Will Jaguars target big guys early under Coughlin?

The NFL offseason is in full swing now. The Super Bowl is over, the Senior Bowl has come and gone, and free agency is rapidly approaching. Even though free agency is closing in quickly, a lot of discussion in the coming weeks will be focused on the 2017 NFL Draft. With the Jaguars holding the fourth overall pick, many have speculated on what direction the team will go there, especially with Tom Coughlin now running the show.

With that in mind, I decided to take a look back at Coughlin’s drafts when he was originally with the Jaguars from 1995-2002. I wanted to try and see if there was any consistency to what Coughlin did in the first two rounds of those drafts, and these were the results.

1995

1st Round: Tony Boselli, OT - James Stewart, RB

2nd Round: Brian DeMarco, OT - Bryan Schwartz, LB

1996

1st Round: Kevin Hardy, LB

2nd Round: Tony Brackens, DE - Michael Cheever, C

1997

1st Round: Renaldo Wynn, DT

2nd Round: Mike Logan, CB

1998

1st Round: Fred Taylor, RB - Donovin Darius, S

2nd Round: Cordell Taylor, CB

1999

1st Round: Fernando Bryant, CB

2nd Round: Larry Smith, DT

2000

1st Round: R. Jay Soward, WR

2nd Round: Brad Meester, C

2001

1st Round: Marcus Stroud, DT

2nd Round: Maurice Williams, OT

2002

John Henderson, DT

Mike Pearson, OT

TOTALS

Defensive Tackle: 4

Offensive Tackle: 4

Cornerback: 3

Running Back: 2

Center: 2

Linebacker: 2

Defensive End: 1

Wide Receiver: 1

Safety: 1

So, what does this tell us? Well for one thing, it seems to indicate that Coughlin had a preference to target big guys early. Of the 20 picks he had in the first and second rounds, 11 were spent on offensive or defensive lineman. This would fall in line with the conventional thinking surrounding the Jaguars and their fourth overall pick this year, with most people pairing them with a defensive lineman.

Will Coughlin stick to his trends in the past, and take a guy like Jon Allen or Solomon Thomas with the Jaguars top pick? Or will he go in another direction, and perhaps try to take a difference making running back like Dalvin Cook or Leonard Fournette, a route he took twice in his previous Jaguars stints? Taking a running back in the first round worked extremely well for Coughlin before, so it’s not something to be totally discounted, even though the data shows the tendency to take lineman early on. What do you think the Jags should do with the fourth pick?