Let's take a little trip down memory lane. It's the winter of 2022. The Jacksonville Jaguars are once against the worst team in the NFL. Fans are tired of the team's repeated failures, and so they decide to protest by dressing up as clowns. One fan even sent Jaguars GM Trent Baalke a clown figurine!

Fast forward to next year. The Jaguars went from clown show to clown makers after coming back against the Los Angeles Charges in the playoffs. Trent Baalke's free agent signings, once mocked by fans, turned out to be great deals. As for that clown figurine… Baalke keeps that little fella on his desk: a reminder to “prove everyone wrong”, per NFL.com.

“Some (Jaguars) fan sent that to me,” Trent Baalke said of the clown. “It was a little clown figurine, and I said, ‘You know what? I'm going to put it there to remind myself every day why I come to work,' what my purpose is, I guess. It's to prove them wrong.”

So far, Baalke is on the right path to redeem himself in front of Jaguars fans. His decision to hire Doug Pederson and sign guys like Christian Kirk and Evan Engram paid dividends in the season. Pederson helped Trevor Lawrence bloom into a good quarterback. Meanwhile, Kirk and Engram provided firepower for Lawrence to strut his stuff in the season.

Now, the Jaguars will be picking in the late stages of the first round for the first time in a long while. We'll see what moves Baalke will make in order to completely rid himself of the “clown” label.