Recent moves around the NFL proved once again that general managers never stop evaluating the quality of their rosters. As such, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Jacksonville Jaguars were preparing to make some transactions of their own in the near future.

Despite the promising end to his rookie season, Jaguars defensive tackle Maason Smith hasn’t shown the development needed to get more playing time. On paper, Smith has 12 combined tackles, which is only 5 less than the total he racked up last season. Unfortunately, tackles are not the only stat the franchise expected him to pile up when they selected him in the second round of the 2024 NFL draft.

Going into the future, Smith could be a player Jacksonville separates from to open a spot for a more impactful veteran. While it’s a tough subject to approach, the reality of the situation leaves room for discussion.

Drafting Maason Smith is a mistake the current Jaguars regime didn’t make themselves

For those who don’t know, Maason Smith was one of Trent Baalke’s final draft selections as the Jaguars’ head of personnel. Throughout his career, the former NFC Champion prioritized the trenches while addressing the defensive side of the ball. Thus, it made sense that Baalke wanted to reinforce Jacksonville’s weak defensive interior by grabbing Maason when he did. However, there was evidence that the Louisiana State prospect’s resume wasn’t worthy of the 48th overall selection.

According to his draft profile, the Houma, Louisiana native ran a 5.01 40-yard dash, performed a 9-foot broad jump, and skipped the bench press altogether. Analysts praised his ability to knock blockers off-balance and use his quick first step on passing downs, but expressed concerns about the extensive time he missed during the 2021 and 2022 college seasons due to injury.

In the end, Baalke believed Smith’s best snaps were ahead of him and even acknowledged that the limited amount of experience he gained at the college level would lead to a learning curve in the NFL. Unfortunately, James Gladstone and Liam Coen have no reason to have the same patience.

Maason Smith’s lack of production partially comes from a lack of opportunity

To keep things completely inbounds, it’s important to note that Liam Coen and his defensive coaching staff haven’t given Smith a bountiful number of snaps to work with. Pro Football Reference shows that the young lineman only had 253 defensive snaps and one start in the 11 games he was active this season. In comparison, he had 384 snaps and five starts in the same number of games in 2024.

Jaguars fans are more accustomed to seeing Smith’s name on the inactive list than the box score at this rate; and it seems like we’re reaching the point where simply trusting that he isn’t practicing well enough isn’t a good enough answer. If Smith hasn’t developed enough to crack a rotation where seven players have 2.0 sacks or less through 12 games, then it’s probably time for both sides to move on and get a fresh start.