(12-17-2018, 11:07 AM)NYC4jags Wrote:

(12-15-2018, 10:07 AM)The Real Marty Wrote: I don't think the offensive line was neglected.  We signed an All-Pro guard to a big contract.   That was our most expensive and notable offseason acquisition.  That's hardly neglecting the offensive line.   

The problem with the offensive line is they all got injured.

Secondly, I disagree with everyone who's down on Fournette.   His problem is, he doesn't have an offensive line in front of him.  They all got injured.

They drafted a guard that should have been good and drafted a RT that is a mystery. Fine. It was too little - too late.

Signing Norwell (who looked pretty average when healthy) just wasn't enough.  Not only did they fail to find competition for Cann at RG (who struggled run blocking in 2017) they did nothing to help the bottom of the depth chart. 
They had exactly Shatley and Wells as decent depth and everything else was crap. I mean really bad. Go sign Flowers off the street bad.  We've all known this for three years now.  The fact that Chris Reed was even on the team tells me the line as a complete unit of the roster was too much of an afterthought for a team that espouses running the football like they do. 

Also important to note: they waited a year too long to draft a potential replacement for Parnell. Now that kid is coming off injury - but he wasn't active as a backup even when he was healthy. Not a good sign. 
Meanwhile - teams had another year of tape to see Parnell abused by speed rushers and implement a gameplan to take advantage of the weakness. 

I know they didn't "do nothing" and the Norwell signing was big, but they should have done more over the past two offseasons than they did IMO.

I agree with Marty here.

In 2017, they drafted Cam Robinson in the 2nd round.  This year, they added Norwell.

In 2017, I would have been all for adding another T if Dion Dawkins were available with our 3rd round pick, but Buffalo traded up into the bottom of the 2nd round to get him in front of us.  Feeney, I don't believe, was a scheme fit.

This year, I was all for Will Hernandez at 29.  But I'm not sure his drafting solves our depth problem.

Hernandez would not have started over Norwell, and if he started over Cann, Cann likely would have been cut.  Even if Cann is the top backup at both guard spots for this year, it doesn't solve the main problem of losing our LT for the year in week 2.

Very few teams can survive that and then all of the subsequent injuries to the offense generally and the offensive line in particular.  Most teams keep 9-10 offensive linemen.  The Jaguars have lost at least 6, including the top 3 LTs.  Interestingly enough, the prior TC era Jaguars were one of the few teams who could lose their LT and still maintain a decent level of pass protection, because they had another guy who could play LT very well in Ben Coleman.  But as a general rule, losing your starting LT makes pass protection very difficult.

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