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Baalke on Draft Strategy, Building 2023 Jaguars | The O-Zone Podcast · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Soon. Welcome to the Ozone Podcast with Jaguars senior writer
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: John Oser.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: All Right, welcome to this week's Ozone Podcast with Jaguars
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: general manager Trent Balky and Trent, we have you in
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: here obviously to look back in the draft a little
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: bit and to look I guess a thirty thousand feet
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: view in the team right now with two weeks to
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: sort of decompress, and I know you decompressed in Wisconsin
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: getting away a little bit. Uh, thoughts on the draft
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: looking back on it, Uh, just something general about that
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: period and that player acquisition period.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, obviously nobody at this point in time
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: is going to tell you they had a bad draft,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: so I'm not going to be the first. But now,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: if the board really did fall in a lot of
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: cases how we felt it was going to fall, there's
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: always a little some twists and turns that go with it.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: But we were able to you know, draft thirteen guys
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: and thirteen guys that we feel good about, you know,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: at different levels of the draft. You know, we had
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: all the way from first through the seventh round a
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: lot of Day three picks, So it was it was
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: fun and exciting and rewarding.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: All in one, and so many people try to analyze
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: the draft, and I've always thought that people analyze it
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: based on what they think a team should do, which
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: is completely different than what a team goes in trying
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: to get out of it. You know, it's the age
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: old thing when you're looking at a long term versus
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: short term with the draft, how do you try to
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: bantle it to balance that as a GM because people
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: think you sort of have a plan, but you can't
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: really go in think I'm going to take a tackle
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: and a guard, and you know that's not the way
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: the draft works, and if you do, you're setting you're
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: setting yourself up for a lot of reaching and failure.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Right Yeah, I just I don't put a lot of
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: stock in what other people think we should have done
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: or should do. You know, you have a plan, You
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: have an internal plan that you work through with the
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: head coach and the coaching staff and the personnel staffs.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: You have a plan going into it. The plan is
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: never going to be executed exactly how you want it
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: to be because you don't have there's too many variables,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: too many things out of your control. But for the
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: most part, you got to stick to your board, and
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: we did that. You know, the plan wasn't to go
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: in and draft three offensive players necessarily in a row.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: That's just what happened, right, But we're excited about what happened.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: So again, you worry about what you can control. You
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: worry about the plan that you have set forth internally,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: and you let other people judge it however they want to.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: How much of a difference between what you read about
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: the draft and what actually happens during the draft? A lot.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: There's a big difference, you know, again a lot of times,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: a lot of things that you read or sensationalize, you know,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: it's just it is what it is. It's a big moment.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of there's a lot of speculation on it,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of eyes on it, there's a lot
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: of people, you know, commenting on it, and from a
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: lot of different angles. Again, that's really one of the
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: main reasons you focus on you and don't worry about
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: the external noises.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: I hadn't really planned this as a question, but as
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: you were talking, I was curious, who's maybe your biggest
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: influence in how you work a draft, how you plan it,
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: how you lay it out, Like when you're strategizing going
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: into it. Is there one person a few people who
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: sort of shaped how you sort of game plan and
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: coach a draft, if you will.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think my experience with mister Haley and Coach
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Parcels and even Coach Belichick, you know, my early years
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: with the Jets, you know, all of those guys were there.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: You know, a lot of what we do is still
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: based on the system that I learned there, because it's
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: a it's a time tested system that and those guys
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: were very successful at what they did, and and you know,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I still believe in it wholeheartedly.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Gotcha? Is there a tenant or two from that you like,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: just a base philosophy.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Well, I think you don't make exceptions, you know, I
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: think that's one of the big ones I learned from
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Coach and mister Haley. You know, once you start making
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: an exception, pretty soon you have a team full of exceptions.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: So you just try to stick to your philosophy. You know,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Coach and I have a you know what, we know
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: what we're looking for positionally, we know what we're looking
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: for culturally, and those are the type of players that
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: we were going to emphasize in the draft. So when
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: I say our board is, you know, we got one
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: hundred and twenty five or one hundred and thirty or
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: hundred and thirty five, whatever that number, we finalize that's
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: that those are the guys that we think are.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: Jag Gotcha, Roocky, Mini Caamp. What did you want to
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: see and what did you see?
