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The Jacksonville Jaguars underwent a complete revamp of their front office this offseason, starting with one of the youngest general managers in the NFL in James Gladstone and youngest head coaches in Liam Coen.
Gladstone, just 34 years old, certainly has his own way of innovation as the Jaguars try to correct a franchise that just won the AFC South three years ago. One of those ways is borrowing a strategy of Los Angeles Rams general manager Les Snead.
Like the Rams, the Jaguars didn't have any top-30 visits this year -- nor plan to have any.
"I think there's a lot of layers to not doing those facility visits that you all are probably accustomed to, or those top 30 visits, as they're phrased," Gladstone said regarding Jacksonville's lack of top-30 visits. "But that goes back a while for me and my experience."
Gladstone started with the Rams in 2016 as an assistant to Les Snead, and was later promoted to senior assistant to the general manager in 2018 and the team's director of scouting strategy in 2019. He was also the director of scouting while Snead was general manager.
The Jaguars are bringing the Rams' front office strategy to the franchise. There's a method to the madness of not having a top-30 visit.
"Just think about, let's take it this direction, the implicit bias that can come to life this late in the process," Gladstone said. "The last player you might sit down with, and how that might differ from the first player you sit down with, knowing that it's closer to the decision that's upcoming."
The Rams didn't have a first-round pick for the majority of the time Gladstone was with the franchise, selecting just Jared Goff (2016) and Jared Verse (2024). Gladstone had to do his homework with the majority of picks occuring in Day 2 and Day 3, and is using the same process when evaluating talent in Jacksonville.
The Jaguars also are keeping things close to the vest. They don't want to give any teams an indicator of what they're doing.
"There are other mechanisms that we tend to lean into to help us determine whether or not a player is, in fact, a fit for us more than just a singular touch point that would be a top-30 visit," Gladstone said. "We have a lot of additional mechanisms that we deploy that don't necessarily put us at risk for the rest of the world to know which direction we're heading as well, because so often those become public-facing touch points, at which point you're sacrificing some version of strategy come draft day as well."
