2012 NFL Draft: Jacksonville Jaguars Need to Draft a Wide Receiver

The Jacksonville Jaguars have not had a great track record with recent draft picks.

Jaguars fans can point to one draft pick in the last six or seven years that has for sure panned out, and that is running back Maurice Jones-Drew.

Whereas the Jaguars have been average at best in recent drafts, the position they have failed at the most is wide receiver.

This goes all the way back to 2004 when the Jags selected Reggie Williams out of the University of Washington with the ninth overall pick.

The list gets longer, however: Ernest Wilford, Matt Jones and current Jaguars Mike Sims-Walker and Mike Thomas.

This has been a position of need since the days of Jimmy Smith and Keenan McCardell. The Jaguars can rectify this issue in the upcoming draft.

There are a lot of positions of need that would make sense for the Jaguars, especially defensive end, but receiver is the most glaring and urgent of needs.

Taking a young stud of a receiver can change the entire complexion of the offense. Quarterback Blaine Gabbert struggled in his rookie season but was thrusted into one of the many mismanaged situations of former head coach Jack Del Rio. He also did not have many weapons to work with.

Give Gabbert a weapon or two, then you will have a better gauge of how good or bad he really is. The defense as a whole was pretty solid last season but was rarely given leads to work with because of an inept offense.

A solid passing game takes pressure off your franchise running back in Jones-Drew as well. The running back position is the most brutal in the game of football, and its shelf life is not that long. You don't want to wear down your franchise player just as he is entering his prime.

A more productive offense only helps the defense. Ask the Indianapolis Colts about that.

Having the No. 7 pick in the first round, the Jaguars seem to be in a prime position to take a receiver. If for some strange reason the St. Louis Rams pass on Justin Blackmon at No. 6, that should the Jags' first option.

If the Rams do take Blackmon, there would be no need to panic as Michael Floyd should be the second option.

Floyd is the better physical specimen of the two. He also shows the ability to go up and grab the ball at its highest point—something the Jags haven't had in quite some time.

One could argue for Blackmon being the more complete receiver, but Floyd's size is what the Jaguars need at this point.

I realize the Jaguars do need a rush defensive end, but this is a quarterback-driven league. If your quarterback doesn't have good weapons to throw to, you're not going to win many games, no matter how stout of a defense you have. That's just the reality of it.

An offense that doesn't move the chains puts too much pressure on the defense to hold opposing offenses to a certain number of points, and the Jaguars fell victim to that on a number of occasions in 2011.

That is why wide receiver is the biggest position of need, and if Blackmon or Floyd is taken, it will be the position that will pay the most dividends in the long run.

Taking either Blackmon or Floyd provides an explosive option that Jaguars have lacked for a long, long time.