Jaguars Fleece Lions In Major Draft Trade

After the Jaguars were set to pick at No. 70 at the top of the third round on Friday night, the Jaguars and general manager James Gladstone made their second trade of the draft. The Jaguars traded the No. 70 pick, while also trading the No. 182 pick and a 2026 sixth-round pick.

Simply put, the Jaguars turned a third-round pick and two sixth-round picks for three third-round picks. For a Jaguars team that needed to recoup top-100 picks after the Travis Hunter trade, it is clear the Jaguars did well here.

According to one expert, the Jaguars made a dominant trade and one of the best deals of the draft so far.

"Jacksonville's trade with Detroit is the best deal of Day 2, per our draft pick valuations. Jaguars gained the equivalent of a mid to late third-round pick in surplus value. That's assuming no discount for future picks and future picks in middle of round (except comp pick)," ESPN's Seth Walder said.

The Jaguars likely went into the week knowing they needed to pick up more picks since they had been plotting the trade for Travis Hunter for weeks.

The Jaguars had to trade the No. 5 pick, the No. 36 pick, the No. 126 pick and their 2026 first-round pick to the Cleveland Browns to land Hunter. But in doing so, they also managed to pick up several picks from the Browns that ensure the Jaguars still have nine picks in the 2025 NFL Draft.

“That's a great question because I think it could go either way. Really the way in which it settled for us, we had our initial dialogue without that in mind and just wanted to discuss the players in silos, get the take on how we would utilize each and really our vision for their utilization," Jaguars general manager James Gladstone on Thursday.

"Over the course of time as we began sleeping with our thoughts, right, the idea of this combination of players or this player in and of himself is now going to be a Jaguar once we make this selection, it got us to a point where Travis Hunter was most settling. We engaged in those conversations with the idea that, Hey, this is more than likely going to be a stretch. It's probably not going to be something that we'll be able to bring to life. Let's just go in with that expectation, so we're not ultimately disappointed. When things began to sort of grow and accelerate over the course of those conversations, obviously you become more firm in your stance and your pursuit. So certainly happy with the way that it unfolded here tonight.”