JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The memes are just a Google search away and James Gladstone is well aware of the saying.
“_ _ _ _ them picks.”
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The Jaguars needed to be bold. And I don’t know if you can get bolder than what Jacksonville’s 34-year-old general manager did in the first round of the NFL draft on Thursday night.
Gladstone came out swinging. In his first draft running the show in Jacksonville, he packed up the house and shipped it off to Cleveland to move up three spots in the draft and take a generational prospect in Colorado’s Travis Hunter, the consensus best player in the draft.
There was no hesitation. No pause. No waffling. Gladstone and his cache of scouts, head coach Liam Coen and executive vice president of football operations Tony Boselli, delivered a message with panache that these aren’t the same old Jaguars.
That’s the type of move that gets a general manager shipped out of town or one that gets him a statue commissioned outside of a stadium for.
In Jacksonville’s 31-year existence, there had never been a move like the one Gladstone made Thursday night. He’s talked in buzz-phrases and catch words since being hired last February, throwing out memorable one-liners like “intangibly rich.” But when Gladstone ended his opening remarks and his introductory press conference, he did it with a punchy phrase that raised the curtain on the new mindset here. I couldn’t help but listen to that sound bite again on Friday.
“Game on.”
Gladstone hasn’t acted like a rookie GM who’s learning on the fly. Not in the slightest. He’s seemed dialed in from the moment he was introduced. And Thursday could be the launch of the defining arc in his career. For better of worse, head coaches and GMs are defined by draft picks, and, to a lesser extent, the free agents they bring in. Gladstone and head coach Liam Coen have shifted from ex-GM Trent Baalke’s philosophy of handing out blank checks in free agency and said from the get go that building through the draft is how they’re going to operate.
In terms of any draft value chart you look at, the Jaguars lost the deal. Gladstone sent the No. 5 pick, No. 36 and 126 and next year’s first rounder. In return, the Jaguars got back Nos. 2, 104 and 200. Hunter became the most exciting No. 2 pick in franchise history behind the team’s first-ever selection, eventual Pro Football Hall of Fame selection Tony Boselli.
Why would Jacksonville fans get cold feet about dealing future picks? Consider that Jacksonville has averaged picking right at No. 8 in the draft since Shad Khan has owned the team. That’s a massive advantage for Cleveland. And it’s probably what made Gladstone pause and smile when asked about shipping out draft capital. Gladstone learned the draft game from GM Les Snead in Los Angeles, and it often involved succeeding without picking in the first round.
“You know what, I probably got some familiarity with the ‘them picks’ sort of process,” Gladstone said to quite a bit of laughter. “For our fans, I’ll tell you, don’t be scared. This is something I’m uniquely positioned to navigate.”
The Rams philosophy when Gladstone worked for them was, what’s become meme’d and GIF’d to death. You can guess what word is placed before the words, “them picks.”
Los Angeles was accustomed to living by that creed under Snead. Gladstone’s first year in the Rams organization, it selected quarterback Jared Goff No. 1 in 2016. It wasn’t until 2024 that Los Angeles would make its next first-round selection, edge Jared Verse, who won Defensive Rookie of the Year honors. They dominated in the non-first round selections, which makes the rest of Gladstone’s first draft here in Jacksonville so significant.
The Rams were always in win-now mode, sending first-round picks out like FedEx packages and getting veterans back in return. And it worked. Players like Brandin Cooks, Jalen Ramsey and Matthew Stafford helped the Rams reach a Super Bowl (2020), and in the latter two’s case, win a Super Bowl (2022).
It’s way too early to say Hunter will lead Jacksonville to a Super Bowl, but it’s already a Super Bowl-sized move for Gladstone. And if there was any doubt that a new era has started in Jacksonville, James Gladstone put those to rest on Thursday night.
Game on.
