We used to keep an updated NFL Draft interest tracker for the Jacksonville Jaguars, but it ended up being tedious and not worth the effort, at least when Gene Smith was the general manager. For new general manager Dave Caldwell, we tracked it for the first two years he was the GM but kind of let it fall off after that because there didn’t seem to be a ton of benefit. The Jaguars ended up drafting Luke Joeckel, who’s Pro Day they didn’t seem to attend but they did have him in for a private visit.

On Wednesday, the Jaguars had a handful of players in for visits, a number of which would make sense with the 29th overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, so I decided to look back at the visits from previous years and see how it related to their first round picks.

2013: OT Luke Joeckel - Private Visit, S Johnathan Cyprien - Private Visit

2014: QB Blake Bortles - Private Visit

2015: DE Dante Fowler, Jr. - Private Visit

2016: CB Jalen Ramsey - Private Visit, Myles Jack - Private Visit

2017: RB Leonard Fournette - Private Visit

Wow what a coincidence, they all had a private visit!

Now, that’s not really breaking news, but it is interesting that in each of the years Dave Caldwell has been the general manager the Jaguars have picked one of the players they had in for a private workout in the first round. That’s pretty easy to do when you’re picking in the Top 5 every year, because you’ve got a limited number of players you’re looking at with that pick.

For the 2018 NFL Draft, you have no idea what you’re going to be walking up to the podium with at the 29th pick, because there’s 28 picks prior. You have to cast a much wider net, which they seem to be doing based on the projections of some of the players they’ve had in for private workouts. We haven’t seen any, at least that I’ve seen, what people consider Top 10 picks come in yet, which isn’t a big surprise.

While it’s still a large pool of players to pick from that have a private visit, it can still give you a clue for the types of players at certain positions that the Jaguars will be looking for, as they’ve picked from that pool quite a bit in the past.