The Jacksonville Jaguars

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

I've been pretty opinionated on the whole MJD situation, though, I've been trying to fight the good fight over at the FTU.

My take, FWIW, MJD probably does deserve more money based on his performance last year.  MJD's contract definitely should have been structured better to compensate him in the event of leading the NFL in rushing.  He went about it all wrong, though.  He should have shown up day 1, met with the new staff, met with Kahn and gone throught the non-contact portion of OTAs, while asking for a new contract.  He THEN should have held out of training camp and all of the contact portion of the offseason if he didn't get it.  At least he would have shown up, made an appearance and acted like the face of the franchise.

The Jags, Kahn specifically, IMO, has handled this awesomely.  They were upfront that there would be no new contract.  Kahn took little jabs in the media to provoke MJD, which I thought was necessary, but they were directly in line with what the franchise said from day 1.  More recently, they said there would be no trade.  I think this time MJD got the message and realized that they weren't backing down at all - he had no choice but to show up. 

I liked his press conference.  He stood by his decision and he didn't throw anyone under the bus.  He was defiant.  He took a few jabs at Kahn't comments, but nothing over the top.  It was fitting.

Moving forward, he knows that every time he's on the field, he's building a resume;  for a contract from the Jags or the next team.  He has ZERO incentive to mail-it-in and tens of millions of reasons to prove to everyone that he still has it.  This is a good thing for the Jags.  Next offseason, we'll deal with this again, but that can wait. 

10-6 looks a lot more plausible this year than I thought, but it hinges more on the arm of Blaine than the legs of MJD.

[I-10east]

^^^Well said I totally agree, you explained the holdout situation perfectly. I don't understand why some fans acted like he did something unprecedentedly dubious or something. He wanted more money, and Shad didn't budge. Like you said, I think that both sides handled the situation pretty well.

[duvaldude08]

I've been pretty opinionated on the whole MJD situation, though, I've been trying to fight the good fight over at the FTU.

My take, FWIW, MJD probably does deserve more money based on his performance last year.  MJD's contract definitely should have been structured better to compensate him in the event of leading the NFL in rushing.  He went about it all wrong, though.  He should have shown up day 1, met with the new staff, met with Kahn and gone throught the non-contact portion of OTAs, while asking for a new contract.  He THEN should have held out of training camp and all of the contact portion of the offseason if he didn't get it.  At least he would have shown up, made an appearance and acted like the face of the franchise.

The Jags, Kahn specifically, IMO, has handled this awesomely.  They were upfront that there would be no new contract.  Kahn took little jabs in the media to provoke MJD, which I thought was necessary, but they were directly in line with what the franchise said from day 1.  More recently, they said there would be no trade.  I think this time MJD got the message and realized that they weren't backing down at all - he had no choice but to show up. 

I liked his press conference.  He stood by his decision and he didn't throw anyone under the bus.  He was defiant.  He took a few jabs at Kahn't comments, but nothing over the top.  It was fitting.

Moving forward, he knows that every time he's on the field, he's building a resume;  for a contract from the Jags or the next team.  He has ZERO incentive to mail-it-in and tens of millions of reasons to prove to everyone that he still has it.  This is a good thing for the Jags.  Next offseason, we'll deal with this again, but that can wait. 

10-6 looks a lot more plausible this year than I thought, but it hinges more on the arm of Blaine than the legs of MJD.

Khan is great! LOL me and my co-workers were saying that Khan punked Jones Drew by telling him the train is leaving the station... And it worked! KHan has been a business man for a long time and it shows. He knows what to to say and when to say. It did it to trigger a reaction out of MJD and get him back to the team. But its also being said that WW talked to MJD about a new contract back in October. I believe that. If you remember back to the beginning of the hold out they said it was a "miscommunication" between the Jags and MJD about a new contract. It looks like WW left some unfinished business and we had to clean it up. If he wanted to give MJD a new contract, he should have done it before he handed the team over to Khan.

[I-10east]

Also, we had more that "one year" of tough time for attendance, and it was embarrassing for a good while.

I knew that someone was gonna go there. The key embarrassing 'year' was 2009, the Jags sold out 2008. Yes of course there were blackouts before 08', but nothing REMOTELY CLOSE to 2009. That was the year when mortgage industry went into the crapper (BTW which later effected teams like the Bucs, Dolphins etc).

