The Jacksonville Jaguars

[Wacca Pilatka]

Can't believe I forgot Uche!  He was the best pick of that draft for us.  Brian Smith was the DPR I was thinking of.

[comncense]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacksonville_Jaguars_draft_history

All of the info is there.

[Wacca Pilatka]

^ Thanks!  I always try to do these from memory, but needless to say, I can't.

1997 and 1999 were Coughlin drafts that didn't accomplish much.  2000 infamously started with R. Jay but at least we got many years of contributions from Meester and Meier out of it.

I forgot to credit Shack for Mathis too.  And he really did a pretty nice job in '04 after the major misfire with Reggie Williams...Daryl Smith, Greg Jones, Wilford, Scobee, McCray is a quality yield.  But he obviously should've gotten a lot more out of his first round selection.

2008 is painful, though.  That ranks with some of the more macabre drafts in league history - the Seahawks in 1986, the Browns in 1987, the Broncos in 1988, pretty much anything Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen attempted with Tampa.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Just giving the Bronco's season a quick glance, the only item of note (at least for me) to tell you the difference between Orton and Tebow are the Turnovers.

Their first 5 games the Broncos gave the ball up 12 times, the last 6 games - 5.  I didn't go through the box-scores to see who was coughing the ball up, but it's a huge disparity.

The point differential is probably in direct correlation with the turn-overs.  The first 5 games Denver was outscored by a TD/game, and the last 6 they've whittled it down to less than a point per game.

Another point I will raise is about Von Miller & Elvis Dumerville.  Von is a rookie and is progressing better than anyone expected.  Dumerville was coming off of an entire year of IR and probably needed a few games to get in the swing of things.

I wonder if Pete read this post before putting his article on CBS this morning?   

Tuesday November 29, 2011 - 7:35 AM

Power Rankings: Denver defense is what winds up Tebow time
By Pete Prisco | CBSSports.com Senior NFL Columnist

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Updated Nov. 29

I feel sorry for Von Miller and Elvis Dumervil and Broderick Bunkley and Champ Bailey and all the Denver Broncos defensive players.

They're getting Tebow-ed.

That doesn't mean kneeling down to take a picture, but rather losing credit for being the real reason why the Denver Broncos have won four consecutive games. 

Lost in all the Tim Tebow hype and his 5-1 record as a starter is the play of the Denver defense.

The Tebow cult will tell you it is Tebow that makes those guys play harder. That's garbage.

The reason Denver is playing better on defense is because some of their young players have improved. Guys like Miller.

Remember early in the year Miller was benched for not knowing his assignments and blowing a few plays? Now he's one of the dominant outside rushers in the league. It was his play on third down against San Diego that forced the Chargers to attempt a 53-yard field goal rather than one closer.

If not for that play, Tebow is 4-2.

So give this defense credit. It has held four of the past six opponents to 16 or fewer points. In the past four games, the Broncos have gone from 31st in scoring defense to 23. They've improved in almost every statistical category. Their third-down defense has dropped from 39.5 percent to 35.6 percent in that four-week span.

Tebow certainly has energized the Broncos with his "gimmick" style of playing quarterback, but the defense has been the reason Denver is winning and now ranked 15th in our CBSSports.com Power Rankings. Tebow has had his moments, but without the defense playing as well, he doesn't have them.

Tebow had two overtime drives before the game-winner against the Chargers, and he didn't get a first down. The defense had two stops to give him the final chance. On that last drive, Tebow didn't complete a pass.

He is certainly a tough player, a strong competitor. You can't take that from him. But without the Denver defense, he's probably just a .500 quarterback over the past six games.

So take note of Miller and Dumervil and Bailey and young players like nickel corner Chris Harris.

The reason the Broncos are suddenly a playoff team isn't just Tebow. It's those guys on defense.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

BT, I think we may be clairvoyant:

Patience is needed.  Let's give Smith a contract for another 3 years at the end of the season and let him pick the coach.  It's a system and it needs to have some sort of consistency to work.

Jaguars extend G.M. Gene Smith three years
Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on November 29, 2011, 11:09 AM EST

APWell, here’s a bit of good news for Blaine Gabbert on this wildly busy morning for the Jaguars.

Chris Mortensen of ESPN.com reports that Jaguars G.M. Gene Smith got a new three-year contract from owner Wayne Weaver.
So the Jaguars have fired their coach, the team has been sold, and the general manager got a new contract.

It looks like Weaver wanted to set Smith up for the future as one of his last acts as team owner. Smith has drafted fairly well the last few years, but he also talked about a three-year plan pointing to the 2011 season.  It hasn’t gone well.

Smith will presumably have a big voice in choosing the next head coach. It’s safe to say, then, that the Jaguars won’t be going after some of the big names without jobs like Bill Cowher that would want personnel control.

It will be interesting to see if Smith essentially picks a head coach with an eye on developing Gabbert or whether he’ll let the coach bring in other quarterback options.  Sticking with Gabbert too long could hamstring the next Jaguars coach.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/category/rumor-mill/

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

List of Current 2011 OCs that I wouldn't mind seeing on the sidelines next year:

Brian Schottenheimer - Went to college at Florida, was the QB coach for San Diego ('02 - '05) for the development of Drew Brees and the OC for the Jets ('06 - Present) for the development of Mark Sanchez. 

Joe Philbin - Small school guy  who's been with the Packers since '03.  Promoted to OC in '07 and has called the plays for one Aaron Rodgers.

Mike Mularkey - Another Florida grad who's been with the Falcons since '08.  Has overseen the development of Matt Ryan and you can't dispute the communal ties between the Falcons and Jags.  We gave them a DC to be their head coach and maybe they can reciprocate by handing over thier OC to become ours.

