last year. Its tight end group was the 2nd-most injured in the league, while the receivers were 3rd-most injured. The impact of this on the 2018 season cannot be understated.

Must Draft

The Jacksonville offense has been plagued by suboptimal, obvious play-calling for years, to the detriment of the offense and specifically Leonard Fournette. Per Warren Sharp, the Jaguars handed off to Fournette on 1st-down 67% of the time (run play percentage on 1st-down across the NFL was 49%) and routinely gained less than 3-yards when doing so. New OC John DeFilippo dialed up pass plays 59% of the time on 1st-half 1st-downs last year in Minnesota, the 5th-highest rate in the NFL and an indication of what he wants to do while not impacted by game script. He also frequently delivered those passes to running backs -- couple this with Fournette averaging a whopping 8.4-yards per reception in his pro career a we’re looking and you can see why Leonard Fournette is the steal of the 3rd Round.

Evan Silva routinely refers to Dede Westbrook as a T.Y. Hilton clone and the comparison is apt. Both are deep threat slot receivers that routinely smoke DBs trying to keep up with them. QB Nick Foles notoriously hones in on whoever’s in the slot and Westbrook’s already established himself as the team’s defacto No. 1 pass catcher. He’s an excellent pick across all formats.

Good Values

N/A

Monitor

Reunited with his former OC in John DeFilippo, Nick Foles has a shot to be a sneaky late-round QB target.

There are whispers that D.J. Chark has quietly had a great camp.

Avoid

Geoff Swaim. Neither Chris Conley nor Marquise Lee have done much to separate one from the other.