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: I wanted to see him stay healthy, you know, that's
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: that's first and foremost, you know, because a lot of
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: you know, what people realize when they first get here,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: they haven't really been doing anything football for a long time.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Their season ends, and then they're they put on a
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: pair of shorts and they start working on getting ready
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: to jump higher or further, run faster, you know, cut quicker,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: you know, they're not They're they're working on their pro
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: day drills.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: So they get here, they haven't done a lot, they're
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: not in great football condition, so you just try to
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: get them through healthy, but at the same time kind
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: of gauge where they're at. And the last thing you
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: want to do is look out there and see someone
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: go down this early.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because I think precisely that's happened here before, and
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: not a pleasant feeling for anybody. I want to go
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: maybe the top three draft picks, and he didn't see
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: much out of them on the field, but just very
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: quickly Anton Hair and what do you like about him?
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: What do you see from him?
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Well, we see exactly what we saw on tape. You know,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: the versatility to play left or right. You know, he's
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: a he's a basketball type athlete with quick hands, heavy hands,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: you know, and he's got the right mindset. He's a
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: physical player that moves, moves the way you want him
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: to move. We really like where he's at, but he's
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: got a long way to go, like all these young
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: guys do.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: There's a difference of just standing next to him when
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: he was hitting pads and sort of sounds different. There's
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: a power there that's interesting as you watch him.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: He's got heavy hands, and you know, we did a
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: lot of work on him. Obviously, Phil, our offensive line coach,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: went out and worked him out. Were we over evaluated
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: him if you will, you know, we had a lot
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: of eyes on him all all year long. And you
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: know the great thing is when a guy shows up
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: and he exhibits what you saw on film, and they
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: looked the way you thought they were gonna look. And
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: he certainly has done that thus far, but again, long
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: way to go.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: It's a bad feeling when they don't.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Well it canny, it cany.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Breton Strange sure looks the part. I mean, impressive kid.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: What do you like about him?
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Again, another guy that came in and showed us all
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: the things that we saw on film. You know, he's quick,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: he's bigger than he measures. You know, when you stand
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: next to him, he just has a bigger feel to
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: him than six o three seven. You know, he's a
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: really good athlete for his size. He's got good twitch,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: you know, and he's well rounded. There's a lot of
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: things he can do. And I think that's one of
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: the things that coach talks about with the tight end
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: room is that versatility. He can line up as a
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: y on the line of scrimmage and block. From there,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: he can line up in the backfield and he's can
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: move throughout the formation. So really excited about where he's at.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: But again, another young guy that's it's gonna you know,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: he's gonna have to develop and learn learn how to
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: be you know, do everything that we're going to be
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: asking them to do.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Is Bigsby sort of a running back version of what
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: you're talking about. He'll fit in give you more of
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: a backfield by committee feel than you're able to have
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: last year.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Perhaps, Yeah, well we're looking, you know, iron sharpens iron.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: You know, we're really happy with where that room is at.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: We feel it's one of our deeper rooms right now.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: On the team, we got you know, some guys in there,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: six guys that can all play at this level, have
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: proven they can play at this level, with the exception
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: right now of the two or young younger guys. Right
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: we got snooped from last year, we got tank from
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: this year. Iron sharpens iron. So let's go to work
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: and see what. See where that depth chart lays out
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: at the end of the training camp.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: The depth and the I guess overall, the possibility of
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: the roster seems much advanced for maybe your first draft.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: Are you closer to where you liked see a team
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: physically trait wise? It is this more of a balky team,
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: I guess you will.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, take me out of the equation if you would.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: It's it's more what we envision right. You know what
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: coach and I have envisioned is we've started to lay
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: this thing out. You know, it's uh, you know, we
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: want to be big, we want to be physical, we
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: want to be fast, we want to be smart, we
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: want to be available. By what I mean by that,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: we want healthy guys. We want guys that can stay,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: stay on the field and play. So if we can,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: if we can continue to add players like that that
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: fit the culture that we're trying to build here, you know,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: then it's it's going to be how we envision it.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: How much of it was there an element this off
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: season or how much of an element of your entire
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: off season is as a GM having to look ahead
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: to future off season's, future cap situations, Trevor's contract. Obviously,
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: at some point there's some pre planning that you have
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: to do to prepare for being a competitive team for
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: the long term, right.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely, And we're we're looking at that two and
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: three years out constantly, you know, and obviously injuries come up,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: things change. No plan ever goes executed right perfectly, but