[Tacachale]

MJD's holdout was just business. He believes he outperformed his contract, which is a fair point, but a contract is a contract, at least until you have the leverage to get out of it. And as we've seen, he really didn't. His agent should have known better, but what's done is done. Time for him to win everyone back by playing some amazing football.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

I've been pretty opinionated on the whole MJD situation, though, I've been trying to fight the good fight over at the FTU.

My take, FWIW, MJD probably does deserve more money based on his performance last year.  MJD's contract definitely should have been structured better to compensate him in the event of leading the NFL in rushing.  He went about it all wrong, though.  He should have shown up day 1, met with the new staff, met with Kahn and gone throught the non-contact portion of OTAs, while asking for a new contract.  He THEN should have held out of training camp and all of the contact portion of the offseason if he didn't get it.  At least he would have shown up, made an appearance and acted like the face of the franchise.

The Jags, Kahn specifically, IMO, has handled this awesomely.  They were upfront that there would be no new contract.  Kahn took little jabs in the media to provoke MJD, which I thought was necessary, but they were directly in line with what the franchise said from day 1.  More recently, they said there would be no trade.  I think this time MJD got the message and realized that they weren't backing down at all - he had no choice but to show up. 

I liked his press conference.  He stood by his decision and he didn't throw anyone under the bus.  He was defiant.  He took a few jabs at Kahn't comments, but nothing over the top.  It was fitting.

Moving forward, he knows that every time he's on the field, he's building a resume;  for a contract from the Jags or the next team.  He has ZERO incentive to mail-it-in and tens of millions of reasons to prove to everyone that he still has it.  This is a good thing for the Jags.  Next offseason, we'll deal with this again, but that can wait. 

10-6 looks a lot more plausible this year than I thought, but it hinges more on the arm of Blaine than the legs of MJD.

Khan is great! LOL me and my co-workers were saying that Khan punked Jones Drew by telling him the train is leaving the station... And it worked! KHan has been a business man for a long time and it shows. He knows what to to say and when to say. It did it to trigger a reaction out of MJD and get him back to the team. But its also being said that WW talked to MJD about a new contract back in October. I believe that. If you remember back to the beginning of the hold out they said it was a "miscommunication" between the Jags and MJD about a new contract. It looks like WW left some unfinished business and we had to clean it up. If he wanted to give MJD a new contract, he should have done it before he handed the team over to Khan.

And this is one of the main things that I don't understand why people have such a hard time understanding:  THIS ISN'T LAST YEAR'S TEAM.  (sorry, had to get that out there....)

NEW - Owner
NEW - Head Coach
NEW - Philosophy
NEW - Season

Nothing from the WW/JDR days matter anymore, or at least it should count.  There's a reason that Blaine looks night and day difference from last year to this - it's called coaching.  Last year, we had the entire staff on 1yr contracts - before the sale of the team.  Most believing that JDR was already on his way out the door, what incentive did they have?  Their incentive was finding a new job before the end of the season. 

We now have guys on new contracts that are going to be held accountable for the way their groups perform.  There's a definite incentive there.  They know, for the most part, that they're building something for next year, and the year after and the year after....  As a coach myself, I can honestly say that I enjoy coaching the first season in an age group than the last - I like team building.  The last year is for winning it all.  The first year is for putting the pieces together.

A guy like Mel Tucker has his pieces together already and his expectations are through the roof right now.  The offensive guys, not so much, but they can cut him some Tucker some serious slack by scoring points and being better than everyone is projecting. 

I won't lie.  After seeing Blackmon in the pre-season;  seeing Blaine in the pre-season;  watching ALL of our RBs put up sick numbers;  I'm really excited about this year.  I do think we have just as much chance to go 5-11 as we do 11-5.  Do I expect Gabbert to put up 4,500 yds, 35TDs and 6Ints - Hell no, but mid/high 3ks, 18-25TDs and 8-12 INTs would put him around the 10th to 20th QB discussion and I think would give us a real shot.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

MJD's holdout was just business. He believes he outperformed his contract, which is a fair point, but a contract is a contract, at least until you have the leverage to get out of it. And as we've seen, he really didn't. His agent should have known better, but what's done is done. Time for him to win everyone back by playing some amazing football.

