This is the most important week in the Jaguars' draft preparation. All of the scouts are here. The coaches are offering their player evaluations. Every day is eight hours worth of meetings.

And by the end of the week, the Jaguars will have their value board in order.

"It's going to be massaged. The biggest push will be this week, then it will be massaged up to the final week," personnel boss James "Shack" Harris said.

Harris presides over the evaluation meetings. He'll tell you he's no more important a contributor than anybody else in the Jaguars' draft room, but there's no denying his responsibility. The draft is his baby, and the reconstruction of the Jaguars' roster will clearly depend on the decisions being made in the room across the hall from Harris' office.

"The most important thing is having the player with the right grade and in the right position (on the board)," Harris said. "Getting the player right; that's most important."

To that end, Harris employs the following philosophy: "You have to guard against putting a player too high because of need. If the players are in the same (grade) range, you take need. If they're at different (grade) levels, you take the better player," Harris said.

Therein lies the fundamental difference in this new era in Jaguars football from the former. Tom Coughlin believed firmly the "draft is all about needs." Harris and head coach Jack Del Rio believe selecting the best available player is a higher priority than addressing needs.

Beyond that, Harris also believes staunchly in the concept of many voices, as opposed to the one-voice philosophy of the past.

"This is going to be a decision made by a lot of coaches and scouts, who've done a lot of work. This is not going to be an individual decision," Harris said. "The common goal is to get the player right, and not for the coach to be right or for the scout to be right, but for the Jaguars to get it right."

That process is the major thrust of business at Alltel Stadium this week, and by the close of business on Friday, this new era in Jaguars football will have laid the foundation to the most important event in their young history. And though the process is very different from what transpired in that draft room in past years, the goal remains the same: Draft players who will make the Jaguars a winner.