A good sign

It's not that I don't believe Mr. Khan when he says the team isn't moving but actions speak louder than words, you know? Well, this was some serious action. No joke. I feel much more confident about the Jaguars future being in Jacksonville. He didn't have to drop that money (which had to be significant).

(Watch it come out tomorrow that the locker room is now portable)

A little perspective...

...Chase Stuart struggles to find examples of when a team used two QBs without dire consequences.

Side note: I've been reading Football Perspective for a while. My first thought was "It's so damn good and smart and well-written, I'm jealous". Chase, clearly works really hard at coming up with valuable and not sensational posts (Whereas I'm lazy). My next thought was to hide it from all my friends so I could seem smarter. That was working for a while till it turns out Myles' was reading the site as well, so I figure better to promote quality and hope he doesn't end up behind ESPN's paywall. Thanks for the great stuff, Chase. And if you haven't checked it out, definitely do, it's smart and written in a very accessible way.

Here's his take of the Jaguars in 2012, btw. It's kind of not really about the Jags but still worth a read.

Too much hardball with MJD?

In today's O-Zone, John Oehser jumped all over Gary from DeBary for referencing the NFL's Top 100 and how it relates to contract negotiations with Maurice Jones-Drew. Here's the Q&A in full:

Gary from DeBary, FL:

No. 12 Player in the entire NFL – voted by his peers, the people who have to play against him every week. I understand and have agreed with the stance Gene Smith and the Jaguars have taken on this issue, but clearly this situation is an exception to the 'rule.’ It is now time for the Jaguars to make some kind of 'peace offering' and get Maurice Jones Drew in for the beginning of training camp. Get the 2012 season started on the right track on all fronts! At the end of the day, that IS what is best for the Jaguars moving forward. Your thoughts on MJD's ranking and how it could or should affect his – and future players’ –status as Jaguars?

John: My thought on Jones-Drew’s ranking is it was well-deserved. He had a magnificent, memorable year. My thought on how it should affect this situation or his status with the Jaguars is . . . are you kidding me? A list? You want them to negotiate based on a list?

While I agree that it would be silly to let anything as silly as an NFL popularity contest influence negotiations (or their existence, I suppose), Gary from DeBary actually slipped a relevant point in there. MJD is a special player, and although you don't want to get in the habit of tearing up contracts with two years left on them, I imagine most fans and GMs wish that they were consistently having to wrestle with the issue of how much to pay their All-Pros. The Jags timed his contract perfectly. There's no doubting that but, as Gene Smith has said over and over and over, no negotiations (ok, so those links are all reporting the same story, but he was pretty emphatic), I think they've overplayed their position. Maybe it is all strategy but I think hiding behind precedent and future ramifications is a little weak. There have literally only been a handful of players in Jags history who both on and off the field, in the locker room and around the league, meant as much as Jones-Drew. If you add some incentives and an extra year to his contract, what player is going to step up and say me next? Certainly no one on the team currently. Future 12th best players in the NFL? If that's what is holding this situation up, it's time to pay the man.

(Image is courtesy of FL Times-Union. Also, for self-plagerism protection, heads up, I submitted a similar question to the O-Zone. I wanted to hear Oesh's thoughts and he might not be one of my 7 readers. He also might not respond.)

More Martellus Bennett please

Martellus was both insightful and funny when talking to Tania Ganguli about Laurent Robinson, who he played with last year in Dallas.

Ignorant Draft Musings

My favorite night in the annual sports calendar just past, and I wanted to share some of my oh so enlightening reactions:

1. J-Boogie!!!!!!!!!!

2. The dominant theme of the 1st Round was smart teams, and yes I'm including the Jags and maybe even the Cowboys in this group, taking advantage of an unusual market inefficiency. The consensus around the league settled so firmly around the concept that the value of this draft was its depth that real value could be found in moving up. When everybody wants to move back, value can be found in moving up. The Jags, Cowboys, and Eagles all sacrificed a relatively meager amount to move up and draft elite players. The Patriots, perpetual kings of moving back, moved up twice. It was a different kind of night.

