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Will the Jaguars Make “The Leap” in 2016?

Signing Hurns long term is part of a culture change in Jacksonville.

Two days ago the Jacksonville Jaguars made news by signing Pro Bowl wide receiver Allen Hurns to a four-year, $40 million extension. It shouldn’t have come to a surprise to anyone. Hurns has been a Godsend to the Jaguars since they picked him up as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Miami in 2014.

After an outstanding rookie season where he caught 51 passes for 677 yards and six touchdowns, he followed that up with a sophomore year of 64 catches, 1,031 yards and 10 touchdowns. Hurns and Allen Robinson, a 2014 second-round pick out of Penn State, who will be the next wideout to cash in, have become one of the best receiving tandems in the league. Robinson led the league in receiving touchdowns last year with 14 and caught 80 passes for 1,400 yards.

What stands out about Hurns’ extension is that it happened at all. When was the last big Jacksonville Jaguars contract extension that made news?

I’ll tell you what it was. It was former running back Maurice Jones-Drew holding out for an extension in 2012 that never came.

That also happened to be the year that Shahid Khan bought the team from Wayne Weaver for $760 million. While MJD didn’t benefit from Khan taking over the team, the roster has and now, finally, it looks like the Jaguars are back on the cusp of competing in real, NFL football.

If you’ve only followed NFL football for the last decade or so, you might be surprised to learn that the Jags were one of the elite franchises in the NFL for years. They entered the league in 1995 with the Carolina Panthers as expansion teams. Jacksonville hired Tom Coughlin as its first head coach and began the building process through the expansion draft, regular draft and free agency immediately. They went 4-12 in their first season. They went 9-7 and made it all the way to the AFC Championship in their second where they lost to the Drew Bledsoe/Bill Parcells-led New England Patriots.

It was just the beginning for the Jags and they were perennial contenders  for the next three seasons, making it to the AFC Championship again in 1999. That Jags team went 14-2 and ended Dan Marino’s career with the Dolphins in a 62-7 beat down. They lost to the Titans in the AFC title game, costing themselves their best shot at a Super Bowl (which they would have lost to the 1999 Rams, but still, they would have been there).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C82M9uwX81M

Salary cap issues and player ages worked against them over the next couple of season. The Jags stupidly fired Tom Coughlin who went on to build two Super Bowl-winning teams with the New York Giants. But, to his credit, new head coach Jack Del Rio got them back in the playoffs from 2003-2007, but he could never put a complete team together and never really had a quarterback he could lean on. After four straight losing seasons Del Rio was out too and the Jags began their lackluster swirl down the drain by which we now know them.

It took Khan a while a couple of seasons to get his fingerprints on the team. The hire of Gus Bradley hasn’t paid off in wins, but you have to take into account the horrific junior varsity team he inherited when he was hired in 2013. You also need to look at the roster he’s helped put together since.

The 2013 NFL Draft is a certified bust-fest, but the Jags actually did OK. They took their starting left tackle, Luke Joeckel, with the No. 2 pick. Starting safety Jonathan Cyprien was picked in the second round. Reserve corner Duane Gratz got picked in the third and running back Denard Robinson was picked in the fifth. While that may not sound like a solid draft, in 2013 terms it’s a veritable haul.

They key draft that finally turned the Jags into a contender was 2014 when they took Blake Bortles with the No. 3 pick. Marquise Lee came in the second, Robinson in the third, starting center Brandon Linder was drafted in the fourth, cornerback Aaron Colvin in the fifth and the steal of the draft, linebacker Telvin Smith in the sixth who is one of the best outside linebackers in the league. Oh, and they signed Hurns as an undrafted free agent.

But what’s really exciting about the Jaguars is how aggressive they are in free agency. And I’m not talking Dan Snyder crazy aggressive, but smart aggressive. This year they signed five of the Top 100 free agents available to go with another terrific draft class. That included the No. 1-ranked free agent, Denver Broncos defensive lineman Malik Jackson. When you factor in they got the No. 1 player on everybody’s draft board in Jalen Ramsey and a Top Five value pick in the second round in Myles Jack, it’s easy to see everything falling into place for Jacksonville.

And that’s not even counting on the return of last year’s No. 1 pick Dante Fowler Jr. Are the Jags going to make the playoffs this season? That’s a tough one. The AFC is loaded with quality teams and the AFC South in particular has gotten way better in just the last couple of seasons. It may take a couple of seasons to get there, but 8-8 doesn’t seem out of reach with a few breaks.

Written by Adam Greene

Adam Greene is a writer and photographer based out of East Tennessee. His work has appeared on Cracked.com, in USA Today, the Associated Press, the Chicago Cubs Vineline Magazine, AskMen.com and many other publications.

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