{"id":638782,"date":"2026-04-30T15:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T15:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/638782\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T15:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T15:11:09","slug":"why-did-jaguars-pick-te-nate-boerkircher-nfl-insider-weighs-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/638782\/","title":{"rendered":"Why did Jaguars pick TE Nate Boerkircher? NFL insider weighs in"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the Jacksonville Jaguars’ <\/a>first pick in the 2026 NFL draft, GM James Gladstone selected Texas A&M tight end Nate Boerkircher at 56th overall, which by many, was considered a head-scratching pick<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now that the dust has settled on this year’s draft, ESPN<\/a> NFL insider Jeremy Fowler<\/a> provided some insight into why the Jaguars<\/a> selected Boerkircher.<\/p>\n

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On ESPN’s pre-draft big board, Boerkircher was the 13th-ranked tight end in this class. So was this pick a major reach? Not exactly, according to Fowler.<\/p>\n

“Realistically, Boerkircher entered the draft thinking he would go late in Day 2, early in Day 3 (so, let’s say in the third or fourth rounds),” Fowler wrote. “But he was notified in the process that multiple teams listed him as their top blocking tight end. Boerkircher believed Denver<\/a> was high on him and considered him a viable option early in the fourth round.”<\/p>\n

In Jaguars’ fashion under Gladstone, no one truly knew how highly they rated Boerkircher — not even Boerkircher who had no idea he was on Jacksonville’s radar.<\/p>\n

“In fact, Jacksonville brass spoke with Boerkircher’s reps early in the draft week and asked about other players, not Boerkircher,” Fowler added.<\/p>\n

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Adding Boerkircher to the offense gives Liam Coen the flexibility to lean more heavily into three tight-end sets, a potential growing trend around the NFL. He could also compete with Quintin Morris<\/a> for the blocking-first role at the tight end position, seeing playing time with Brenton Strange<\/a> when lined up in 12 personnel.<\/p>\n

Although the bulk of Boerkircher’s snaps came as a blocker, the Jaguars are bullish on his ability to impact the passing game as well, with Coen mentioning<\/a> that he took advantage of the opportunities that came his way.<\/p>\n

“For better or worse, Jacksonville is going to do this their way — they are going to pick the players they want, perception be damned,” one veteran NFL player agent told Fowler.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: 2026 NFL draft: Insider details Jaguars decision to pick Nate Boerkircher<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Jacksonville Jaguars’ first pick in the 2026 NFL draft, GM James Gladstone selected Texas A&M tight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[238515,91349,49,48,1990,1725,59037,40419,198619,514,238516,82],"class_list":["post-638782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-boerkircher","tag-brenton-strange","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-denver","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-james-gladstone","tag-jeremy-fowler","tag-nate-boerkircher","tag-nfl","tag-quintin-morris","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}