The thing that I like mostly about all three guys is that they've all been involved with the development of young QBs that have turned out OK. (maybe OK isn't the right word for Rodgers)  They've all had an offense designed around a strong-armed QB with a solid running game to back them up.  The one thing the front office has done for each team is add a talented pool of WRs to compliment the QB, which is my assumption for this years draft.

I'd like to hear some other thoughts. 

[Kay]

Found this interesting article on CNN today about why they think Tebow is successful even though he isn't throwing much.  I don't know how to link it so you'll have to cut and past if interested.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/kerry_byrne/11/29/tim.tebow/index.html?xid=cnnbin

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Found this interesting article on CNN today about why they think Tebow is successful even though he isn't throwing much.  I don't know how to link it so you'll have to cut and past if interested.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/kerry_byrne/11/29/tim.tebow/index.html?xid=cnnbin

Somewhat.  I typically use similar metrics when comparing players.  The point the author is making is technically, yes, Tebow's stats are more solid than his opponent.  The point that the author is missing, or ignoring, is the overshadowing that the 'Tebow Effect' has had over the defense's production.  They're not-so-quietly becoming a top flight defense and their pass-rush has been fearsome. 

IMO, it's not the offenses production, they are not generating as many point per game as they were with Orton, but they've limited their opponents scoring by nearly 7pts/gm, which is tremendous, and giving Tebow credit, I think a lot of that is due to not turning the ball over, but a good majority is the development of Von Miller and the return of Elvis Dumerville.

[BridgeTroll]

David Garrard comments on Del Rio firing, Weaver selling team, Jaguars market viability, future in NFL.  It is a 7.5 minute podcast at... http://espn.go.com/nfl/  The podcast link is on the left hand side of the page 2/3s down, in the media section.  Sorry I could not figure out how to link it directly...

Interesting...

[duvaldude08]

David Garrard comments on Del Rio firing, Weaver selling team, Jaguars market viability, future in NFL.  It is a 7.5 minute podcast at... http://espn.go.com/nfl/  The podcast link is on the left hand side of the page 2/3s down, in the media section.  Sorry I could not figure out how to link it directly...

Interesting...

Whats funny to me is, of course, when the Raiders owner and Rams onwer passed, there was no " Will the Radiers or Rams move to LA". But when we switch ownership its a circus.. Amazing

[copperfiend]

It does seem like most of the national media has it out for us. And I don't think that is paranoia after reading the crap spit out on TV and online yesterday. The city and the team has to take an "us against the world" attitude and just prove the critics wrong.

It's in Major League when the manager tells the team that nobody thinks they can do anything and that the team might move to Miami. And what did he tell them to do to change that? Win the whole f'ing thing.

[Tacachale]

^Actually, there was a lot of speculation about the Rams moving back to LA when the ownership passed, and it continues today because of the stadium issues. It's not just us the hacks drone on about, though it's particularly ardent with us, despite us having a stadium lease and being in a much stronger position than a number of other teams.

[duvaldude08]

^Actually, there was a lot of speculation about the Rams moving back to LA when the ownership passed, and it continues today because of the stadium issues. It's not just us the hacks drone on about, though it's particularly ardent with us, despite us having a stadium lease and being in a much stronger position than a number of other teams.

Yeah, but we get the brunt of it. But it all stems from them never wanting us to have a team. From day one they talked about us like a dog and we shut them up the first five years. But once they seen a moment to attack, they did and have not stopped since. I actually love it. For someone to take their time to make make lies and non-truths about a city who is just trying to support their football, the media really has nothing else better to do.

[Wacca Pilatka]

Yeah, but we get the brunt of it. But it all stems from them never wanting us to have a team. From day one they talked about us like a dog and we shut up the up the first five years. But once they seen a moment to attack, they did and have not stopped since. I actually love it. For someone to take their time to make make lies and non-truths about a city who is just trying to support their football, the media really has nothing else better to do.

In a way, I guess it has the positive effect of making me care more about the team and feel like I have more of a personal stake in it, because it's about the city to me.  I always loved football but was never this passionate about it.  The downside is that sometimes it's downright exhausting to be a Jaguar fan, because of constantly having to confront people outside of Jacksonville who are hopelessly misinformed about the team and city, and people in Jacksonville who have resigned themselves to the idea that the team will move and won't support it.

Duvaldude, you are dead-on right about the media's relationship with Jacksonville.

[stephenc]

Yeah, but we get the brunt of it. But it all stems from them never wanting us to have a team. From day one they talked about us like a dog and we shut up the up the first five years. But once they seen a moment to attack, they did and have not stopped since. I actually love it. For someone to take their time to make make lies and non-truths about a city who is just trying to support their football, the media really has nothing else better to do.

In a way, I guess it has the positive effect of making me care more about the team and feel like I have more of a personal stake in it, because it's about the city to me.  I always loved football but was never this passionate about it.  The downside is that sometimes it's downright exhausting to be a Jaguar fan, because of constantly having to confront people outside of Jacksonville who are hopelessly misinformed about the team and city, and people in Jacksonville who have resigned themselves to the idea that the team will move and won't support it.

Duvaldude, you are dead-on right about the media's relationship with Jacksonville.

totally agree. have always loved the Jags. Heck, I grew up with them, but it's not just about the team but our city. I'm renewed my Sharks season tickets this year but didn't wanna spend that kinda of money on the Jags. Now more than ever though I'm willing to sacrifice and get Jags season tickets. It's about having pride in our team and our city and showing them support. As much as I get irritated with the media I enjoy this "us against the world" thing. Already have my ticket for Monday night and I can't wait!!