Has Trent Baalke been indulging in some Doug Pederson ice cream days too often during the Jacksonville Jaguars’ myriad team meetings ahead of the NFL Draft? Because Mr. Baalke, sir, whatever the explanation, you most definitely squeaked one out your cheeks in front of the media gallery.
Check out this footage of Baalke not breaking stride at all, acknowledging and apologizing for breaking wind in front of these innocent reporters who are just trying to do their job and get a quote one week before the NFL Draft opens.
“Excuse me,” he says. LOL.
My first question to all this was: Is it possible that @49ersSportsTalk added in a sound effect to clout/engagement chase? I assumed it was too good to be true. Big J Journalism Matty Fitz went to the Jaguars’ official YouTube channel to throw off his whole algorithm, and wrote about himself in third person to underscore the painstaking efforts it took to track down the raw footage.
Verdict: IT. IS. REAL.
Poor Dougie P., who had to sit there and take it like a champ as Baalke’s stench ascended within the heated, closed quarters of a press room in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida.
Savage move by Baalke. He’s no stranger to power struggles, having waged war with Jim Harbaugh as the GM of the San Francisco 49ers once upon a time. He won that time, and he won again when Urban Meyer was a disastrous less-than-one-and-done head coach of the Jaguars. Harbaugh is a weirdo (though a tamer one nowadays), and Meyer was a raging a**hole, but Trent, just because you’re way more comfortable around a Super Bowl-winning head coach like Pederson, doesn’t mean you can get this comfortable.
Is Shad Khan going to come to his senses and fire Baalke on the spot for this gross workplace misconduct? I doubt it, but if Baalke has another bad draft, he could find himself searching for other employment soon enough. What do I mean by that? Well, the Jags had thirteen picks in the 2023 draft, and to be honest, I’m not confident they have one viable star among that jumbo-sized rookie crew.
Baalke has a historic penchant for drafting players with torn ACLs, too.
Now the Jags did spend big in free agency, adding Bills receiver Gabe Davis and center Mitch Morse, with the latter acquisition hopefully rectifying a whiff on 2022 third-rounder Luke Fortner. Baalke also added 49ers veteran d-lineman Arik Armstead, Packers safety Darnell Savage and cornerback Ronald Darby to boost the defense.
But the rest of the AFC South is coming. The Texans shocked the football world this past season and were aggressive on the open market as well, hoping to take full advantage of star quarterback CJ Stroud’s rookie deal. Tennessee was another huge buyer this offseason, as they try to build a winner around Will Levis while he’s on his rookie deal. The Colts have yet another member of the 2023 QB class, Anthony Richardson, coming back off an injury. Before he went down early in his maiden NFL campaign, Richardson looked like one of the best dual-threat QBs on the sport already.
Long story short: With Jacksonville QB Trevor Lawrence due for a mega contract in the near future, well, the future is now for Baalke. Endearing and humanly relatable as a press conference fart may be, if the rest of the AFC South keeps rising and this latest draft class keeps the Jags stuck in neutral, Baalke’s GM post will be in real jeopardy.
Find out who I have Jacksonville selecting 17th overall in my latest mock draft. It’ll probably change between now and when my final mock drops, but nevertheless, the rest of the Jags’ division is a personnel arms race that Tootin’ Good Trent Baalke had better keep pace with, and this draft class will go a long way toward achieving that objective.