You say, 'but a contract is a contract', and in most cases you're correct - NOT in the NFL. 

I don't know about hockey, but comparing the big 3:   NFL, NBA & MLB - the NFL is the only sport that doesn't have guaranteed contracts.  A player can be cut at anytime, and depending on the structure of the contract, can be liable for ZERO dollars.  That's why you see so many of the average veteran players getting cut prior to the season only to be signed by the team that cut them once the season has started - they can be dumped without the team paying the remainder of their contract.  If they're on the roster at the start, the team's liable for the entire year.

NFL contracts are completely front loaded - hence the guaranteed money being paid once they sign.  That is the true measure of an NFL contract.  Take Peyton Mannings 5yr $96M - it's really a 1 year $20M contract.  If he doesn't play like the Manning they signed, he gets cut in February and they're off the hook for the remainder.  It's the nature of the NFL, and to the Broncos, it was worth $20M to see if Peyton could be Peyton again. 

Then again, they figured $20M was the perfect amount amount of money that also gave them a reason to ship Timothy somewhere else, but that's another topic for another day.

[duvaldude08]

I've been pretty opinionated on the whole MJD situation, though, I've been trying to fight the good fight over at the FTU.

My take, FWIW, MJD probably does deserve more money based on his performance last year.  MJD's contract definitely should have been structured better to compensate him in the event of leading the NFL in rushing.  He went about it all wrong, though.  He should have shown up day 1, met with the new staff, met with Kahn and gone throught the non-contact portion of OTAs, while asking for a new contract.  He THEN should have held out of training camp and all of the contact portion of the offseason if he didn't get it.  At least he would have shown up, made an appearance and acted like the face of the franchise.

The Jags, Kahn specifically, IMO, has handled this awesomely.  They were upfront that there would be no new contract.  Kahn took little jabs in the media to provoke MJD, which I thought was necessary, but they were directly in line with what the franchise said from day 1.  More recently, they said there would be no trade.  I think this time MJD got the message and realized that they weren't backing down at all - he had no choice but to show up. 

I liked his press conference.  He stood by his decision and he didn't throw anyone under the bus.  He was defiant.  He took a few jabs at Kahn't comments, but nothing over the top.  It was fitting.

Moving forward, he knows that every time he's on the field, he's building a resume;  for a contract from the Jags or the next team.  He has ZERO incentive to mail-it-in and tens of millions of reasons to prove to everyone that he still has it.  This is a good thing for the Jags.  Next offseason, we'll deal with this again, but that can wait. 

10-6 looks a lot more plausible this year than I thought, but it hinges more on the arm of Blaine than the legs of MJD.

Khan is great! LOL me and my co-workers were saying that Khan punked Jones Drew by telling him the train is leaving the station... And it worked! KHan has been a business man for a long time and it shows. He knows what to to say and when to say. It did it to trigger a reaction out of MJD and get him back to the team. But its also being said that WW talked to MJD about a new contract back in October. I believe that. If you remember back to the beginning of the hold out they said it was a "miscommunication" between the Jags and MJD about a new contract. It looks like WW left some unfinished business and we had to clean it up. If he wanted to give MJD a new contract, he should have done it before he handed the team over to Khan.

And this is one of the main things that I don't understand why people have such a hard time understanding:  THIS ISN'T LAST YEAR'S TEAM.  (sorry, had to get that out there....)

NEW - Owner
NEW - Head Coach
NEW - Philosophy
NEW - Season

Nothing from the WW/JDR days matter anymore, or at least it should count.  There's a reason that Blaine looks night and day difference from last year to this - it's called coaching.  Last year, we had the entire staff on 1yr contracts - before the sale of the team.  Most believing that JDR was already on his way out the door, what incentive did they have?  Their incentive was finding a new job before the end of the season. 

We now have guys on new contracts that are going to be held accountable for the way their groups perform.  There's a definite incentive there.  They know, for the most part, that they're building something for next year, and the year after and the year after....  As a coach myself, I can honestly say that I enjoy coaching the first season in an age group than the last - I like team building.  The last year is for winning it all.  The first year is for putting the pieces together.