3. Gene Smith made an outstanding move. Every unknowing blogger and Peter King on the planet thought the Jaguars wanted to move back until about an hour before the draft. Then, all of a sudden, my man Gene only sacrificed a 4th round draft pick to get J-Boogie!!!!!!!!!! Just as a point of reference, I want to list some of the best 4th round picks from the last 3 years:

Roy Helu-RB-Redskins
Sam Acho-LB-Cardinals
Delone Carter-RB-Colts
Cortez Allen-DB-Steelers
Mike Williams-WR-Bucs
Jacoby Ford-WR-Raiders
Aaron Hernandez-TE-Patriots
Geno Atkins-DT-Bengals
O'Brien Schofield-LB-Cardinals
Mike Thomas-WR-Jags
Louis Murphy-WR-Raiders
Austin Collie-WR-Colts
Jacob Tamme-TE-Colts

That's it. 13 quality picks out of a possible 96. Gene Smith sacrificed a 13.5% of finding a quality player for the chance to draft J-Boogie!!!!!!!!!! My man Gene. What a hoodwink.

4. It is safe to say we can stop talking about the Steelers offensive line woes. If greater Pouncey stays healthy and David DeCastro is half the player people think he is, we are looking at an all-time great interior offensive line. Look for a great year from Rashard Mendenhall and some favorable comparisons to the Walter Jones-Steve Hutchinson road-grating excellence that somehow yielded a Shaun Alexander MVP.

5. Teams around the league yearn to get after the quarterback. The Giants won the Super Bowl with an elite pass rush that outlasted the glamorous offenses that dominated the regular season. So, in a cliche-perpetuating movement, the "copycat" league attempted to replicate their success by drafting an enormous amount of pass rushers. 7 seemingly indistinguishable quarterback chasers were selected between picks 15 and 28. One of those players might turn into Clay Matthews of Jason Pierre-Paul, but it is safe to assume there is a Vernon Gholston or two in that bunch. My money would be on Bruce Irvin, Quinton Coples, and Nick Perry.

6. Just to recap, the Rams turned the 2nd pick into:

Michael Brockers-DT-LSU
39th Pick in 2012
45th Pick in 2012
Washington's 1st in 2013
Washington's 1st in 2014

That is an enormous load. The ascendancy of Robert Griffin should be one of the best things ever to happen to the Rams franchise as they have the opportunity to turn his potential into 5 quality starters. As long as the front office does their job, the Rams just created five years worth of championship contention.

7. J-Boogie!!!!!!!!!!

-Myles
(KPPBH's ignorant draft commentator)

Welcome to Jax, J Boogie

(image courtesy of Florida Times Union)

BLACKMON!!!

There are no guarantees and every player can fail but yesterday was the most universally beloved draft pick for the Jags since Fred Taylor in 1998. Gene Smith supporters are happy. Gene Smith doubters seem to be in some state of shock or pleasant surprise. There is, as officially as it gets, buzz about the Jags.

You have to get the player right but the trade was perfectly executed. It's reasonable to assume the Rams would have taken him at sixth, so a move was necessary. They moved up the minimum amount necessary to get him. They gave up as little as could be reasonably expected (4th rounder). It always feels good when your team is doing the same thing as the traditionally smart teams (Eagles and Patriots moving up. Cowboys, although traditionally dumb, gave a reasonable amount to jump up and get Claiborne). Smith noted everyone wanted to move down. He went the other way.

An odd thing has happened to the Jacksonville receivers this off-season. They are good. They are competitive. It's a crowded room. My friend Russell (read his movie reviews here) instantly pointed out that Blackmon and Laurent Robinson are the best Jags duo since Smith and McCardell. I have my worries about Robinson (mostly injury related) but here's the thing, the Jaguars have a legitimately deep WR corp and one of the best WR coaches in history. In one off-season, it has gone from being an obvious weakness to a potential strength. That is odd in the best and most glee inducing way. Quick glance at Jags WR corp:

• Justin Blackmon - The presumptive #1.
• Laurent Robinson - Young, speedster. Caught ten touchdowns last year. Less pressure with addition of Blackmon.
• Mike Thomas - Good, young player who was clearly on the rise before all the WRs stepped back last season.
• Cecil Shorts III - Rough first year but flashed in the preseason.
• Lee Evans - Low risk, high reward veteran, who, at a minimum gives a lesson on how to be a professional, while, if healthy, legitimately pushing younger guys to be at their best. Also, it has been forgotten but he looked very good last preseason before injuries derailed him.
• Chastin West - Jags fans will scoff but he was a player Green Bay was disappointed got away. A full-season will give the Jags a chance to properly evaluate.
• Jarret Dillard - Certainly expendable now but he hasn't ever been properly coached or healthy. He's healthy and there's no coaching excuse now. He's legitimate competition if nothing else
• Taylor Price, Brian Robiskie - Young, former reasonably high draft picks. Once again, competition.