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: we're definitely planning out two three years down down the
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: road for these contracts that you see coming. You know,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: next year is going to be a big off season.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: We got we got a significant number of guys that
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: are going to be up that we're gonna have to
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: address in it. You know, we're gonna be saying.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: That every year, right, that was, but that was something
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: you knew. I remember some people miss this. You said
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: that a lot last year when active in free agency.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: You said, look, twenty twenty three is going to be
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: different than twenty four, sort of a critical year. So
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: this has all been the plan and we're seeing a
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: play out.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, everybody wants you to go out and
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: continue to sign, sign, sign, but the reality is you can't.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: The reality is at some point the free agent market's
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: got to dry up because you don't have the cap
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: space to work that market as heavily as you used to.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: And we went through two years a heavy usage of
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: free agency, and then, you know, then we got to
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: the point where we didn't have the cap space to
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: do that, and we knew that was coming. We tried
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: to pre warn everybody's coming. Some people heard that, some do,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: some don't, you know, and that's just the way it is.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: And I get it. You know, you want to be
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: as competitive as you can be, but there there's a
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: cap for a reason, and everybody, everybody plays by the
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: same rules.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Do you like what you're seeing. So much of this
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: season is going to be about Traylon, Chad moom At,
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Devin Lloyd, guys continuing to develop young guys you drafted
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: just so far off season program wise, Do you like
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: where those guys are headed?
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Really like where those guys are head. No, it's early.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: We've only been out on the grass for a few
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: few practices here, but you know, really like the maturity
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: that they've that they seem to be carrying themselves with.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: They they've been through it now for a year. They
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: know how to pace themselves, you know, and and that's
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: always a good thing. They know what to expect. There's
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: less anxiety, they're freer to learn.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: And that's such a huge factor for young kids starting
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: off in this game.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I mean the anxiety that goes with trying to
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: earn a spot in the National Football League, coupled with
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: all the newness around them and the level the step
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: up in level of play. Absolutely, you know Anton is
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: going to go through it, just like Trayvon went through it,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: and Devin went through it a year ago, and and
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: everybody before him. But we've got a good group of
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: veteran guys that could help these guys get through these
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: periods and the closer we get to building the type
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: of team that we're and we're close, you know how
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: close that remains to be seen here. We've got to
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: let this season play out. We got a long way
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: to get just to the start of the season. So
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: but it's fun watching these guys just work together. This
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: is a very selfless football team right now. You see
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: the older guys, the veteran guys taking the younger guys
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: under their wing, and that's that's always a good sign.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: That sort of thing doesn't always happen, and it's been
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: remarkable transformation on that front round here at.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: It it is. But I've said this before several times.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: You know, Doug plays a huge role in that he's
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: a He's a tremendous leader of young men men, and
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: you know that the message he sends is just so
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: positive and so strong and it resonates with the players.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Uh so the play the players really take that to heart.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: You know, the things that he says, and you know
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: the mentorship that you're seeing out of these older players
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: right now on the team is really special.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: You mentioned after the draft, team's not built yet. Roster's
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: not set yet when deciding other moves take me through
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: that process? Is that just watching OTAs, watching what you need,
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: or as you said, an ongoing process. It never really stops.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: It's an ongoing process that never really stops. The first
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: thing that coach and I said after the draft and
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: after the rookie mini camp is Okay, let's let's now
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: sit back and watch this group over the next four
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: to five weeks and let's see exactly where we're at
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: at the end of it, and then kind of make
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: an assessment of what we may need to push it
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: a little bit further here. But you know, we've got
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: some cap space to work with. We're certainly not done
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: building this team, but we're also gonna you know, we
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: feel we've got a pretty good team, so we're gonna
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: let this thing play out and kind of see engage
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: what we may need as we move along here.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: What do you want to be able to say after
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: OTAs in mini camp? So how do you want to
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: feel June fifteen, sixteen, I.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Want to feel, you know, I think we want to
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: feel like we've got a healthy football team.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: Right. It always goes back to that.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Then, Yeah, that's in a good headspace that we feel
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: really good that's going to come back here. I think
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: it's July seventeenth, I think is the first the coaches report,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: and then I think the twentieth or twenty first the
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: players are going to start rolling in here. I'd love
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: to see these guys come in here just ready to go.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: Gotcha, Trent Valk. We always appreciate your time. Thank you
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: very much, and I appreciate you joining the Oways on podcasts.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Thanks John