Jaguars General Manager James Gladstone updated Travis Hunter’s knee rehab this week and said that the second overall pick in the 2025 draft will be limited in the offseason with the expectation that he’ll be fully cleared for training camp.
Once Hunter is healthy enough to get back to football activities, his efforts are expected to be focused on the defensive side of the ball. Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that the team is planning for Hunter to be a full-time cornerback and an occasional contributor on offense as a wide receiver.
Gladstone signaled things were moving that way right after the Jaguars were eliminated from the playoffs and a report in February indicated that the cornerback-first plan was in place. That was what many expected to be the case after Hunter won the Heisman at Colorado in 2024, but Hunter saw more time on offense than defense before his season-ending injury.
When the Jaguars paid a heavy price to trade up for Hunter last year, there was a lot of talk about getting two players in one. There were some flashes of that during his rookie season, but nailing down the corner job alone might be the optimal scenario in Jacksonville for Year Two.
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Jaguars head coach Liam Coen and General Manager James Gladstone are heading into their second draft in Jacksonville, and this year they feel a lot more settled into their jobs.
Last year, Coen was hired late in the postseason and Gladstone was hired just before the Scouting Combine, and they were still getting to know each other and getting their staffs settled in while also preparing for the draft. Coen said this year, everything is established and all the focus is on the task at hand.
“A little less frantic, I guess you could call it, in terms of how fast everything happened last year and getting not just the scouting staff onboarded, but the coaches then onboarded to new procedures and modes of operation,” Coen said. “So, I think just some of the familiarities really helped just the flow and the way that we operate on a day-to-day basis, the schedule, the routine, what the coaches expect. That’s been very clear and concise throughout the process and I think it’s just allowed us to maybe get to different or deeper dialogue maybe a little bit quicker on some of the guys that we’re really honing in on.”
Gladstone echoed that sentiment.
“This time last year we were in true discovery mode. We were learning on the fly,” Gladstone said.
Coen and Gladstone had an impressive first year, taking over a 4-13 team and going 13-4 in Year One. Now they’re firmly established and preparing for a draft that they hope sets them up to take the next step in 2026.
Travon Walker spent his first four seasons in Jacksonville. The defensive end is now under contract for the next five seasons after agreeing to a four-year, $110 million extension.
The former No. 1 overall draft pick has 27.5 sacks in his four seasons, and the Jaguars see him as one of their core players as they attempt to win their first Super Bowl.
“It was a pretty important piece,” General Manager James Gladstone said Thursday, via John Oehser of the team website. “He’s somebody that by season’s end we wanted to align ourselves with beyond just the contract that we had at the time. His commitment to our football team, his commitment to his teammates, it seeps out of his soul. It was very easy to see what his piece to our puzzle meant. The scheme fit, the priorities we have on our defense, it just all really matches up in a real way. He’s the type of human being that you feel comfortable making a decision like that about. Really excited for really the evolution we’ll see moving forward with not only his usage, but that entire defensive front and those guys behind him as we get into Year 2 of the system.”
The Jaguars committed to Walker long-term despite his tying his career low with 3.5 sacks in 2025. After his signing, Walker vowed to take his game “to another level.”
Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence requested a trade this week and the prospect of a move came up during Jaguars General Manager James Gladstone’s press conference on Thursday.
After Gladstone answered a question about the team’s interest in the defensive tackles in this year’s draft, he was asked if there was thought to making a run at trading for the veteran. Gladstone’s brief answer did not suggest that the Jaguars are in hot pursuit.
“That’s not something we’ve gone into,” Gladstone said. “Obviously he’s under contract with them, so not at liberty necessarily to even talk about it.”
Lawrence wants an upgraded contract and Giants head coach John Harbaugh said earlier this week that he thinks Lawrence will be a member of the team come the fall, so there may not be much reason for the Jags or anyone else to expend energy on chasing a trade. If the outlook in New Jersey changes, however, there could be a number of suitors for Lawrence’s services.
Jaguars cornerback/wide receiver Travis Hunter is not yet fully cleared to return from last year’s season-ending knee injury, but he’s getting there.
That’s the word from Jaguars General Manager James Gladstone, who said today that Hunter is limited for the offseason program but should be fully cleared for training camp.
“He’ll be, for all intents and purposes, a limited participant throughout the offseason program with eyes on return to play at full tick in training camp,” Gladstone said.
The Jaguars paid a heavy price for Hunter, giving up this year’s first-round pick to move up and draft him No. 2 overall last year. Hunter’s rookie season was a disappointment, but the Jaguars still believe he has the potential to be something the NFL hasn’t seen in decades: An elite player on both offense and defense. Now they’ll just have to be patient as he rehabs, and see how he looks when training camp opens.
When the Jaguars drafted Trevor Lawrence first overall in 2021, they saddled him with Urban Meyer as a head coach. Meyer didn’t even last one season before he was replaced with Darrell Bevell for the rest of that year. Lawrence then spent three years being coached by Doug Pederson, who was better than Meyer but never helped Lawrence reach the level of play he was expected to.
Last year, Liam Coen became the Jaguars’ head coach, and it was Jacksonville’s most promising season in Lawrence’s career. Coen thinks Lawrence’s growth has only just begun.
Coen said on SiriusXM NFL Radio that Lawrence’s performance last season was just the beginning, as Lawrence is going to have stability in Coen’s offense that he hasn’t had to this point in his career.
