2008 NFL Draft: Jacksonville Jaguars select Quentin Groves

There he is, Quentin Groves, the Jacksonville Jaguars with the 52nd overall pick.  The Jaguars traded a fifth round pick from the 2008 draft and a 2009 7th round pick to move up with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  Quentin Groves, as I previewed here, is a pass rushing defensive end/outside linebacker hybrid known for his speed on the edge.

Jacksonville, in two picks, as made Peyton Manning, Matt Schaub and Vince Young soil themselves as the team who could not bring the heat now as two of the top pass rushers in the draft are now in the Teal and Black.  Sure, it was expensive to get the two of them.  The Jaguars now have two 5th round picks to round out their draft.  While I don't think the move reeks of desperation, the Jaguars must believe that these two players will be home runs.  If any team learned from the New York Giants, it's the Jaguars who can now field a diverse range of defensive linemen, the scrappy Derek Landri, the monster of John Henderson, the pressure of Paul Spicer, and now two guided missiles aimed at the quarterback in Harvey and Groves. 

It's an aggressive High-Risk, High-Reward sort of pick that will put the Jaguars in the upper echelon of the NFL.  Our draft, for all intents and purposes is over.  We really don't have any way to trade back into the 4th or 3rd round, unless a team really values Matt Jones or Khalif Barnes, two players that I thought for sure would be traded away.

There's no excuses now for not getting to the quarterback.  We go big or we go home.

It's just too bad that we've got months upon months to imagine these guys on the rush before we'll actually see it...

-Chris