One more skilled receiver shall be accessible to groups in free company. The Jaguars are chopping ties with Christian Kirk, ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter stories. One season remained on Kirk’s contract.
Although Kirk suffered a broken collarbone midway through last season, he had served as Trevor Lawrence‘s high goal for many of his Jags tenure. Because the staff transitions to new HC Liam Coen, it would save $10.44M by releasing Kirk.
Whereas lots of the skilled wideouts on this 12 months’s free agent class are over 30, Kirk is 28. The previous Cardinals second-rounder is heading into his age-29 season and will draw curiosity as a bounce-back candidate. Excelling within the slot in Jacksonville, Kirk posted a 1,108-yard season in 2022, serving to the Jags to the playoffs and silencing some skeptics who expressed shock on the four-year, $72M deal he inked that 12 months.
Kirk’s $18M-per-year deal helped ignite a surge on the receiver market. The Jags pact preceded Tyreek Hill and Davante Adams blowing the highest off the earlier market, and younger wideouts like A.J. Brown, Terry McLaurin, Deebo Samuel and D.K. Metcalf got here in with offers between that tier and the place Kirk landed. The bevy of WRs who’ve signed monster offers over the previous three years might owe some gratitude to Kirk, who positioned himself for the payday by hitting the market at 25 on the heels of a near-1,000-yard Arizona season.
Accidents, nevertheless, will issue into Kirk’s second free agent market. Core muscle surgical procedure sidelined him to shut the Jaguars’ 2023 season. The 5 video games Kirk missed that 12 months performed a serious function within the franchise’s trajectory. The Jags had been 8-3 however slunk to 9-8. After they went 4-13 final season, possession fired Doug Pederson and ultimately Trent Baalke. Coen is now the lead energy dealer in Jacksonville, with GM James Gladstone driving shotgun. That duo will construct round a receiving corps headlined by Brian Thomas Jr., because the staff has now moved on from Kirk and Calvin Ridley in a two-year span.
For a interval, the Jags had three free agent wideouts (Kirk, Ridley and Zay Jones) and a decent finish (Evan Engram) connected to an eight-figure AAV. The staff has stripped its pass-catching corps of most of these contracts, as Lawrence is now connected to a $55M per 12 months wage. Kirk’s departure, nevertheless, will create a necessity reverse Thomas in Jacksonville. Happily for the staff, there are lots of choices. Davante Adams, Chris Godwin, Stefon Diggs, Amari Cooper, Keenan Allen, DeAndre Hopkins and Tyler Lockett headline the record. Marquise Brown, Josh Palmer, Darius Slayton and, ought to any staff be as much as the problem of managing him after final 12 months, Diontae Johnson are additionally among the many accessible targets.
