Agreed, but how many people here weren't happy to see Leftwich drafted? I remember being thrilled. I also remember being about to graduate from high school and not really understanding the personnel side of things, but I was thrilled to see that Brunell's successor was in the fold. The bigger issue with Leftwich, I think, was his being thrown out on the field far too early. History repeated itself with Gabbert who, given a year to learn instead of starting by default after the release of Garrard and the tanking of McCown, might have been a different player for us.

Most were happy with the pick, including myself.  It wasn't until later that it became clear he was a bad fit for what we were trying to do with our offense.  Drafting Leftwich to play in Muschamp's WCO was a huge mistake, and even when the coordinator changed, the lack of decent line play undermined his ability to thrive.  You can't have a slow footed QB with a long windup behind a line built to block for the running game, but not so much to protect the QB.  After going down that avenue, it was one mistake after another in trying to find the right guy to run the offense. 

 

Garrard looked like he could be the guy right up to the point where they gave him a contract extension.  Then we saw the real Garrard with the lousy mental errors and the lack of confidence.  They tried to fix that by drafting Gabbert and promoting McCown, but those options landed with a resounding thud. 

 

So, after a decade of inept QB play with only brief flashes, we're still looking for a guy to effectively run the offense.  If you don't have a QB, everything else you do will fall short of success.  We know this now.

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Never argue with idiots. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

Gene Smith as GM.

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Yeah most people on this forum were glad we drafted Leftwich/Gabbert on draftday but both obviously suck. I think most people will be excited if we draft Bridgwater/Manziel. I personally believe Jags should draft Clowney,Barr,Ford or Watkins. I sure hope David Caldwell hits a home run and if I'm wrong about pick I hope that Qb proves me wrong. Go Jaguars

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Most were happy with the pick, including myself.  It wasn't until later that it became clear he was a bad fit for what we were trying to do with our offense.  Drafting Leftwich to play in Muschamp's WCO was a huge mistake, and even when the coordinator changed, the lack of decent line play undermined his ability to thrive.  You can't have a slow footed QB with a long windup behind a line built to block for the running game, but not so much to protect the QB.  After going down that avenue, it was one mistake after another in trying to find the right guy to run the offense. 

 

Garrard looked like he could be the guy right up to the point where they gave him a contract extension.  Then we saw the real Garrard with the lousy mental errors and the lack of confidence.  They tried to fix that by drafting Gabbert and promoting McCown, but those options landed with a resounding thud. 

 

So, after a decade of inept QB play with only brief flashes, we're still looking for a guy to effectively run the offense.  If you don't have a QB, everything else you do will fall short of success.  We know this now.

Agreed 100% on everything here. Leftwich in a WCO was a huge mistake, and there's a question I've asked myself a few times on that topic: would Kyle Boller have been a better fit in Bill Musgrave's offense? Could Boller have been successful in Jacksonville? Were it not for the Vikings stumbling over their own phone lines while trying to get their pick in, Jacksonville could have easily missed out on Leftwich, and Boller could have been our quarterback instead.

 

Garrard...let's not start on Garrard. He had one great year, 2007, then he went back to being somewhere between mediocre and bad. I find myself comparing Garrard's situation to Steve DeBerg's pretty often. DeBerg spent much of his year as a mediocre QB, then came out of nowhere in 1990 to post a 23:4 TD:INT ratio. Garrard spent his career as a mediocre QB before going 18:3 in 2007. DeBerg promptly fell back to 17:14 in 1991, and Garrard to 15:13 in 2008. Both guys went back to being average at best, but because DeBerg was already 36 when he posted that 23:4, he wasn't handed the same huge contract that the 29-year-old Garrard was.

 

I do wish Garrard had stayed around in 2011. A bunch of different rumors came out as to why, that Del Rio had told Weaver that he wouldn't play Garrard, making him a $6M backup, or that Gene had cut him because Garrard's back wasn't healing, that Del Rio figured he could save his job by playing Gabbert, whatever. I stand by my contention that if Gabbert had been deactivated all year while learning how to be a pro, he'd be a different player today. A great QB? Not necessarily, not even any guarantees that he'd be any good, but I doubt he'd be any worse.

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Agreed 100% on everything here. Leftwich in a WCO was a huge mistake, and there's a question I've asked myself a few times on that topic: would Kyle Boller have been a better fit in Bill Musgrave's offense? Could Boller have been successful in Jacksonville? Were it not for the Vikings stumbling over their own phone lines while trying to get their pick in, Jacksonville could have easily missed out on Leftwich, and Boller could have been our quarterback instead.

