Shad Khan bought the Jaguars just five months ago, but he’s already made one thing clear about his ownership style.
He’s willing to spend over the salary cap — and to make improvements at EverBank Field that don’t count against the cap — to turn the Jaguars into a winner.
Khan predicted at the Super Bowl that the team would spend $130 million this year on player salaries and said last Friday during the draft that the team has already exceeded that figure.
“We’ve spent a lot more than $130 [million] already in cash,” Khan said. “Much more than that. A little bit under $140 million.” He said the team rolled more than $30 million in unspent money from last year and have spent about half of that plus the $120 million in this year’s cap.
Khan is also putting about $10 million into locker room and weight room improvements at the stadium and said money will not be a factor in the discussion of whether to build a practice bubble.
The issue was highlighted recently when the Jaguars had to move a minicamp practice indoors on the club level because a storm soaked the practice fields.
“It’s been talked about. Much can be said on both sides. The least thing [to be considered] about that is the money. It’s not an issue,” Khan said.
He said the bigger issues are finding space for it, whether it would be a bubble or a shed, and whether they would lose a competitive advantage if the players practice in air conditioning.
Those issues will have to be discussed. “If it helps the team win, I’m all for it,” Khan said.
But Khan indicated they will still be prudent in their spending. They declined to pursue defensive end Mario Williams and have yet to reach an agreement on a new deal with kicker Josh Scobee, who has yet to sign the franchise tag tender.
“You don’t want to be a sailor on shore leave where you go blow all the money you have because if are close to something and want to find a free agent, you want to be able to have the money. The issue is not about lighting money on fire, because you never get that money back. The issue is to use it as a strategic asset. You don’t want to be eating your seed corn in the winter,” Khan said.
He said the Jaguars will have the best locker room in the NFL.
“I want to set an example to have the best facilities,” Khan said. “I’ve been to a lot of locker rooms and we weren’t the best and we weren’t the worse. We were in the middle. I had some players ask me on some specific requests and [he thought] if we’re going to do it, do it really right where it is such an image for the team that every fund-raiser wants to be there for dinner and most important, it’s something great for the players.”
He said it will have 90 lockers so each player will have his own and feature “state-of-the-art creative comforts.”
Khan didn’t want to share other details until it is finished and he’s ready to unveil it.
“I don’t want to give away some of the thunder,” he said. “You’ll have to come and see it.”
