The Jacksonville Jaguars

[Keith-N-Jax]

Jags had  a lot of issues last year and special teams was one of them, guess you didn't see all those huge punt and kick off returns but hey continue your rant as needed!

[RattlerGator]

People underestimate the importance and centrality of complementary football. But we were very close to winning a bunch of games last year and didn't because of equal parts youth, stupidity and bad luck. An extra year of experience and a focus on toughness should help with youth and stupidity -- which should, ultimately, change our bad luck.

I sat in the stadium watching a couple of years ago as Jarvis Landry showed what a slot guy could do. Yeah: targeted 10 times, 8 receptions, 110 yards. So, Westbrook is a serious upgrade from Rashad and could be huge for us.

Clean up special teams, improve the running game, spread serious weapons around the football field and create dangerous space -- that's clearly what the Jaguars are looking to do and it begins with Fournette giving us that homerun threat at running back.

Looks like a damn good plan to me, especially when I remember just how damn good Blake is at running. Creating space is going to help us; having a homerun threat at RB *and* slot receiver is going to help us. Blake has to be super happy right now.

[Jim]

T.J. Yeldon for the Jags 2nd selection -- another *very* solid pick.

^^^I agree. I know that Denard has to have a chip on his shoulder with the Jags with picking Yeldon, and that's great for competition at the RB spot.

While everyone celebrates the already-assured success of these draft picks, I am just going to leave the above quotes here, bolding mine.

An O-line can make or break a RB.  Do you think Ezekiel Elliot would have had the same success here with our O-line?

Not disagreeing with you completely but we've squandered several good and serviceable RBs with no line they can trust....and no fullbacks to run behind.

[thelakelander]

^This. Just look at the Dolphins last year. Ajayi's monster games were the ones with Tunsil, Pouncey and Albert all healthy. Unfortunately, Pouncey only played in five games.

[Wacca Pilatka]

I wonder how much of the line's problem was lack of talent vs. guys who are better suited to a gap/power scheme being forced into Olson's zone-blocking scheme.  That may be the case with Cann and Parnell in particular (Linder seems more scheme-adaptable).  It may also explain the relative lack of offseason investment in the line compared to what a lot of us expected.

It was maddening to watch Yeldon and Ivory plow into a pile of meat 25 times a game the first seven weeks of the season.  The running game did improve after Olson's firing, though not enough, in the sense that they couldn't convert a 3rd and short to save their lives.

Hopefully having an actual fullback will make a difference too, and better quality blocking at tight end.

[Wacca Pilatka]

^ Having grown up in DC, I'd say it's a more extreme phenomenon with other fan bases than the Jags', though I don't deny that we Jag fans can be guilty of it too.

The rollercoaster with Washington fan and media reaction is unbelievable - they win a game and they're Super Bowl bound, then lose one and they're the worst team in recorded history.

[civil42806]

An O-line can make or break a RB.  Do you think Ezekiel Elliot would have had the same success here with our O-line?

Not disagreeing with you completely but we've squandered several good and serviceable RBs with no line they can trust....and no fullbacks to run behind.

No doubt-- but kind of misses my point.  Maybe all fanbases do this (as I have only ever lived in Jax and followed the Jags), but Jax seems to love to, immediately after the draft/OTAs/mini-camp/pre-season, go ahead and anoint players as amazing, based on nothing at all.  I loved watching Fournette at LSU and think he could truly be amazing, but that's hardly a given; and people saying how Westbrook's already this to-be-feared home run threat...? Keep it in your pants and wait till some real games to start handing out accolades, folks.

The Jaguars always win the off season.  Question is how many of the draft picks and free agents will still be here in three years?

[Jim]

An O-line can make or break a RB.  Do you think Ezekiel Elliot would have had the same success here with our O-line?

Not disagreeing with you completely but we've squandered several good and serviceable RBs with no line they can trust....and no fullbacks to run behind.

No doubt-- but kind of misses my point.  Maybe all fanbases do this (as I have only ever lived in Jax and followed the Jags), but Jax seems to love to, immediately after the draft/OTAs/mini-camp/pre-season, go ahead and anoint players as amazing, based on nothing at all.  I loved watching Fournette at LSU and think he could truly be amazing, but that's hardly a given; and people saying how Westbrook's already this to-be-feared home run threat...? Keep it in your pants and wait till some real games to start handing out accolades, folks.

Every team, every city, every sport.

