Quin: On Aug. 30 the Jacksonville Jaguars traded away their star defensive end Yannick Ngakoue to the Minnesota Vikings for a 2021 second round pick and a 2022 fifth round pick. All of this follows Ngakoue’s pressure on the Jaguars front office to place him on the trade block. What kind of lasting effects could this have on the Jaguars season after losing a big star like Ngakoue.

Chase:The Jaguars have been shipping off players all offseason, see Calais Campbell or A.J. Bouye. They seem to definitely be tanking after this trade in preparation for the 2021 draft, however I am not sure why they are trading everyone on the defensive side of the ball. A team will not be able to draft players of Campbell, Ngakoue, or Bouye caliber that would be ready to play come the start of the season. One of their main focuses is also to grab the No. 1 pick and snag Trevor Lawerence as their franchise quarterback. However, if there is no defense they would leave Lawerence or whoever they draft in a terrible position.

Quin: It is clear at this point that tanking for Trevor Lawerence is the goal for the Jaguars in hopes for building a new young team around him, but I think the trading of these players is viewed as necessary by the current front office after the disappearance of the team following their defeat at the hands of the Patriots in the 2018 AFC championship game. That being said I would not be surprised if the front office looks to trade away running back Leonard Fournette at some point as he has been connected to trade rumors dating back to the beginning of the summer just like Ngakoue. 

Chase: A lot of these players are on the move for the Jaguars, and it looks like Jacksonville is not slowing down yet. The Jaguars are leaving second year phenom, Gardner Minshew, in a terrible position however. Leaving him with little to no offensive weapons and depriving him of star players on the defensive side will make for an uphill battle in the 2020 season. They are basically leaving him out in the ocean with no life raft and asking him to lead them to shore. Minshew looks to be the backup or even out of the Jaguars lineup come next season if the tank and draft selection goes as it is supposed too. Minshew, in my opinion, is a talented young quarterback but I do not think he will survive without more around him in Jacksonville.

Quin: I would say that Gardner Minshew has a huge opportunity in front of him in regards to winning himself a starting position on someone’s roster in 2021 that isn’t Jacksonville. If Minshew has an above average year I could see him going to a team like Atlanta, Detroit or Indianapolis who all have aging quarterbacks on their lineups. Regardless this season for Jacksonville will be hard to watch as a group of young inexperienced players try to win with their biggest opposition being the owner who is trading away all of their talent similar to what the Dolphins went through last year. 

Chase: News in the NBA, the Lakers finally put the Trail Blazers out of the playoffs with a nine point win on Saturday night. The Trail Blazers were without Damian Lillard for Game 5 but still managed to fall just short with Carmelo Anthony and CJ McCollum both posting fantastic games. Anthony puts up 27 points and seven rebounds while McCollum puts up 36 points, seven assists and six rebounds. However, the biggest news comes on the opposite team with Lebron James and Anthony Davis both having massive nights to help push them into the next round of the playoffs. James posted a triple double with 36 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds in 34 minutes. Davis led both teams in scoring with 43 points, while having nine rebounds and four assists in 36 minutes of action. For me, this is what needs to happen in crunch for the Lakers to be successful, their stars need to be able to come up with big time buckets and plays to even have a thought of hoisting the NBA Finals trophy at the end of the season. As we saw in the opening game of this series, Lillard came up big with huge three-point shots to rise above and beat the Lakers in game one. We also saw the stars of the Lakers look abysmal in the first game, but do somewhat better in the next three which led to their huge night on Saturday. My question is, can they continue this strong play throughout the rest of the playoffs? Definitely considering who they could potentially play in the LA Clippers, Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets, Oklahoma City Thunder, or even the Dallas Mavericks. What are your thoughts on the Lakers throughout the rest of the playoffs after this first round win for the Lakers?

Quin: Throughout the series I haven’t been impressed with the way the Lakers have performed aside from the performance in game five. Against the Rockets or Thunder who appear to be the most likely opponents for Los Angeles in the next round I could see them losing the series if they play like they did games one through three. However, if game five lit a fire under the Lakers the way I think it did I see them easily taking down their opponent in round two. I think we are watching a team catch fire and that should terrify the rest of the league. Now sure they will lose a game here or there but overall I think we could be looking at the next NBA champions. 

Chase: I believe that is what we could be looking at as well, it just concerns me at how they seem to take nights off against teams they believe they can beat. If we are going with the Rockets or Thunder, I am nervous for the Lakers to play either. The Rockets play a fast-paced type of game with constant three-point attempts and lots of fast break opportunities while the Thunder play close to that but also have the size and inside game to match with the Lakers. If the Lakers continue to take some nights off during the series, we could see a series or two, go to a Game 7 in which probably would not happen otherwise. 

Chase: Lastly, the NCAA has made a ruling that it will allow all players to have an extra year of eligibility no matter how many games they do or do not play. I love the idea of this ruling, however the thought provoked is what happens to senior athletes that want to play an extra season and all of the new recruits that are coming into the locker room. NCAA programs only have a limited amount of scholarships and available slots for players to fill on each team. This will cause an overload of players on each team and from what it seems will make a mess at the end of this year, causing an overlap for the next fall football season.

Quin: That is certainly going to be a major issue at schools like UNA. Most teams that are not in the power five football conferences have players that stay four and or five years. I feel the best solution for this issue is for any player accepting another year of eligibility should be allowed to come back for their senior years and not count towards the roster. Therefore every player on these teams’ rosters going into 2020 gain a free roster spot for their senior years. It would circumvent the problem for the next five years allowing for a natural resetting of all divisions. This will limit the amount of freshmen that can be recruited to the size of your current seniors which is what many teams do with recruitment anyway. However, none of this is possible without the NCAA stepping in and doing the right thing just as they did for the spring 2020 sports. 

Chase: Again, like we have stated in previous columns, the NCAA has to make a statement decision on what they plan to do. If the NCAA slips up at any point, then all of the programs will eventually slip as well. We will see how the NCAA handles that and if they make any amendments to their previous ruling.

Chase: This will conclude this banter column for The Talking Heads where you can find everything you want to know on sports. If you guys have not gotten the chance yet, check our newly debuted Podcast called ‘The Talking Heads Podcast’, we are on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Soundcloud; if you would like to search us, look up ‘Quin Norris & Chase Glover’. We have multiple different social media platforms as well like Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook. Feel free to reach out to us through any of those platforms about anything sports, and we will do our best to get back to you as quickly as possible. Until then, you can reach out to us here at [email protected].