With Only Remnants of the 2017 Team Remaining, Jaguars Should Finally Put the Past Behind Them

With A.J. Bouye gone and Yannick Ngakoue likely soon to join him, the Jaguars need to finally realize the 2017 team is a thing of the past.

Change is inevitable. It comes swiftly and without warning, transforming NFL teams on a whim. No team is safe from the winds of change, and the Jacksonville Jaguars have become the new poster child of this fact.

Two seasons ago, the Jaguars were on top of the world. They won their division for the first time since 1999, posting a 10-6 record. It was the first time the Jaguars had won more than five games in a season since going 8-8 in 2010, and the first time they had both won double-digit games since and made the postseason since 2007. 

The Jaguars' good times didn't end in the regular season, though. They hosted a home playoff game since Jan. 15, 2000, and won two playoff games in the same year for the first time since 1996, advancing to the AFC Championship for the first time since 1999. 

It was a historic year for a franchise that for many years beforehand was hapless. The Jaguars suffered a heartbreaking loss to New England in the AFC Championship, but the high of 2017 remained. It was a year of redemption for an organization that had long been a laughing stock, and a year that inspired hope to the coaches, players, fans, and ownership that the Jaguars had at long last turned a corner. 

But since then, the Jaguars have been hit hard by the undefeated opponent known only as change. They were never going to be immune to this, but the sheer magnitude and swiftness of the sweeping changes have been staggering. The changes began to slowly build in 2018, but a floodgate opened in 2019 that has still yet to be closed.

Tuesday was just the latest change in a long line of transitions for Jacksonville, with the Jaguars agreeing to trade veteran cornerback A.J. Bouye to the Denver Broncos for a fourth-round draft pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Bouye was a centerpiece of the 2017 squad that inspired so much hope for the Jaguars, recording six interceptions and 16 pass deflections on his way to a Pro Bowl season and a second-team All-Pro honor. 

The previous day defensive end Yannick Ngakoue, another lynchpin of the 2017 team, announced he no longer sees a future for himself in Jacksonville. Ngakoue will reportedly be franchise tagged by the Jaguars, but it is clear he will not be with the team in the long-term, and likely not in the short term either. Change wins again.

With the Bouye trade and Ngakoue's likely departure, only remnants of the Jaguars' 2017 team remain in Jacksonville. Key players such as Malik Jackson, Jalen Ramsey, Telvin Smith, Barry Church, Aaron Colvin, Marcedes Lewis, Dante Fowler Jr., Marcell Dareus, Paul Posluszny, and now Bouye and Ngakoue are set to join them.

Currently, only the following players remain from the Jaguars' 2017 team that started double-digit games:

• WR Marqise Lee (likely cut in 2020 offseason): 14 starts in 2017.
• RB Leonard Fournette: 13 starts in 2017. 
• LT Cam Robinson: 15 starts in 2017.
• C Brandon Linder: 13 starts in 2017.
• RG A.J. Cann: 15 starts in 2017.
• LB Myles Jack: 16 starts in 2017.
• DL Calais Campbell: 16 starts in 2017.
• DT Abry Jones: 15 starts in 2017.
• DE Yannick Ngakoue (unlikely to be on the roster in 2020): 16 starts in 2017.

The Jaguars' present-day roster looks nothing like it did in 2017, and when Ngakoue is eventually traded it will resemble the best Jaguars' team of the past decade even less.

Despite this, the Jaguars have displayed a concerning mindset since the 2017 season ended that can cause irreparable long-term damage: the inability to move forward. 

“The key question that I have to ask myself, ‘Is this the time to start over from where we were just two years ago?’ A game away from the Super Bowl. I know things change greatly year to year, but we’ve been closer more recently than many teams in the league," owner Shad Khan said in February, the latest in a long line of statements made by the team's leadership that shows they are still holding out hope that the team can duplicate its 2017 success. 

Khan made a similar statement when the 2019 season ended and he announced he would be retaining head coach Doug Marrone and general manager Dave Caldwell despite a 6-10 record in 2019, and a 11-21 record since the 2017 season ended.

"We came out of our AFC Championship Game season of 2017 by making a four-year commitment to the collective leadership of our football operations. Only two seasons have passed and one change from that leadership team has already been made," Khan said. "I want to see what we produce under a new organizational structure in 2020. Goals have been established. Accountability will be paramount."

It is hard to blame the Jaguars for clinging to 2017 — it is the only success with the team that any of the franchise's current leaders have ever experienced in Jacksonville. The team has a 38-90 record since Khan bought the team, while Caldwell owns a 36-76 record since he stepped into his role with the Jaguars in 2013.

2017 was the only time the Jaguars have really seen things go their way under Khan and Caldwell's leadership, so it isn't hard to see why the Jaguars have the success of the season in the front of their minds. But that same mindset is why the Jaguars have struggled the last two years. 

The Jaguars wanted to run the 2017 team back with little change, leading to them signing quarterback Blake Bortles to an unnecessary contract extension. Bortles predictably played poorly in 2018, leading to him being released one year into the deal. Jacksonville thought a ground and pound offense and elite defense would duplicate itself in 2018, but Fournettew struggled to stay healthy, and the Jaguars' defense wasn't the same game-changing unit it was in 2017.

The Jaguars doubled down on this fallacy in 2019 when they gave quarterback Nick Foles a four-year, $88 million dollar deal with $45 million in guarantees, the largest guaranteed contract in franchise history. The thought was the Jaguars were only a quarterback away and the defense would once again be elite a flurry of personnel change. 

The defense took a major step back, however, due to the loss of a number of key players from the 2017 unit that nearly led the Jaguars to the first Super Bowl in team history. 2018 showed that 2017 wouldn't be directly replicated, while 2019 showed 2017 was a long, long time ago.

The Jaguars are now in a stage of transition. Day by day, more and more of the remaining members of the 2017 squad are on their way out of Jacksonville. Today's Jaguars roster barely resembles the team that won two playoff games and almost went to the Super Bowl, and the Jaguars need to accept this. 

2017 was a magical season, but it was also the past. The Jaguars have struggled to put the past behind them for too long. Now, it is time they reverse course and finally begin to look forward instead of backward.