Out with the old, in with the new.
The final general manager vacancy of the offseason cycle was filled as of Friday when the Jacksonville Jaguars hired James Gladstone.
Nearly one month to the day after Jacksonville parted ways with former GM Trent Baalke, who had a spotty reputation around the league, the team hired his replacement. Gladstone, 34, was the youngest of the handful of finalists for the Jaguars’ general manager and joins the organization after nine years with the Los Angeles Rams.
Gladstone first joined the Rams in 2016 as a senior assistant to general manager Les Snead but most recently served in the role of Los Angeles’ director of scouting strategy.
The rookie general manager has experience working with the Jaguars’ new head coach Liam Coen, who served as an assistant offensive coach in the ‘City of Angels’, Los Angeles between 2018 and 2020 and as the Rams’ offensive coordinator in 2022 under Sean McVay.
“James emerged as my choice, and our choice, following a painstaking but energizing interview process that left nothing to doubt,” Jaguars owner Shad Khan said in a statement.
Embed from Getty Images“In the end, we found James to be a class ahead and exceptional in every regard – vision, new ideas, communication, chemistry and a keen understanding of the league and our team, to name a few of many virtues he will bring immediately to the Jaguars. It’s going to be fun watching James work with our football leadership team of Liam Coen, (executive vice president of football operations) Tony Boselli and (chief football strategy officer) Tony Khan, but most of all it will be rewarding. I am confident of that.”
Gladstone was an integral part of a Rams front office that put together the roster that won Super Bowl LVI against the Cincinnati Bengals in 2022. One of the most significant parts of that roster construction happened in March 2021, when the Rams made the blockbuster trade for quarterback Matthew Stafford from the Detroit Lions.
Gladstone’s Rams tenure also included draft classes that featured selections of wide receivers Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua in the third and fifth rounds of their respective drafts in 2017 and 2023. Both players quickly rose to elite levels in Los Angeles’ offense.
Now, Gladstone will work in concert with Coen to push the Jaguars back into playoff contention after a dismal 4-13 record in 2024. The new general manager’s biggest task will be building a roster around former No. 1 overall pick out of Clemson Trevor Lawrence, who will enter his fifth season in 2025 and signed a lucrative five-year, $275 million contract extension last summer.
With Gladstone now in place as the general manager, the Jaguars’ top three decision-makers, Gladstone, Coen and Tony Boselli, are all in their roles for the first time.
