James Gladstone recently delivered a passionate speech explaining why the Jacksonville Jaguars traded up to draft Travis Hunter during the Colorado player’s induction conference. His address featured a series of inspiring and uplifting quotes. However, if you ask Mike Florio, the speech seemed almost too perfect — so polished, in fact, that it felt as though it might not have been written by a human at all.
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Of course, when you orchestrate arguably the biggest trade of the draft, it’s only fitting for the GM to step up and deliver a strong message. The Jaguars gave up four picks, including a 2026 first-rounder, to land Hunter. It made the moment all the more significant.
So, with Hunter by his side, Gladstone used the opportunity not just to express confidence in his new star but to make a broader statement about the direction of the franchise. For him, the trade-up wasn’t just a calculated gamble — it was a declaration of identity and intent.
“Travis Hunter is a Jacksonville Jaguar. He’s a rare person and a rare player. But he’s also a reminder that the boundaries of the game of football were built to be challenged. And so the decision to select him was actually a statement. A statement on how we plan to move, who we are, and we want him to be nothing more than him,” Gladstone stated.
This quote caught the attention of Mike Florio and Chris Simms. They expressed how impressed they were with what Gladstone said, but they also noted that the 34-year-old GM has been almost too perfect since arriving in Jacksonville — almost like an AI-generated GM, as Florio put it.
“There was some over-the-top stuff,” Florio said about the speech. “Travis Hunter, this grandiose stuff that they’re trying to basically revolutionize the sport itself with Travis Hunter. And also, I mean, it almost seems like he’s an AI-generated GM, if that makes any sense. It’s all too perfect. It all comes out too perfectly. It’s like somebody’s programmed a chatbot to pull out sayings and slap them together.”
The thoughts from Florio were hilarious and got a good laugh out of Simms. Furthermore, he shared that, due to Gladstone’s charisma and confidence, some NFL executives have already started to dislike him.
“I know some of the established GMs are like, ‘What’s this dude’s problem?’” Florio shared.
However, Simms said that the old guard hating on Gladstone is futile because disliking someone for their confidence and swagger is irrational. He argued that it’s the new culture they’re trying to instill in Jacksonville and that we should let him be himself — just like Gladstone is letting Hunter be himself.
It’s hard not to side with Simms on this one. Sure, the speech from Gladstone was a bit over the top. But as the analyst points out, he comes from the LA Rams under the tutelage of Les Snead. He’s bound to have some level of confidence and cockiness, especially being the youngest GM in the NFL at the moment.
However, it’s also not great if Gladstone is coming off so brash that other GMs don’t want to work with him in the future. That would severely affect the Jags’ ability to make trades. So, he needs to toe the line moving forward. Confident speeches like this are okay from time to time—especially when introducing a player like Hunter — but it shouldn’t become a routine ordeal.
What has Gladstone done so far? Well, he has impressed since taking over as the Jags’ GM back in February. He started by trading away Christian Kirk to get off an expensive contract and picked up a 2026 draft pick in the process. He then followed that by releasing Evan Engram to save $20 million. After that, he made a litany of free agent signings to address the defensive secondary, including Jourdan Lewis and Eric Murray.