 

Garrard...let's not start on Garrard. He had one great year, 2007, then he went back to being somewhere between mediocre and bad. I find myself comparing Garrard's situation to Steve DeBerg's pretty often. DeBerg spent much of his year as a mediocre QB, then came out of nowhere in 1990 to post a 23:4 TD:INT ratio. Garrard spent his career as a mediocre QB before going 18:3 in 2007. DeBerg promptly fell back to 17:14 in 1991, and Garrard to 15:13 in 2008. Both guys went back to being average at best, but because DeBerg was already 36 when he posted that 23:4, he wasn't handed the same huge contract that the 29-year-old Garrard was.

 

I do wish Garrard had stayed around in 2011. A bunch of different rumors came out as to why, that Del Rio had told Weaver that he wouldn't play Garrard, making him a $6M backup, or that Gene had cut him because Garrard's back wasn't healing, that Del Rio figured he could save his job by playing Gabbert, whatever. I stand by my contention that if Gabbert had been deactivated all year while learning how to be a pro, he'd be a different player today. A great QB? Not necessarily, not even any guarantees that he'd be any good, but I doubt he'd be any worse.

 

It's pretty obvious why Garrard didn't stick around. He had a career ending injury. We just didn't realize it was career ending at the time.

 

I doubt Boller would have done any better than Leftwich here. If he were capable of success he would have realized that success in Baltimore.

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It's pretty obvious why Garrard didn't stick around. He had a career ending injury. We just didn't realize it was career ending at the time.

You know he's Geno's backup in New York now, right?

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Gene Smith as GM.

 

I gotta go with this too. 

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Shock the world

You know he's Geno's backup in New York now, right?

Yeah. The back is healed.  It was a knee that did him in right as he was tentatively  named starter for the Dolphins during preseason.   Dolphins cut him Sept 4th 2012. 

 

Jets signed him in March 2013 after he rehabbed from surgery.  The knee swelled again - he retired - then re-signed with the Jets who promised he'd have a chance to start but never put him in.  He's a free agent for 2014. 

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Shack Harris. I still believe his moves over the course of 6 years made it impossible for Gene Smith to overturn that roster in 4 years, with a draft and develop strategy.

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You know he's Geno's backup in New York now, right?

 

I stand corrected, then. It only killed his Jaguars career. I still don't recall seeing him play a regular season snap since then.

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Shack Harris. I still believe his moves over the course of 6 years made it impossible for Gene Smith to overturn that roster in 4 years, with a draft and develop strategy.

 

They both were awful. 

 

Caldwell seems to know what he's doing. Im really excited for free agency and especially the draft. 10 picks is going to be great for finding talent and adding even more competition to the team. Good times in Duval coming up

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Shock the world

Trading for gabbert and the kings ransom we traded for "the karate kid" Harvey

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I also have to go with drafting Lefty. Things simply snowballed from there.

 

As far as the article, no surprise that good ol' Alfie hasn't gotten over Garrard. I swear Garrard must have stolen Alfie's girlfriend of something. To call that the worst move of the history of the Jags is beyond slanted. It's hardly top 5 material.

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What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.







 

I also have to go with drafting Lefty. Things simply snowballed from there.

 

As far as the article, no surprise that good ol' Alfie hasn't gotten over Garrard. I swear Garrard must have stolen Alfie's girlfriend of something. To call that the worst move of the history of the Jags is beyond slanted. It's hardly top 5 material.

Expect a visit from Alfie to do one of his drive-by flames before scurrying back to the safe confines of his happy place.

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Never argue with idiots. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

I'll go back a few moves further: I wouldn't have fired Coughlin. Coughlin the coach is and was a tremendous talent. Coughlin the GM saw a long string of bad first-day draft picks catch up with him, and he spent the team into oblivion. Coughlin the GM needed to be replaced, but Coughlin the coach could have been successful in Jacksonville for many more years if he'd accepted the title change.

 

I agree with you about the move, but disagree with your reasoning.  I think Tom's strong point is talent assessment.  I'd love to have him back as just the GM.  Think about it this way, his only real first round miss was Soward.  Otherwise, we had Boselli, Hardy, Taylor, Darius, Bryant, Stroud and Henderson.  And Renaldo Wynn couldn't be really labeled a bust.  Since then, how has our first round gone?  Who do we have left from it?  Lewis, Alualu, Gabbert and Blackmon.  Rather telling, no?    

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Expect a visit from Alfie to do one of his drive-by flames before scurrying back to the safe confines of his happy place.

We've all known for a very long time that Alfie is a flamer. :whistling:

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What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.







 

Not firing Coughlin

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Never hired Gene Smith. He nearly destroyed the franchise.

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The worst for me is still Reggie Williams over Ben Roethlisberger. It was the wrong decision on every level, and it hurt us for a long time - a lot of the other things people complain about might have been different if we'd made the right call there and taken the BAP.

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We picked Alualu over Earl Thomas when we had the intention of dropping our safety.

 

When everyone had us mocked to pick Earl Thomas.

 

Hurts to think about.

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THERE IS A SKELETON INSIDE OF YOU.

 

RIGHT NOW. THIS IS NOT A JOKE.