Jacksonville spent three first-round picks' worth of draft capital in one day, and the AFC is on notice
The Jaguars made three major defensive trades in a 24-hour span before Tuesday's NFL trade deadline, landing Jordan Davis, Jessie Bates III, and Davon Godchaux in a franchise-defining all-in push.
In brief
Jacksonville spent three first-round picks' worth of draft capital in one day, and the AFC is on notice
It started with Jessie Bates. Then came Davon Godchaux. Then, just before midnight Monday, the Jacksonville Jaguars blew past anything resembling caution and acquired defensive tackle Jordan Davis from the Philadelphia Eagles. Three trades. One day. The kind of spending spree that changes how an entire conference thinks about February.
The Jaguars made three major defensive trades Monday, adding safety Jessie Bates III and defensive tackles Jordan Davis and Davon Godchaux as they strengthen a 6-2 team for the second half of the season. This is not roster tinkering. This is a franchise that has never reached a Super Bowl in its 31-year existence deciding that right now is the moment.
The Jaguars agreed to a blockbuster trade with the Philadelphia Eagles for defensive tackle Jordan Davis, sending a 2027 first-round pick and a 2029 second-round pick to Philadelphia in exchange for the former first-round selection. Before that, the Jaguars gave up a 2027 second-round pick and a 2028 fifth-round pick for Bates from Atlanta, and a conditional sixth-rounder to New Orleans for Godchaux.
Add it up and Jacksonville general manager James Gladstone essentially handed away the equivalent of multiple high-round selections in a single afternoon. After breaking through in Liam Coen's first season, the Jags are again making win-now moves by parting with considerable draft capital to strengthen this year's roster. Last year, the Jaguars finished atop the AFC South with a 13-4 record in Coen's debut. Now, sitting 6-2 heading into the second half of 2026, they clearly feel the window is open and they want to vault through it.
Why the Davis deal is the one that matters most
Davis, only 26, was signed to a three-year, $78 million contract extension by Philadelphia in March, so Jacksonville is acquiring a player who can help them now and remain an important part of the defensive front beyond this season. This is not a rental. This is a commitment.
Davis had racked up 31 tackles and 1.5 sacks this season for Philadelphia and was one of the key members of their defense during their run to a 40-22 win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX. He knows what winning looks like. He also arrives at a team that already plays good defense.
A run defense giving up just 89.3 yards per game on the ground, fifth best in the NFL, just added a player who is a run-stuffing beast at his best. That is a genuinely uncomfortable combination for any offensive coordinator getting ready to face Jacksonville in January.
The skeptics have a point too. Davis' 13.5% run-stop rate this season ranks 14th among defensive tackles with a minimum of 100 run plays defended, behind teammate Moro Ojomo, with a 1.8 run stuff percentage. And the Eagles, the team that just sold him, will carry a massive dead-cap hit: Philadelphia will eat barely $3 million in 2026 dead cap, but the 2027 bill from Davis' early exit will eclipse $33 million. Philadelphia is not trading Jordan Davis because they think he is good. They are trading him because this year's Eagles squad is not what anyone expected.
Though the Eagles traded center Cam Jurgens earlier in the season, the Jordan Davis deal is the sort of blockbuster that clearly identifies them as deadline sellers. The question is whether GM Howie Roseman will move more players before the 4 p.m. ET cutoff.
The injury backdrop makes all of this more urgent
The Jaguars were already dealing with their own defensive attrition. Jacksonville placed safeties Eric Murray and DaVon Hamilton on injured reserve, leaving them with five healthy safeties and six healthy defensive tackles after the new additions. These trades were not purely opportunistic. They were also necessary.
Meanwhile, the injury news rippling through the rest of the league added an almost surreal backdrop to deadline day. Gardner Minshew of the Arizona Cardinals is seeking additional medical opinions to confirm that he will need season-ending surgery on a torn UCL in his throwing arm, an injury he suffered on a strip-sack by Dante Fowler in the closing moments of the second quarter during Sunday's 17-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. He stayed in to finish out the game with 166 yards on 21-of-30 passing. Finishing a game with a potentially torn UCL says something about the man. It does not change the diagnosis.
Should Minshew require surgery, third-round rookie Carson Beck would be in line to start in Week 10 against the Los Angeles Rams and moving forward. Michael Wilson, Arizona's top wide receiver, is also out for the season because of a neck injury. Sunday's loss dropped the Cardinals to 3-6 as the only team in the NFC West under .500. It is a franchise in genuine trouble, and Beck, an untested rookie, is about to find out what starting in the NFL actually feels like.
Jacksonville's AFC competition at the deadline
The Jaguars were not operating in a vacuum. Several major 2026 trades already took place heading into Tuesday, including Jeffery Simmons to the Bears, Quenton Nelson to the Seahawks, and Marvin Harrison Jr. to the Texans, while stars like Jonathan Taylor and Justin Herbert remained in trade rumors. The Bears landing Simmons made them a defensive force. The Texans acquiring Harrison gave C.J. Stroud a genuine No. 1 target. The AFC arms race is real.
But nobody moved like Jacksonville did Monday. The Chicago Bears are the biggest winners of the deadline thus far with their highly fruitful acquisition of Jeffery Simmons, the Jacksonville Jaguars are the most aggressive buyers with their pursuit of a host of defensive players, and the Indianapolis Colts emerged as the most aggressive sellers in dealing Quenton Nelson and DeForest Buckner.
Jacksonville sits 6-2, in an AFC race that includes four other six-win teams including Cincinnati, Kansas City, and Pittsburgh. The team is looking to improve upon their 13-4 record from last season and win divisional titles and make the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1998 and 1999. Back-to-back playoff appearances would already be significant for this program. A Super Bowl run would be generational.
Davis is poised to make his Jaguar debut in Jacksonville's road game against the Tennessee Titans this Sunday. The Titans, Jacksonville's next opponent, are 1-7. That is about as favorable a soft-landing as a newly traded player can get.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
