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The Jacksonville Jaguars were one of the most disappointing teams in the NFL during the 2024 season. Jacksonville only won four games during the 2024 season, which earned them the fifth overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Now the Jaguars must make one last hire in their front office before attacking the rest of the offseason.
The Jaguars have narrowed their list of GM candidates to five finalists. Those finalists include: 49ers director of scouting and football operations Josh Williams, Rams director of scouting strategy James Gladstone, Bears assistant GM Ian Cunningham, and Packers VP of player personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan. Ethan Waugh, current Jaguars interim GM who took over for Trent Baalke, is also a finalist.
One source told ESPN that the Jaguars want to make a hire by the end of this upcoming week, per ESPN’s Michael DiRocco.
None of the five finalists have experience as a general manager before. Therefore, Jacksonville’s new cohort of leaders will all be rookies for the 2025 season. Liam Coen is a first-time head coach and VP of football operations Tony Boselli started just weeks ago.
Experience isn’t everything as all five candidates are qualified and have plenty of experience in the NFL. However, Jaguars fans can expect their team to make one or two mistakes during the 2025 season considering the inexperience in the team’s leadership group.
It will be interesting to see which finalists ends up being offered Jacksonville’s general manager role.
Whoever the Jaguars hire as general manager, they will not be trading away Trevor Lawrence.
Jacksonville shot down a crazy rumor about a potential Lawrence trade on Thursday.
ESPN’s Michael DiRocco reported on a rumor that the Steelers have reached out to the Jaguars about trading for Lawrence. DiRocco reported that one Jaguars source said there’s “no chance” the will trade Lawrence. That source also called the idea “ridiculous.”
DiRocco followed up with an update a few hours later. He added that his Jaguars source confirmed there was no conversation between the Steelers and Jaguars regarding a potential Lawrence trade in the first place. Essentially, it was a non-story.
This rumor was silly to begin with. Jacksonville signed Lawrence to a massive contract extension during the summer, which makes it virtually impossible to trade him.
Further, as noted earlier in this article, the Jaguars do not have a full-time general manager yet. There is simply no way to execute a trade of that magnitude while shopping for a new general manager.
The next GM of the Jaguars will instead look to surround Lawrence with talent ahead of a crucial 2025 season.
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