[RattlerGator]

and people saying how Westbrook's already this to-be-feared home run threat...?

Well, he didn't become a Heisman finalist because he's smoke and mirrors, MMR. The talent and potential is real. That's all we can assess right now. Talent and potential.

This team has it.

[BridgeTroll]

Telvin speaks...

Telvin Smith's state of the Jaguars address isn't rosy

Posted by Darin Gantt on May 31, 2017, 6:12 AM EDT

Jaguars linebacker Telvin Smith said he was "heated," and that had nothing to do with the steamy North Florida weather.

Instead, he's a little hot about the lack of progress the Jaguars have shown through their spring practices, the Organized Team Activities failing to show the strides the team was supposed to make under disciplinarian coach Doug Marrone.

"I just think as a team, we should be further than we are," Smith said, via Ryan O'Halloran of the Florida Times-Union. "As players, we have to do our part. It's not the scheme. It's us [saying], 'What do we want? What is our mentality going to be?' . . .

"Right now is when we're making the [identity] of this team. It's not when we go into training camp and we say, 'OK, now we can turn it on.' We're going to decide the mentality of this team right now."

That kind of unsolicited speech isn't a sign of things going smoothly in Jacksonville, where expectations have been as normal a part of the spring as the team failing to meet them in the fall. But things were supposed to be different now, with Marrone on the sidelines and Tom Coughlin over the top of it all.

They're missing several players right now, and are shuffling some others around (specifically with his linebackers as they move Myles Jack to the middle). But he's not liking what he's seeing, so he called the unit together after yesterday's practice to tell them they're falling behind.

"Just our mentality," Smith said. "The mindset of this team. The things that we should be using to beat opponents are beating us. ... I'll just leave it right there."

And when discussing the addition of defensive end Calais Campbell, he peeled back the onion even further.

"I always like to say it's still a culture here that has to be broken before one can be created," Smith said.

That speaks to issues that may not be able to be fixed quickly, as the Jaguars try to transition from a team with talented parts to an actual team.

[MusicMan]

I'm thinking the Jags should bring in Colin Kaepernick for a workout. He's a great fit for this team going forward with an emphasis on the run. Being mobile himself will give defensive ends something extra to think about.

If no one else signs him we could potentially get a bargain, and he has a much better win loss ratio than BB.

Pete Carroll, one of only 3 coaches to have won a Super Bowl and a College National Championship says of Kaepernick;

"He's a starter in this league."

Whatcha think Jags nation?

[MusicMan]

Agree. Muhammad Ali became an American Hero for standing up for what he believed in, while CK has been pilloried. SMH

[JaxJersey-licious]

I'm thinking the Jags should bring in Colin Kaepernick for a workout. He's a great fit for this team going forward with an emphasis on the run. Being mobile himself will give defensive ends something extra to think about.

If no one else signs him we could potentially get a bargain, and he has a much better win loss ratio than BB.

Pete Carroll, one of only 3 coaches to have won a Super Bowl and a College National Championship says of Kaepernick;

"He's a starter in this league."

Whatcha think Jags nation?

Kneelin' bullshit issue aside, what the fuck would be the point? They'd have no choice but to simplify the offense for him first of all because of his bad defensive reads and over-reliance on his legs. Plus if it turns out Bortles isn't the man I'm sure the Jags will go to a totally different direction at QB and not one involving anything resembling a QB like Kaepernick. I know the Jags lack QB depth but the $$ for someone like him could be better spent on depth at another position of need like the O-Line.

Btw...I think history will look at Kaep quite differently than we do today i.e.Tommie Smith and John Carlos from the '68 Olympic games.

[MusicMan]

Well, Coughlin has made it clear we are going to be a run first (or fall on our ass) team.  BB is not the focus of the offense for next year, Leonard Fournette will be. BB will be there if LF cannot find anywhere to run behind our O-line.

So we don't really need a QB who can 'read the defense' as much as a game manager.  That's for the next 5 years or so. But if we cannot run the ball this year then we will go 3-13 again and everybody will say Coughlin is too old........................

For the record, CK is a former Super Bowl starter and followed that up with anther run deep into the playoffs.

BB not so much. Chad Henne? I'd rather have CK with Marrone/Coughlin coaching him than Henne under any circumstance.

[BridgeTroll]

Anything is better than Henne. He served a purpose once upon a time... that time has passed. CK at the right price is a huge upgrade...