Jaguars & Falcons Nearly Completed A First Round Trade

May 12, 2014

According to Peter King of MMQB.com, the Jaguars and Falcons did in fact discuss a trade that would have swapped first-round picks leading up to the draft.

However, the Jaguars ultimately passed on completing the deal and remained at No. 3 overall and came away with their quarterback of the future in UCF QB Blake Bortles.

“The reason I didn’t take the trade is there were so many teams that wanted quarterbacks — at one, four, five, seven and eight, and they were all within striking distance of us,’’ Jaguars GM Dave Caldwell told King. “I just kept thinking, ‘One of those teams has to see what we were seeing in Bortles.’ So let’s say we move back and make a deal. What are we going to take in the third? A guard? You can find guards. You can’t find the quarterback you think fits your team best. So in the end it wasn’t a hard decision for us.”

Even Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff expected the two sides to complete a trade in round one.

“I thought Wednesday night we were going to get it done,” said Dimitroff. “But Thursday Dave called me and said, ‘We’re going to stay put and pick our guy.’”

Interestingly enough, the Falcons had their sights set on Texas A&M OT Jake Matthews who they would later draft at No. 6 overall, so this clearly worked out pretty good for Atlanta.

Albert Breer of the NFL Network mentions that although some teams had interest in Bortles, it’s his “sense” that the Vikings and Titans both would have passed on taking him at No. 8 and No. 11 overall.

According to Breer, the Cowboys would have “considered” Bortles at No. 16 much the same way they “considered” Johnny Manziel.

However, Breer adds that the Cardinals would’ve taken Bortles at No. 20 overall, which would have really left the Jaguars in bad situation where they would have had to trade up quite a bit to get him.

As for the Raiders, people have told Breer that they liked Bortles enough to draft him at No. 5 overall, but they were going to either take OLB Khalil Mack — which they did — or WR Mike Evans.

It’s always interesting to hear the trades that were discussed during the draft and consider how much differently things could have played out.