It's hard to look at that list and not think the Jaguars will keep six guys.

A supremely underrated quality of Gene Smith's is his ability to completely remake a position, incredibly quickly. If you don't evaluate well, it's all over anyway, but Jags fans should at least respect he has a clear vision. In recent years, he has, typically in a single off-season, completely overhauled nearly every position (OT, DT, S and LB being the most obvious.)

If he fails, he fails, but I think Jags fan truly fail to realize how many teams are shooting blindly in the dark.

-Q

Carl and Q's Mock

Carl described this mock perfectly, "A work of art."

Without further ado,

Myles' 2012 Mock

First, big thanks to Myles for providing this mock. He wrote out a mock draft last year that I really enjoyed. There are a couple of ways to interpret a mock.

1) You can grade them entirely by how well they match a player to a team, in which case they all get F's (or in random years they all get a C-. Coincidentally, this might be one of those years, a lot of consensus especially around the top 10, although that's breaking up somewhat as Matt Kalil supposedly falls)

2) You can grade them on how sincerely and intelligently they play out their vision of the draft. I say sincerely because there is no shortage of professional writers who shamelessly do something different, not because they actually believe that's what's going to or should happen, but because they want to stand out from the multitudes (and there are multitudes). I say intelligently because if you go to pretty much any football related mock draft you can find one guy genuinely SCREAMING IN ALL CAPS THAT HE THINKS CASE KEENUM, NCAA FOOTBALL YARDAGE CHAMPION, SHOULD BE A TOP TEN DRAFT PICK. I don't judge either of these groups too harshly, fella (or lady) gotta get paid and who knows maybe Case will be a top ten draft pick, but Myles is neither of those things. He just a kid with a vision and a dream. Enjoy. Mock after the jump.

Smack Smack

I'm a little late to this but Mike Lombardi gets slapped around a bit by John Oehser.

Oehser hasn't reached Vic level adoration but there's few ways for a football writer to get closer to my heart than calling out Lombardi, who is consistently the most frustrating NFL analyst for me to read.

Oh that sweet, sweet, hair...

He looks great, right? Like a real NFL QB. As my lovely fiance pointed out, he could be straight out of Friday Night Lights (and let's be honest, the Jags are definitely the East Dillon Lions of the NFL. All the way from the big cat mascot to their status of neglected runt of the NFL). I was pretty eager after last season for Gabbert to cut his hair. Despite his claims to the contrary (get to that in a moment), I thought a new, fresher look would be confidence inspiring. I have no idea how his teammates responded but I was pretty much giddy as I forced my friends to check out the new Gabba-Gabba cut.

Now, I don't expect Blaine to come right out and say he's cutting his hair cause people called him wimpy and having beautiful, golden locks only reinforces the perception he lacks toughness (For the record, in my opinion, hair length not correlated to toughness. See Clay Matthews). It wouldn't be smart to be so plain in your reasoning. That said, this quote could've used just a bit of work (via the times-union):

“I’ve had long hair for two years now; it’s comfortable...It’s just freshening up a little bit. Look a little cleaner, look well-kept. That’s about it. I’m the same Blaine. … You are who you are regardless if you have a full beard, which I can’t grow, or you have long hair."

It starts off so strong. Confident. Self-assured. And then...just an acknowledgement that you can't grow a beard, a universal sign of manliness and testosterone. Sigh. So close, Blaine, so close.

Death in Sports, Good Writing

Brian Phillips on the potential death of a player in sports:

"Athletes fall down all the time. They get tackled. They lose their balance trying to make a move. They hit the ground diving for a loose ball...Every once in a while, though, an athlete goes down and it's … different. There's no good way to describe this, but if you've watched sports long enough, chances are you've seen it once or twice and never want to see it again. A player goes down, and almost immediately there's this miserable, crawly sense that something is different; something is wrong. It's a sensation, a sort of tingle that spreads from the other players to the fans in the stadium to the people watching at home. Oh no. You can tell when this has happened because within about 10 seconds, no one at the game remembers which team they're cheering for. Fans on both sides look on with their hands clasped in front of their faces. The top half of the player disappears under a dome of medics. You stare at the player's foot and will it to move. Did it just twitch? Please get up, please get up, no one is supposed to die playing sports, please get up …"

Not Jags related but definitely worth a read.

