Calais Campbell: Jaguars have ‘every piece of puzzle’

The Jacksonville Jaguars are getting a bold amount of confidence from one of their newest players, free agent signee defensive tackle Calais Campbell.

When people talk about who are some of the worst franchises in the NFL right now, the Jacksonville Jaguars are one of the first teams bought up. It has been a decade since fans in North Florida have been able to celebrate a winning season – with just one .500 season since that time and four seasons with at least 13 losses.

It’s a far cry from a franchise that made the football happy Sunshine State and the rest of the NFL take notice by making the playoffs in four of their first five seasons- including two AFC Championship game appearances. Now, with just two playoff appearances in the last 17 seasons, fans of the Jags are usually thinking about the following spring’s draft around Week 9.

While most people don’t think things will change all that much in 2017, one of the newest residents of Duval County isn’t holding back that this year is the year for the men in teal and gold. Calais Campbell, who signed with the Jaguars in the offseason from the Arizona Cardinals, told the team’s website that everything is in place right now:

"“We don’t need anything else. … All we have to do is take care of the small details, and put the things in place. The front office is doing a great job making it competitive, bringing the right guys in to compete…We have big goals, lofty goals, but all of that will take care of itself. Right now we’re going to take care of the details.”"

If you need a moment to laugh, go ahead and take it…I’ll wait.

Campbell made have learned the first rule of overconfidence during his time at the University of Miami, but some of those Hurricanes teams could beat the product on the field for the Jaguars. the biggest point would be at quarterback, where Blake Bortels hasn’t proved yet that he can be a NFL quarterback through his first seasons in the league.

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So far, the team has not made a major offseason signing outside of Campbell – who will be playing his 10th season in 2017 – and can’t put all their apples in the basket of draft picks like Leonard Fournette and Dede Westbrook. The best pickup this offseason was adding former coach Tom Coughlin to the front office…which goes to prove why the Jaguars will likely be picking in the top five of the 2018 NFL Draft as well.