Report: Jaguars could explore trading guard Andrew Norwell

The Jacksonville Jaguars could be placing guard Andrew Norwell on the trade block after a report via Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer indicated the team asked the veteran for a pay cut.

Norwell originally signed with the Jaguars in 2018 on a five-year $66.5M deal with $30M guaranteed at signing. This year, Norwell is set to make $12M in base salary with a cap hit of $15M. If the team were to trade the veteran guard prior to June 1. it would save the team $9M.

The Jaguars have undergone plenty of change since they set out and hired Urban Meyer as the team’s head coach. With a new offense, it could make sense for the team to move on from the 6-foot-6, 325-pound guard in hopes of acquiring more athleticism at the guard position.

Last season, Norwell played perhaps his best year yet since signing with the Jaguars. He would go on to play in 13 games, allowing just three sacks and 15 total pressures, according to Pro Football Focus. While the team did see improvement from Norwell last year, his first two seasons with the franchise did not go as smoothly.

Jacksonville is at a point in its rebuild where it can afford to make dramatic changes to fix key positions the team feels won’t be suited for its future. While it is not absolute that Norwell will be traded, Jacksonville may want to acquire more assets to make other moves at key position groups.

Last month, Meyer announced his coaching staff, which included bringing back offensive line coach George Warhop. Warhop understands and knows exactly what Norwell, along with other offensive linemen currently on the team, are good at and what they are deficient at. If Norwell is simply no longer a scheme fit for the team, it would make sense they’d move on at some point, and perhaps acquiring assets now would be beneficial.

Norwell is not the only Jaguars offensive linemen that may not be on the team next season. Left tackle Cam Robinson is currently set to become an unrestricted free agent, and has yet to be franchise tagged. The Jaguars will have until tomorrow to decide whether or not they would like to exercise the franchise tag on Robinson or not.

Jacksonville is heading into free agency with the most cap space in the NFL, according to OverTheCap.com with $84,643,714 in space, and will likely be able to do what it pleases in the market, especially with the salary cap expected to explode in 2022.