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Jacksonville Jaguars 2021 Fantasy Football Preview

What will the Jaguars offense look like in 2021? How will this backfield play out? Here's a breakdown of the roster for this fantasy season.

It has been a long time since the Super Bowl, and remembering exactly how things left off last year can be a challenge. So, I’ll be writing up a fantasy preview for each NFL team to give us a quick refresher on what happened last year, and what changes took place in the offseason. All fantasy stats will be in ESPN scoring format unless otherwise noted.

If I missed any change or left out any big notes, throw them down in the comments for me!

What Did They Do Last Year?

The Jaguars earned the hell out of the No. 1 overall pick and fired their head coach. With so many changes from one year to the next, looking back to move forward may not pay dividends for us here, so we’ll get right to the positional breakdowns. 

Quarterback
OVR
Rank
PlayerGCOMPATTYDSTDINTATTYDSTDFFPFFP/G
26Gardner Minshew92163272,259165291531159.717.7
40Mike Glennon51111791,07275617058.611.7
45Jake Luton36011062426113128.39.4

As a reward for being the consensus most valuable college football player in the land, Trevor Lawrence will be forced to play for one of the worst franchises in the NFL for a salary negotiated by a union which he’s never been a part of.

What to expect from Urban Meyer and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell is an impossible question to answer at the moment. Urban Meyer ran an innovative offense 20 years ago, an offensive scheme so innovative that elements of that scheme are now commonplace.

Bevell has been an offensive coordinator in the NFL for 15 years. His offenses have been fairly up and down production wise (great stats from Pro Football Reference here), looking pretty good featuring Adrian Petersen and Russell Wilson, and fairly not great under the yoke of Matt Patricia. It is hard to separate how much autonomy Bevell had in these offenses as we know when he was the OC for the Seahawks ole Pete Carroll demanded a run-first approach.

Still, I’d say Bevell has been one of the more run oriented offensive coordinators in his time. For fantasy, this makes an already not especially appealing Lawrence even less of a target for 2021.

Wide Receivers
PPR
Rank
STD RankPlayerGTGTRECYDSTDSTD PTSSTD PTS/GPPR PTSPPR PTS/G
4549Laviska Shenault147958600599.17.1157.111.22
4848D.J. Chark1394537065100.67.7153.611.82
5053Keelan Cole168655642594.45.9149.49.34
8188Chris Conley146340471257.14.197.16.94
110108Collin Johnson103118272239.23.957.25.72
192191Terry Godwin2633203.51.86.53.25
222222Dede Westbrook21140-1.6-0.8-0.6-0.3

Even if Lawrence isn’t an exciting fantasy target, his targets are interesting… targets. 

Laviska Shenault, in his inaugural season, did that thing where, when he had the ball, he looked bigger, faster, and quicker than everyone else around him. His ADP is right at the end of the ninth round, and I expect he’ll creep into the seventh by the time we’re drafting in our home leagues. He’s a shot worth taking in the 9th or 10th, I’ll pass in the 8th. Shenault is our WR48 in .5PPR this year.

D.J. Chark is heading into his fourth season, and this is a bit of a make or break year for the rangy receiver (we talked about that in depth on the NerdballFF podcast). Arguments can be made for and against taking Chark; He’s only had one good year. He’s in a new offense with a new QB and a new coaching staff. He may not be the best wide receiver on this team…

But, when the rubber meets the road, when I am on the clock and my fantasy fate is in my hands, I’ll be ensuring Chark is on every team of mine this year. His ADP is currently the end of the sixth round, whereas he’ll end up about an early fifth rounder in my ranks—he’s our WR19 this year.  Chark has just looked too good on the field to convince me he’s anything other than a super-star in waiting.

Note: Laviska Shenault rushed 18 times for 91 yards.

Running Backs
PPR RankSTD RankPlayerGATTYDSTDTGTRECYDSTDSTD PTSSTD PTS/GPPR PTSPPR PTS/G
77James Robinson142401,070760493443199.414.2248.417.74
8292Chris Thompson672002320146122.63.842.67.1
9496Dare Ogunbowale7321450201054019.92.829.94.27
123136Devine Ozigbo4110994204.31.113.33.33
153155Craig Reynolds114011300.70.71.71.7
157161Bruce Miller200021200.20.11.20.6

Not only did James Robinson put up nice fantasy stats out of nowhere for us, he looked like the genuine article while he was doing it. 

And so, the first real move the new Jaguars brain-trust made was the selection of running back Travis Etienne with the 25th pick in the draft. The Jags brass made this move, reportedly, because wide receiver Kadarius Toney was sniped just five picks earlier by the New York Giants. Insert eye roll here.

Etienne may turn out to be great, but we’re looking at a pretty poor process from the Jaguars in the draft. 

We’re left with a ton of questions that will have no answer until midway through the year. James Robinson is going in the middle of the fourth, Etienne in the middle of the eighth. These ADPs are going to migrate toward the middle as we close in on draft season. I expect Robinson will make it to the fifth or sixth round in most drafts, and he’s the kind of RB you want to take a shot on in that range. Etienne should wind up in the same spot, but he is an absolute pass for me at that price this year. Robinson is our staff RB26 this year while Etienne is our RB29.

Tight End
PPR
Rank
STD RankPlayerGTGTRECYDSTDSTD PTSSTD PTS/GPPR PTSPPR PTS/G
2829Tyler Eifert146036349246.93.482.95.92
4554James O'Shaughnessy153828262026.21.754.23.61
101102Eric Saubert4431601.60.44.61.15
109108Ben Ellefson24110010.521
119119Tyler Davis120000000

Nothing to see here. 

What Does It All Mean?!?! (AKA – Bold predictions)

Nothing but a whole bunch of maybes in Duvall. I would be very surprised if the Jags won four games this season.

But, we always want to end on a positive note, right? I’ll boldly predict D.J. Chark finishes top 12 WR this year (barely). And, Shenault sneaks inside the top 20.

_____

Thanks to FFToday.com for hosting such great stats info!

Thanks to TheHuddle.com for their great Coaching Change Tracker

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