Shad Khan sits four days from completing what amounts to a football facelift of the star-crossed organization he bought nine years ago. He leveraged the assets his previous regime amassed into landing a legendary coach in January who was heavily sought-after at two levels of the sport, and, on Thursday, he and that coach will use the most precious of those assets, the first pick in the draft, on the most precious asset a team can have.
The Jaguars’ owner wasn’t going to confirm for me, as we talked on Saturday, what we all believe has been a fait accompli for more than two years now: that Trevor Lawrence will be the first pick in the 2021 draft. But he also wasn’t denying what we’ve all assumed since the former Clemson quarterback slayed the Alabama dragon in January 2019, knowing that the league wants him to keep the obvious a secret for the benefit of its television show.
“If you know anything about football, if you know anything about the Jaguars, yeah,” Khan said with a laugh, acknowledging the widespread assumption. “But this is a decision that, Albert, it’s gonna define us, certainly for the rest of my life. And everything I read and hear from people who know a lot more about football than I do, for them, it’s like stating the obvious.”
Somehow, Lawrence has become something of a forgotten man during this draft cycle.
It’s not that we haven’t talked about him—we have. More so, it’s that normally what fills debate show blocks, and sports radio segments this time of year is who should go where, and whether this prospect is worth spending that pick on. And with Lawrence, really, there hasn’t been any of that.
He’s going first. He’s more worthy of going first than anyone since Andrew Luck. The end.
And therein lies the opportunity sitting before Khan and his franchise. Like the Broncos’ 1983 trade for John Elway turned Denver into a standard-bearer NFL franchise, and as you could argue the Colts’ selection of Peyton Manning turned Indiana from a basketball state into a football state, Thursday night could change the course Khan’s franchise forever. And the owner, for his part, isn’t backing down from the daunting idea of that.
“The Jaguars, being among the two youngest teams in the league, I can talk about my nine years—it’s by far the most important time for the Jaguars,” Khan continued. “That’s why I think having Urban [Meyer] leading the team, and where we ended up with the season, I knew that this would be arguably the most important decision I’d be making, maybe in my lifetime. How the stars aligned … it’s something that can really secure the future for the Jacksonville Jaguars.”
Good thing Lawrence is pretty used to playing under pressure.
