I think Justin Blackmon is an amazing receiver. He has the potential to be, at the very least, Randy Moss-like (without the attitude,) but I just don’t see how he’s going to work out in Jacksonville. And, it’s not him, it’s the team. The Jags only have Blaine Gabbert to throw Blackmon the ball. If that’s the best they have to offer, this guy is not going to have a method by which he can produce. If he can’t produce, he’s just going to wallow in Jacksonville, or they become a pass-first offense in which he gets overworked. Can we really imagine a place in which Blackmon is going to be catching 20 balls a game?
Jacksonville Jaguars
There is no doubt the Cleveland Browns are as devoid of talent as any NFL team. They have struggled since re-entering the league in 1999, making the playoffs only once. Several General Managers, Coaches, Quarterbacks and players later, the Browns are still a consistent 4-12, 5-11 team.
However this year is bringing a ray of hope. Sunshine clearing out the clouds by the benevolence of the league itself. Monday it was announced the NFL awarded Cleveland four compensatory picks in this year’s draft, giving the Browns a total of 13. That is the most picks the team has had since the 1999 draft when they received extra picks for being an expansion team. The Browns selected Tim Couch, quarterback out of Kentucky as the first pick in the draft that year.
So the Miami Dolphin fans are in an uproar. Stephen Ross bought the team over a year ago promising big things. Yet the big things have gone elsewhere and the fans are growing restless.
First the team released Chad Henne. The Michigan product had one good season as the quarterback of the Dolphins, but then never fulfilled what he showed. Mark him gone to the team up North, Jacksonville.
Then came the Peyton Manning negotiations. Or rather, lack of negotiations. Miami was expected to be a destination for Manning. After all it made sense that Manning would want a warm weather climate for his ailing neck. Yet he chose a cold weather city in Denver. So again, the Dolphins were left wanting.
Could it be the tenure of Tim Tebow in Denver is not over as reported earlier today? Because of a glitch in the Tebow contract that apparently Bronco’s VP John Elway wasn’t aware of, the trade to the New York Jets is off.
Meanwhile it appears the Jacksonville Jaguars have re-entered the Tebow sweepstakes, which makes many fans in the northern Florida city very happy. This is the type of deal that could keep the Jags in Florida, instead of moving to Los Angeles.
Coaches are on the move in the NFL, but some of the moves make more sense than others.
Apparently, the Falcons told Brian VanGorder and Mike Mularkey that they could pursue other opportunities. So, VanGorder went to Auburn to be their defensive coordinator (a really good move for them,) and the Jags added Mularkey as their new head coach.
The Jags don’t have much of a chance to win anything, but I think they believe that if they hire Mularkey they will have a good chance at altering their offense and managing Blaine Gabbert properly. If that is their intention, then they have made the right hire. If they want to be able to have an offense that can perform no matter what–they’ll have to hire an offensive coordinator that is more creative than Mularkey.
With the playoffs looming, the NFL coaching carousel is turning round and round. Teams that are looking for a new man to run their teams have plenty of options to choose from.
From the sidelines teams that are looking for a new coach include Kansas City, Miami, Jacksonville, St. Louis and Tampa Bay. Other teams that should be looking for a new coach (i.e.: San Diego Chargers) are on the sidelines for another year.
It finally happened. After numerous times when we thought it was going to happen, it happened. Jack Del Rio got fired, and then the Weavers decided to sell the Jags. They sold it to a guy who has made assurances he won’t move the team out of Jacksonville. I don’t buy it.
On the firing, Wayne Weaver said:
“It’s the right thing at the right time and for the right reasons. We deserve better; the community deserves better. We’ve been very average over the last few years. I take responsibility for a lot of that, making mistakes in some personnel things, but look positive ahead that this team is not far away from being a very competitive football team.”
It has not been a good season for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Rumors, innuendo and bad coaching decisions have plagued the team this season. There has even been talk the Jags are the team the NFL wants to move into the new stadium in Los Angeles.
None of that matters now. The Jags are working on the here and now. Today they will announce the firing of their head coach Jack Del Rio.
It’ time the NFL either discipline officials in public, or start dismissing them for ineptness. The crew of Terry McAulay has proven over the years they cannot handle the speed, the rules or the crowd at games in the league.
This past Sunday in Cleveland McAulay’s crew blew a pair of pass interference penalties and a made field goal. Then they were invited to oversee the Thanksgiving Day encounter in Detroit between the Green Bay Packers and the Lions. Quickly they proved they didn’t belong.
The Jacksonville Jaguars and Baltimore Ravens play a 19 total point game that ended in a Jags win of 12-7. Basically, offense didn’t show up last night. Unfortunately, this is probably not a trend. There’s nothing we can do to predict when teams will finally play defense, or did they just not have their offensive punch?
A game that ends with this kind of score is mostly just a boring game to watch because you don’t have anything exciting going on. It’s just two teams kind of falling all over each other. When that’s the case, it’s hard to tell if the defenses are playing well or if the offenses just aren’t getting it done that night. When you have to wonder between the two, it gets a little hairy.
