Jaguars draft rumors: Making sense of Deshaun Watson 'leaks' and more

The rumors surrounding the 2017 NFL Draft are percolating at a substantial rate, not just for the Jacksonville Jaguars. The biggest rumor surrounding the Jaguars however is their interest in Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson. Well, I should say Tom Coughlin's interest in Watson, specifically, since the rumors are now starting to include that Coughlin is the one for eyes with Watson.

I'll say first of all, I'm not really buying it. I'm a fan of Watson, I would be happy if the team picked him with the No. 4 overall pick and I don't think that means you're putting "win now" on the shelf. I just don't think they'll do it, especially with all the leaks. If they truly liked Watson that much, these leaks wouldn't be happening. Well, I guess they could if someone in the front office was disgruntled about losing power and their quarterback might be getting pushed out, but as a friend told me, maybe I just watch too much professional wrestling.

So, if the leaks of Watson are deliberate it's because the team is wanting a player to fall to them with the No. 4 overall pick. The most commonly mocked player to the Jaguars has been LSU running back Leonard Fournette and No. 4 overall is really the earliest he's going in the vast majority of mocks, so if the team is "locked in" on  him what would the point of leaking the Watson interest? Fournette is going to be at No. 4 regardless, right? The closer we get to the draft the less I think Fournette is the lock at No. 4 everyone thinks he is, too.

The other scenario is that you're leaking interest in Watson so someone who does covert Watson will trade up to the No. 4 overall pick so you can move down. The question I have about this though, wouldn't that make a team trade ahead of you? Maybe in the actual NFL Draft the logic makes sense you trade with the team wanting to pick that player, but non NFL Draft logic says that you want to get ahead of them, else you're paying more of a premium to pull them off their pick, right?

So I keep coming back to it's either someone in the building leaking information of out spite, which is more fun but highly unlikely, or the Jaguars are really trying to get someone to leap frog them for a player to drop to the fourth overall pick.