Why Jaguars' Trent Baalke Hopes to Retain Ezra Cleveland

The NFL free agency is just over two weeks away and with it comes discussions regarding re-signing players before other teams have a chance at them. At the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, Doug Pederson and Trent Baalke spoke before the media to talk about the roster, coaching changes, free agency and the NFL draft.

The Jaguars sit in a decent spot in terms of cap space and have the flexibility to retain some players if they choose to do so. During Baalke’s press conference, he mentioned contract negotiations have and will continue to take place within the building, specifically with Josh Allen, Calvin Ridley and Ezra Cleveland.

Ezra Cleveland, acquired in a midseason trade from the Minnesota Vikings, came to Jacksonville in hopes of solidifying the teams’ left guard spot Unfortunately, due to injuries across the line, the group seemed to never mesh very well and the unit struggled towards the end of the season.

It looks as though the Jaguars’ front office intends to retain Cam Robinson, Anton Harrison, and Walker Little at the tackle position but seem open to bolstering the interior. Trent Baalke even mentioned that this draft class’ interior offensive and defensive lines are quite strong.

Even so, it seems re-signing Ezra Cleveland is a priority for Jacksonville. According to Pro Football Focus, Cleveland allowed 28 pressures and three sacks on 526 pass-block snaps. It’s hard to criticize him too much, however, as injuries played a huge part in the offensive line’s struggles.

Doug Pederson spoke on this a bit, “If you think about it, Cam [OL Cam Robinson], Ezra, Luke [OL Luke Fortner], Brandon [OL Brandon Scherff] and Ton [OL Anton Harrison] played one game together. Last game of the regular season. We’ve had that revolving door on the left side for whatever reason; injury, performance, whatever it might be.”

He continued, “We didn’t have consistency; we didn’t have continuity. That affects five guys up front. That’s what we have to get back to, we have to get back to a little bit more consistency there but we can also help them as coaches and prepare them better. I know we will starting this offseason.”

It seems the Jaguars are looking to walk the fine line of consistency, while also looking to upgrade the interior. When asked about Cleveland, Baalke admitted that they would like to have him back.

“We like Ezra, in fact, we’ll be meeting with his agent sometime this week. I believe it’s Thursday or Friday, we’re meeting with Ron. We’ll sit down and talk, we traded for him for a reason and we think he’s an awfully good football player. We’d like him back. We’d like all of our players back. That’s the way we roll. Unfortunately, you can’t get them all back. We’ll work hard, talk with Ron, his agent, and we’ll talk with Ezra a little bit and see if we can come to an agreement,” said Baalke

Until free agency hits, it seems the front office’s focus is to keep the guys they like and work from there. Josh Allen, Calvin Ridley and Ezra Cleveland all played pivotal roles for the team and the loss of any of those players would change up how the front office approaches the upcoming offseason.