Bucky Brooks explains Jaguars’ tight end draft strategy

The Jacksonville Jaguars have been given some fairly dismal reviews regarding their picks in the 2026 NFL Draft. While most analysts felt the Jaguars needed to focus on the defense, particularly the pass rush, it seemed a major focus was instead on bolstering the offense. In addition to drafting offensive lineman Emmanuel Pregnon, Jacksonville selected two tight ends, including with their first pick in the second round.

This strategy has received a decent amount of criticism so far. Yet according to analyst Bucky Brooks, this is an intentional response to new defensive trends in the NFL. In an appearance on the Jaguars Draft Recap Show, he explained why drafting so many tight ends will help the team.

"So, you have to understand trends from the defensive side, to then be able to build something on the offensive side that can counter that. So defensively, a lot of teams are sitting in two-high safeties and they're daring people to run the football. They're daring people to take a slow, patient approach to drive the ball down the field.

Part of this is due to Vic Fangio's success running these two-high looks with light boxes and those things," he said. "Well, when you put more tight ends on the field, you either are going to run roughshod over those fronts and those soft packages, or you're going to force the defense to match up in various ways that you can eventually exploit. By bringing in the tight ends that they're bringing in while still having Brenton Strange as a part of this, you are creating all kinds of chaos for the defense.