Jaguars GM James Gladstone Talks Travis Hunter, NFL Draft & More with Rich

James Gladstone showed up on the Rich Eisen Show jacked, in his words, and walked through everything that mattered for the Jaguars heading into year two of the Liam Coen era, from Travis Hunter's two-way future to the running back room to what he and Coen carry over from their time together in Los Angeles.

Gladstone, the Jaguars general manager, is in phase two of the offseason program with rookie minicamp loading in. The bigger picture, though, is what last season told them. Jacksonville hit what Gladstone called "versions of adversity." Back-to-back losses, including the London game against the Rams, where Coen and Gladstone both spent years. A bye week reset. Then Travis Hunter got hurt. Then Brian Thomas Jr. got hurt the next week against the Raiders. Then Jacksonville built a lead on Houston and surrendered it.

What happened after that is the part Gladstone wanted on the record. The Jaguars won every regular season game the rest of the way. "Anti-fragility," he called it. Rich asked him to define it. "The opposite of fragile," Gladstone said. The point, however he packages it, is that this group bounced back, and that bounce-back has carried into the offseason.

The Travis Hunter conversation was the headline. Hunter is on the grass in a limited fashion right now and will be full go by training camp. "Limited" in this context refers strictly to reps, not role. Hunter is set to play both sides of the ball. The actual change, per Gladstone, is that corner usage is going up. "Last year it was a higher volume, higher percentage of wide receiver usage than it was corner. I think we can expect to see that corner percentile and count go up as we move forward." The reason is roster construction. The cornerback room is different than it was last year. The personnel fits a different deployment.

What about Hunter himself? Gladstone did not hedge. "He wants to play both ways, and he wants to do exactly what he set out to do when he first started putting that into action all those years ago. That's his dream, and we'll look to support that." The injury, Rich pressed, will not push Jacksonville into making him a one-side player? "Absolutely not."

At running back, with Travis Etienne now in New Orleans, Gladstone is leaning into Coen's preferred committee approach. Chris Rodriguez comes over via Washington but knows Coen's system from Kentucky. Bhayshul Tuten is being activated more after a rookie season in Etienne's shadow. LaQuint Allen and DJ Dallas round out a room built for varied styles.

Gladstone also doubled down at tight end, drafting two in the same class. He pointed back to that London Rams game as the inspiration. Heavy personnel hurt them. The league trended that way. The Jaguars wanted to level up the competition internally.

On the Rams comparison, Gladstone was honest about both the lineage and the divergence. He came up under Les Snead. Coen came up under Sean McVay. They both emulate pieces of that operation but are building something of their own. "The further we get removed from it, the less similar it'll be just innately." That, in the end, is the whole point.