The Jaguars shocked the NFL world with a four-year, $72MM deal for Christian Kirk, but the former Cardinals receiver checked a lot of boxes the team sought this offseason.
Kirk’s speed profile, durability and being 25 — an age the Jags believed would allow him to grow and develop alongside Trevor Lawrence — made him appealing for the rebuilding team, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports notes.
Only one Jaguar pass catcher (D.J. Chark) has topped 1,000 yards since the team’s tag team of Allens (Hurns, Robinson) each did so in 2015. While Chark narrowly got there (1,008 yards) alongside Gardner Minshew and was coming off a season-ending broken ankle, Doug Pederson still expressed interest in re-signing the former second-round pick. But on Day 1 of the legal tampering period, the Jags handed out contracts to Kirk and Zay Jones on a big-spending day for the franchise. That led Chark to Detroit.
Of course, Kirk’s next 1,000-yard season will be his first. That helped lead to the surprise factor when he inked his deal, which is effectively a two-year, $37MM agreement. Kirk has been a nice addition for Jacksonville thus far, having caught 20 passes for 327 yards and three touchdowns through four games.
Flush with cap space, the Jags decided to make their No. 1 receiver bet in free agency. Jacksonville’s draft position and uncertainty of landing a top weapon in a trade factored into this decision. The team viewed its draft position — Nos. 1 and 33 at the draft’s outset — as unideal to land a wideout that would be ready to contribute immediately, Jones adds, and it was not especially high on Amari Cooper. The Jags were involved in the Cooper sweepstakes, but considering the Browns acquired him for a fifth-rounder and a sixth-round pick swap, it is clear the AFC South team was not offering much.
Kirk’s contract helped drive the receiver market’s ensuing boom; 11 wideouts have since passed or matched Kirk’s $18MM-AAV accord. This makes the Jags’ thinking somewhat prescient. The Jags expected Samuel to score a payday north of $20MM per year, Jones adds. Samuel reached $23.85MM per annum during an offseason that also saw Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams, Cooper Kupp, A.J. Brown, Stefon Diggs, D.K. Metcalf, Terry McLaurin, Chris Godwin, Brandin Cooks and Diontae Johnson surpass Kirk’s contract between free agency’s outset and the preseason. The run of big-ticket wideout deals led to Kirk’s AAV dropping from seventh to 18th at the position.
Another team was prepared to offer Kirk $13MM per year, but Jones adds that squad was quickly told it was not in the ballpark. The Eagles pursued Kirk briefly but were not prepared to go near where the Jaguars did for the ex-Cardinal second-rounder. Philly soon pivoted to Allen Robinson but saw the Rams blow that offer away, leading the Eagles to set the market for fully guaranteed money by trading for Brown and giving him $56MM at signing. The Jaguars’ focus on landing a high-end target in free agency helped lead to the domino effect that sent Brown to Philly.
I guess if you have the cap space and need a wr it makes some sense.
kind if like ppl complaining initially about TJ Watt and Minkah deals.. it really doesn’t matter because they won’t be paying a QB real money for at least 4-5 years.
just think WR isn’t necessarily a position to press the panic button on.. can find solid talent in the mid rounds and late into free agency
this team passed on George Pickens twice, and can still get someone like Chase Claypool for a 2nd or 3rd round pick.
…yes. everything must revolve around the steelers.
Still baffling that they drafted Etienne in the first round when they had a running back coming off a star season as an undrafted rookie and receivers like Bateman and Elijah Moore on the board.
You could make the argument that already having a player with Etienne’s skill set made the Kirk signing (at that price) even more surprising
I get how Kirk’s deep game makes that untrue, but I think the Kirk signing is surprising enough on its own terms. Of course, it looks shockingly good so far.
Uhhhh…George Pickens anyone?
What about him? He looks promising now, but he had all of five catches last year and the Jaguars needed a receiver they felt they could count on right now. Besides, they used their second round pick on Lloyd, who’s looking very promising in his own right.
My point was that they could have taken him at 33. The Kirk signing was terrible, but even worse when the team was unable to make an assessment that Pickens would be there at 33. Bigger picture: they didn’t give up much to move up and draft Jame-O. So I’m nitpicking. I just found it odd that the team didn’t think there was anyone worth taking at 33.
Gotcha. My point was that I could understand a team not being willing to take Pickens that high at the time, even if it looks like a wise choice now. I thought Jacksonville should be in the business of just putting the ball on the green (which is also why I didn’t like the Walker pick for them). Pickens didn’t fit that bill.
Isn’t it amazing how Pittsburgh lands in the roses with WRs? Hindsight being 20/20, man did the rest of the league miss on Pickens. He was coming off an ACL, but so was Jame-O. Seems like a zero sum assessment for me. When you consider Jame-O couldn’t beat out GW and Olave at OSU, doesn’t that diminish him for you? It did for me.
I think part of the answer is that Pittsburgh is really aggressive about drafting receivers. They draft them often and draft for upside. They also draft them before they really *need* them, so the hits are more glaring and the misses don’t really matter. It’s a great system, and other teams should take note. Pickens isn’t even the only receiver they drafted this year! Now if only they had a line that gave QBs time for plays to unfold downfield.
The Allen Robinson deal is not looking good for LA at the moment
How can you expect full performance from KIRK
WITHOUT:
SPOCK, BONES and SCOTTY ???
Solid signing as he’s Avg 80 yds and 0.75 TDs per game