The Jaguars have officially traded for defensive tackle Ruke Orhorhoro.
The team announced that they sent defensive tackle Maason Smith to Atlanta for Orhorhoro on Friday afternoon. The exchange of 2024 second-round picks was first reported earlier in the day.
Orhorhoro will not be teammates with offensive lineman Cooper Hodges when he reports for his first work with Jacksonville. The Jaguars announced that they have waived Hodges in the same release that confirmed the trade was done.
Hodges was a 2023 seventh-round pick in Jacksonville. He spent his rookie season on injured reserve and appeared in nine games in 2024 before landing on the physically unable to perform list for the 2025 campaign.
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The Falcons and Jaguars have agreed to a swap of defensive linemen.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that Atlanta has agreed to send defensive tackle Ruke Orhorhoro to Jacksonville in exchange for defensive tackle Maason Smith. Both players were second-round picks in 2024 with Orhorhoro going to the Falcons at No. 35 and Smith going to the Jags at No. 48.
Orhorhoro played in eight games as a rookie and all 17 games last season. He made eight starts and finished the season with 25 tackles and 3.5 sacks.
Smith played 24 games and started seven times over his first two seasons. He had 32 tackles and three sacks in those appearances.
The NFL has announced the names of the current and former players that will take part in next week’s draft by announcing second-round picks.
The list includes players associated with all 32 teams, including Cardinals running back James Conner. Conner has strong ties to the Pittsburgh area after playing for the Steelers and attending Pitt, which likely made him an easy choice as the Cardinals’ representative.
Former Bears tackle Jimbo Covert, former Cowboys running back Tony Dorsett, former Chiefs defensive lineman Bill Maas, current Vikings tackle Brian O’Neill, former Jets running back Curtis Martin, and former 49ers punter Andy Lee are other Pitt alums who are set to take part.
The hometown team will be represented by four players. Former Steelers Jerome Bettis and John Stallworth will be joined by Joey Porter Sr. and Jr. next Friday.
The other players taking part and their team affiliations appear below:
Falcons: Michael Turner
Ravens: Mark Ingram
Bills: Shane Conlan
Panthers: Jake Delhomme
Bengals: Ken Anderson
Browns: Phil Dawson
Cowboys: Drew Pearson
Broncos: T.J. Ward
Lions: Calvin Johnson
Packers: John Kuhn
Texans: Billy Miller
Colts: Pat McAfee
Jaguars: Paul Posluszny
Raiders: Matt Millen
Chargers: Shawne Merriman
Rams: Tavon Austin
Dolphins: Dwight Stephenson
Patriots: Deion Branch
Saints: Marques Colston
Giants: Osi Umenyiora
Eagles: Brian Westbrook
Seahawks: Cliff Avril
Buccaneers: Ronde Barber
Titans: Jeffery Simmons
Commanders: Mark Rypien
A recent report from NFL Network indicated that Travis Hunter will transition in his second season with the Jaguars to the role of full-time cornerback and part-time receiver.
That’s apparently news to Hunter.
Hunter reposted a clip of the conversation from NFLN with this message: “Who told you this?”
The Jaguars moved up to No. 2 in last year’s draft — giving up the fifth overall pick in 2025 and their 2026 first-rounder (plus more) — to get Hunter. The argument was that they were getting two full-time players in one.
Last year’s production from Hunter, capped by a season-ending knee injury, may have caused the Jaguars to reconsider the wisdom of giving one player full-time two-way duties. And if the Jaguars are going to use Hunter primarily on one side of the ball, it arguably makes more sense to put him at receiver. Plenty of teams saw him in the runup to the 2025 draft primarily as a receiver and not as a corner. And the receiver market currently is more robust financially than the cornerback market.
Then there’s the possibility the Jaguars are quietly considering the possibility of trading receiver Brian Thomas Jr. before, during, or immediately after the draft. Although the Jaguars have called such chatter “fraudulent,” talk of a potential trade hasn’t fully dissipated. By putting out the word that Hunter will be primarily playing corner, the perception that Thomas will remain on the Jaguars becomes strengthened.
Which could help them get more for him, if they decide to trade him. Which would then allow them to slide Hunter from CB to WR.
In seven games last year (with four starts), Hunter played 67 percent of the offensive snaps and 36 percent of the defensive snaps. Which is a far cry from the full-time, two-way player the Jaguars claimed to be getting.
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.
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.