Not yet. Apprently.

The deal has hit a hang up and the Jags are back in the mix. The PFT article says the Rams are still interested but an ESPN article released a few minutes ago corrects that earlier report. It appears (just from reading the coverage) the Jaguars may be the only remaining team vying for Tebow's services. We shall see.

It wouldn't really be Tebow if there wasn't a dramatic finish.

-Q

Tebow to the Jets.

First, I was wrong (always like to lead with that). Tebow isn't coming to the Jags, at least not for a while. We also know now that the Jaguars do not think Tebow was worth the price of a fourth round draft pick and converting a 6th to a 7th. I do think it should be noted Tebow is probably in a better situation. The general speculation is that the Jets want him to run a specific "Wildcat" package. Granted, Mularkey could have put together a package similar to how he used Kordell Stewart when he was in Pittsburgh but there's no denying the primary reason for the Jaguar's interest was business-related. For the Jets, he just a football player. No franchise resting on his broad shoulders.

Best wishes to Tebow. I honestly think this will be better for his career. That said, something tells me we'll hear from him again.
-Q

Might as well get ahead of it...

I posted yesterday on the developing Tim Tebow saga and have been consuming rapid amounts of media ever since. I'll post a round up below but figured I might as well go ahead and make a prediction as well. I think the Jaguars are going to do this (trade a pick for Tebow) and honestly part of me feels they have to. Not because it's a good idea (see yesterday's post), but much in the same way John Elway threw Tebow out there hoping to end all the hoopla (Whoops), this may need to happen. I do want to make a few points...

We need to talk about Tim.

I did not foresee the downside of Peyton Manning's release. I was all "the Wicked Forehead is Dead."

If you haven't heard, Peyton Manning is preparing to sign with the Denver Broncos. Consequently, the Denver Broncos are either going to trade or release Tim Tebow. Thus, a very real downside has emerged for Jaguars fans who prefer their football team make decisions based on watching football, rather than marketing/bullshit. There's a couple lost seasons and the specter of a Gene Smith resignation looming in the air so let's work through this a bit...

Good Writing

A very nice piece of writing from David Fleming. Jags fans complaining about Gene Smith, note where these two played college ball.

-Quinton

Why Jags fans should be proud Mike Florio is pooping on Mike Mularkey?

Mike Mularkey, new Jaguars Head coach. Photo courtesy of The Palm Beach Post

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk wrote a little piece basically calling out the Jags, saying they should've waited and interviewed Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy. 

The piece is odd to say the least. His criticism of the Jags hire, Mike Mularkey, is based on a poor offensive showing in the Falcons last game, when Mularkey was offensive coordinator, and the fact that the Bucs, who've played Mularkey twice a year for the last few years, reportedly didn't interview him. Mularkey has been coaching in the NFL for 18 years. If he's worthy of being a head coach, it has essentially nothing to do with his last game. 

As to the Bucs criticisms, I have no idea why the Jaguars should be modeling themselves on the Buccaneers search. Raheem Morris, their last head coach, was so clearly overwhelmed by the job that the Bucs seem to be reacting and reaching for a safer, more established coach. I think that is a fine and sensible strategy. It should have no impact on the Jaguars. 

I don't know if McCoy or Mularkey will be a good head coach. If Mularkey doesn’t work out, I'm sure PFT will link back to their initial criticism. You know what they won't link back to? Their reaction to the hire of Mike McCarthy, the Green Bay Packer's head coach, in 2006. They described him as not being “worthy of a promotion” and described his previous experience as “six years of relative mediocrity.” They insinuated that Green Bay’s GM Ted Thompson was only hiring McCarthy to preserve power and control. Heck, in the same piece they call Sean Payton Bill Parcell’s “biatch.” Well, five years later, those are two of the most respected head coaches in the NFL, and the two odds on favorites to win the Super Bowl this year.  Florio is a well connected guy and I enjoy his site but his criticism of a head coach should be a badge of honor.

The two archived PFT pieces are here and here.

-Quinton