“Four new systems, multiple different head coach situations, OCs, whatever it is,” Coen said. “Go throughout the season, and you find out, I mean, doesn’t miss a single practice, doesn’t miss a single throw in practice, played the whole season. MVP finalist, Comeback Player of the Year finalist, did some great things. There is so much room to continue to improve, and I think that’s what we’re excited about attacking.”
Coen thinks he and Lawrence are going go grow together.
“I’m really excited about working with Trevor again this year,” Coen said.
After an excellent college career at Clemson, Lawrence entered the NFL as one of the most-hyped quarterback prospects in NFL draft history. He hasn’t lived up to that hype yet, but Coen thinks there’s plenty of time for the 26-year-old Lawrence to show just how good he can be.
Travon Walker signed a four-year contract extension with the Jaguars on Saturday and the defensive end told reporters that he doesn’t see the new pact as a sign that he’s reached his peak as a player.
Walker’s $110 million deal reflects the value that the Jags put on the production he’s provided since they made him the top pick of the 2022 draft, but head coach Liam Coen hasn’t been shy about pushing Walker to set high goals for himself heading into his fifth season. While speaking to reporters on Saturday, Walker recounted a conversation that Coen had with him about how much Aaron Donald — Coen was on the Rams’ staff while Donald was playing — used to dominate on a daily basis.
“It’s just taking my game to another level,” Walker said, via the team’s website. “It just kind of help put things in perspective for me to be able to just click into a different type of mindset from how I was going throughout the year. It really dawned on me that it’s just time to ramp things up, take it to the next level. . . . It’s helping everybody else on the team get better, while it’s helping me get better as well. It’s just pure dominance and everybody that plays in this league wants to be great. I think that’s really where he was getting to when he was speaking on that.”
Walker had 20.5 sacks over the 2023 and 2024 seasons, but only had 3.5 for Jacksonville last year. Whatever the number of sacks in 2026 and beyond, Walker’s ability to be a consistent threat to opposing offenses will be the key to making the extension look like a winning move for all involved.
Defensive end Travon Walker will be sticking around Jacksonville for a while.
Walker’s agents announced that he has agreed to a four-year extension with the Jaguars. The deal is worth $110 million and includes $77 million in total guarantees with $50 million fully guaranteed at signing.
Walker was the first overall pick of the 2022 draft and was set to play out the final year of his rookie deal in 2026. He had back-to-back 10-sack seasons in 2023 and 2024 and has recorded 200 tackles, 27.5 sacks, an interception, three forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and a fumble return for a touchdown.
Jaguars General Manager James Gladstone talked about extending Walker at this week’s league meeting. He also mentioned wide receiver Parker Washington and tight end Brenton Strange as candidates for new deals, so there may be more news out of Jacksonville on the contract front in the near future.
Offseason programs will start getting underway around the NFL next week.
The ten teams that hired new coaches this offseason will be eligible to start working with their players on Monday, April 6. The Ravens are the only team that has set that as their first day of work while the Cardinals, Falcons, Bills, Browns, Raiders, Dolphins, Giants, Steelers and Titans have set Tuesday as their opening day.
All of those teams will also be able to hold a voluntary minicamp later in the spring. Every team is also scheduled to hold a rookie minicamp and a mandatory minicamp over the course of the next few months.
The first two weeks of work for all teams is limited to meetings, strength and conditioning, and physical rehabilitation only. The three-week second phase allows for on-field work, but no full-speed team drills while the third OTA phase allows for team drills, but there is no live contact allowed at any point in the offseason.
Most of the 22 teams with returning coaches will be opening their offseason programs on April 20 or 21. The Broncos have set May 4 as their first day.
When it comes to the performative antics of Florida attorney general James Uthmeier, we’ve urged the league to respond with three words: “Bring it on.”
On Tuesday, Commissioner Roger Goodell essentially said just that during his press conference at the NFL annual meeting.
Asked whether the Rooney Rule, which Uthmeier has demanded the NFL ditch as to the three Florida-based teams, is going anywhere, Goodell was clear: “No. No, the Rooney Rule has been around a long time. We’ve evolved it, changed it. We’ll continue to do that as circumstances warrant.”
The league may be changing the Rooney Rule, but it won’t be changing it to create less diversity in the selection of candidates for key jobs.
“Well, the one thing that doesn’t change is our values,” Goodell said. “We believe that diversity has been a benefit to the National Football League. We are well aware of the laws, where the laws are changing or evolving. We think the Rooney Rule is consistent with those. We certainly will engage with the Florida [attorney general] or anybody else, as we have in the past, to talk about the policies and what they are.
“As you know, the Rooney Rule is not a hiring mandate. It’s intended to try to help and has been used by industries far beyond football, far beyond the United States, to help identify candidates — a diverse set of candidates — bring in better talent, and gives us an opportunity to hire the best talent. Ultimately, clubs make those decisions individually and those are, I think, principles of how we try to get better — bring in the best talent.”
Uthmeier believes otherwise, obviously. And he has given the NFL a deadline of May 1 to scrap the Rooney Rule as to the Dolphins, Jaguars, and Buccaneers, or risk potential enforcement action.
Call his bluff. Let him do it. Stick to your principles.
It sounds like that’s what the NFL plans to do.