A guy like Mel Tucker has his pieces together already and his expectations are through the roof right now.  The offensive guys, not so much, but they can cut him some Tucker some serious slack by scoring points and being better than everyone is projecting. 

I won't lie.  After seeing Blackmon in the pre-season;  seeing Blaine in the pre-season;  watching ALL of our RBs put up sick numbers;  I'm really excited about this year.  I do think we have just as much chance to go 5-11 as we do 11-5.  Do I expect Gabbert to put up 4,500 yds, 35TDs and 6Ints - Hell no, but mid/high 3ks, 18-25TDs and 8-12 INTs would put him around the 10th to 20th QB discussion and I think would give us a real shot.

Blackmon is going to be something serious. WR and QB have the steepest learning curve in the NFL. And when I rookie and come in and play like he has, thats unheard of. He makes it look so easy. Of course, the media wont talk much about him because he plays for us, but after he starts putting up big numbers and our team is winning, respect will be due. Im excitied!

[fsujax]

Shad Khan is the feature story on Forbes Magazine this month. Great story about Khan, total dissing of the Jags and us fans. I almost want to email the little schmuck and tell him off, but I will leave that to someone else.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2012/09/05/shahid-khan-the-new-face-of-the-nfl-and-the-american-dream/

[blizz01]

Shad Khan on the cover of the latest Forbes

I haven't read the print edition (yet), but the cover seems bittersweet.  Lots of national exposure lately on Mr. Khan (& JAX), but I really hope that they zero in on the good things that have been happening. Even the cover reads "Now He's Keen to Cure Football's Biggest Headache".....  Maybe the tide is slowly turning...

Jaguars owner Shad Khan is the cover subject of the Sept. 24 issue of Forbes, with the magazine calling him the "face of the American dream."

The glowing profile story comes on the same day as the magazine ranked the value of all 32 NFL teams. Not surprisingly, the Dallas Cowboys were first, and more than $2 billion, and the Jaguars were last, at $770 million.

The intro to the article reads: "With sweat and smarts, Pakistan-born Shahid Khan built a $3.4 billion manufacturing juggernaut from the ruins of an Illinois auto parts maker. To celebrate, he just bought one of the worst teams in the NFL, with the pledge of a similar turnaround. Only in America, folks."

http://jacksonville.com/sports/football/jaguars/2012-09-05/story/shad-khan-cover-latest-forbes

[blizz01]

@ fsujax - you beat me to it & that's what I was afraid of.....

[Wacca Pilatka]

The "yes, there are still some season ticket holder left" line was particularly egregious.

[Bridges]

We have to be the fanbase with the thinest skin.  I guess that's what we get for having put up with some ridiculous stuff, but this article was anything but. 

Absolutely thrilled to have Khan as an owner.  He's a bad man.  Took on the legal defense on his own? Damn!

[copperfiend]

The "yes, there are still some season ticket holder left" line was particularly egregious.

Didn't like that unnecessary shot either.

[duvaldude08]

The article was kinda.... They did take some unnecessary Jabs at us. I actually jolted a couple of times while reading it. But it is what it is. Ive learned we can only worry about what we can control. That is packing the stadium and winning some games. Thats all Im worried. People have been dogging us since 1995. Im used to it. It used to upset me, but Ive learned to look beyond the media perception of us. Think about it this way, when Khan does turn the franchise around, we will be a sucess story. In a short few months he has completely change the atmosphere in the this city regarding the franchise. Thats the first step.

After reading that article, I did alot of thinking. I adore WW and everything he did, but it just seems like he had no idea what he was doing, and refused to hire anyone that did. Its like he tried to do everything on his own. Dont get me wrong, he did the best HE knew how, but I think that is where his failure was and as a result, the franchise got a really bad image. I knew alot of you disagree with that, but thats just my personal feelings about it and the truth is what it is. Khan on the other hand, acknowledges that he knows nothing about running a professional sports franchise, so he has hired all the right people in the right places. He is also a visionary and very agressive, but rational. This is the beginning of something great and I could give a rats ass what some asshole at forbes, espn, nfl.com or any other site has to say. ( do I sound a little aggressive? LOL)