Trust the Board and Let it Unfold

JACKSONVILLE – This is one area in which Trent Baalke won’t overprepare.

It’s not that the Jaguars’ general manager won’t be ready to trade during the 2023 NFL Draft. It’s just that he won’t spend much time beforehand exploring possibilities.

“It’s just too hard to play out,” Baalke said during Thursday’s 2023 pre-draft luncheon.

Baalke, in his third season as the Jaguars’ general manager, said he won’t feel any pressure to trade in either direction from the No. 24 overall selection in Round 1 – and a trade is possible with any of the team’s nine selections in the draft, which will begin Thursday.

But he said there’s little point in calling other general managers around the league in the coming days to explore potential trade partners in any round.

“I rarely, if ever, have had conversations pre-draft about trying to move,” Baalke said. “There’s too much that can happen, there’s too many scenarios to play out in your mind. I think as the board starts to unfold, you get a better feel for how it’s trending, and you start picking up the phone at the appropriate time.

“You can sit in that room to nauseam and go through it all. Then, the draft happens, and three picks into it, all your work is shot, and you’ve got to swing from the hip anyways. I think you’re just better off seeing the board, trusting the board, the value is set, and then letting it unfold.”

• Head Coach Doug Pederson throughout his first season with the Jaguars spoke of a strong culture being created, and he and Baalke said that will remain a focus during the draft. Pederson added that the culture has become strong enough to allow the Jaguars to select players who perhaps aren’t a perfect fit. “For me as the head coach, I give a lot of responsibility back to the players, and this is where they handle the locker room,” Pederson said. “I don’t want to micromanage the locker room whatsoever, but we have such a great group of guys down there that if there is a guy, whether we trade for a guy or draft a guy…