JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It feels so much more familiar now for James Gladstone and Liam Coen.
Last year at this time, Gladstone was a first-time NFL general manager and Coen was a rookie head coach, both just trying to feel their way out through a rushed process heading into the draft with the Jaguars.
Coen was hired at the end of January and Gladstone was hired nearly a month later. That left the Jacksonville brain trust scrambling to put everything in place for a franchise that was going through another massive overhaul.
It all worked out well. The Jaguars went 13-4, won the AFC South and hosted the Bills in the wild-card round of the playoffs.
At Thursday’s pre-draft luncheon, Coen and Gladstone both said just how different things feel this time around. They’re not trying to cram hiring decisions and install a new regime in the thick of the lead up to one of the biggest events of the year. Jacksonville, armed with 11 draft picks and far more familiarity with the roster than it was last season, has a shot to take another step forward under Coen. The three-day NFL draft begins on April 23.
Coen said this year, things were a “little less frantic” in the leadup to the draft. With a year in the system and the players on the roster part of the ecosystem, as Gladstone likes to say, it feels far more in synch than 2025 was.
“That’s the most helpful piece, being able to accelerate a lot of the conversations where at this point in time last year we were in true discovery mode,” Gladstone said. “We were learning on the fly. Now we get to leverage all the information and experiences we’ve had with everybody on our football team up to this point as part of our decision making.”
Coen said that he can’t wait to get back out on the field for Year 2.
“Pouring into each other from a details standpoint, I think that’s going to be key and critical. Getting better with less time, I think I mentioned that last week,” he said. “We were fortunate last year as a first-year staff to have an extra week. We maximized the entire offseason with less time as a coaching staff and with the players being extremely dialed into everything that we’re trying to improve on.”
On paper, Jacksonville’s needs start along the defensive front. The Jaguars have got to be able to get to the quarterback more than they did last year. A healthy Travon Walker (he had major knee and wrist injuries last season) will help, but they need more juice there. Outside of Arik Armstead, Jacksonville got subpar play from its defensive interior last year. That’s the biggest need entering the draft. The Jaguars could experiment with playing Walker inside and add an edge rusher with its first pick, No. 56. Gladstone said the edge rushers appear to be a deep position in the draft. Scouting reports and mock drafts have labeled the defensive interior players as weaker this year out of college.
“As it always seems to be the case, is when it comes to the rush, there’s a good chunk of defensive ends in this crop in comparison to maybe some of the others, which I think will make for an exciting first round,” Gladstone said.
Linebacker feels like the second position that could get an upgrade early. Devin Lloyd left in free agency and Foye Oluokun will turn 31 before the season begins and has a $17.1 million cap hit. Dennis Gardeck is in his second season with the team and signed a new deal this offseason. Ventrell Miller is the unknown. He’s entering his fourth season in the league and stands to be in line for an increased role, but that spot could see a talent infusion. Gladstone said there’s plenty of talent this year and not one position group that is head and shoulders above the rest.
“That’s probably hard to say. I think the good part is, based off of where we’re mapping things out, there’s a lot of depth at positions that we feel like we’re going to address,” Gladstone said.
Coen and Gladstone’s first draft together felt like an incomplete grade. The team traded up to No. 2 with the Browns to select Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter leaving them without a first-round pick for the first time in franchise history. Of their nine selections in 2025, only Hunter, running backs Bhayshul Tuten (fourth round) and LeQuint Allen (seventh round) and center Jonah Monheim (seventh round) made noticeable contributions as injuries put the brakes on the class.
Hunter, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in practice and missed the bulk of the season. He was attempting to become the NFL’s first full-time two-way player in decades but made it through just seven games before his injury. Hunter was coming off his best receiving game of the season and first career touchdown
“Yeah, for all intents and purpose, he’ll be a limited participant through the offseason program with eyes on return to play at full tick in training camp,” Gladstone said of Hunter.