In a somewhat surprising move, the Jacksonville Jaguars bit the bullet and spent their franchise tag on OT Cam Robinson, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.

Rapoport notes this move is presumably being made with Trevor Lawrence in mind:

Now, the immediate reaction to this move is to say, “No duh.” You have a generational talent on the way in Lawrence, so you do what you can to protect him.

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But that is where this whole decision gets a little complicated: by most metrics, Cam Robinson has actually underperformed since getting drafted by Jacksonville in 2017, never scoring better than a 63.4 PFF rating through his young career in the NFL. And in retrospect, the Jaguars might even be kicking themselves given the recent news on how Bill Belichick was essentially able to swindle Trent Brown away from Las Vegas just hours before this news came through.

However, to that: hindsight is 20/20, and in all honesty, this 2021 free-agent class for the Jaguars' roster is not really that full of players worth the money Robinson is. If nothing else, Cam Robinson gets the opportunity to prove his worth next year while he protects Trevor Lawrence (or Justin Fields to wrong people) and rookie surprise James Robinson, and possibly outperform his contract.

Moreover, Robinson is young, and if this is his floor, it's not necessarily a bad one. Plus, the Jaguars have the money to spend. Who are they going to use it on? Keelan Cole? Dare Ogunbowale? You can almost hear the crickets.

Time will tell if this will be a good move, but for Jacksonville, they got what they could afford at the position they needed to shore up the most. Good start for the Jaguars.