Urban Meyer knew free agency was going to be different from recruiting, but he certainly wasn’t prepared for so many guys to get contracts without teams meeting with them first.
Teams are allowed to contact the agents of players who will become free agents only during the two-day period before the league year officially begins.
The Jacksonville Jags coach did not like it.
“Yeah, that was awful,” Meyer said Friday morning. “I don’t agree with it, but no one asked my opinion. I guess in the old days you could bring them in and meet them, have dinner with them, you find out the football intellect, find out their character. The thing you don’t [do], I found out, is call someone who has skin in the game because they’re going to not quite — I don’t see honest as a very appropriate [word]. So we did a deep dive. Every guy that we signed, we did. …
“To answer your question, that was awful, and I don’t believe it should be that way. Not when you’re making organizational decisions. I’m not sure how that rule came about, but to me that’s not good business.”
Despite having the most money to spend in free agency, the Jaguars didn’t spend big money on multiple players.
“In recruiting we would have our recruiting meeting and identify the best players and say go get them,” Meyer said. “And, then all of a sudden I start finding out this guy cost $28 million and this guy costs … I knew it, to say I didn’t know it, of course I knew it, but just the way you put that puzzle together about here’s your cap space, here’s your choices, can we take him but we get three of these guys to help. And so I imagine once you build your roster exactly the way you want it, then you can take one guy and go get that $25 million athlete.
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral NFL stories via Google! Follow Us
“We’re not in position to do that right now. We’re just not. So it was a learning experience, and I feel great about it.”
Getting ready to draft Trevor Lawrence for your future QB can help fill a lot of glaring holes for a franchise that has been to the playoffs just 3 times since 2000.
