Quote:If the first three weeks of the preseason indicate anything, it clearly shows that the Jags have gone from cellar dweller to serious contender for not just the AFC South, not just the AFC, not just the Ponce De Leon Cup, but the Super Bowl.  It is truly a case of addition by subtraction...Getting rid of the players who have plagued our program the past few years  such as Blaine Gabbert, Matt Turk  and Zach Miller and then  allowing guys like MJD who's heart was clearly on the upper west coast to purse their passion and then cleverly sticking Jaguar great Zach Potter in Houston to spy on the Texans has clearly allowed the Jags to have team unity unlike anything I have witnessed in the past decade.

 

All of this being said, Gus Bradley, who did a great job considering he is a North Central Conference Coach turned NFL Coach must display the leadership and wisdom that our former Coach Jack Del Rio once did  and make several key decisions that will be crucial in helping us to obtain our goals.

 

First and foremost, why are we allowing Josh Scobee to twist in the wind??? While Kasey Redfern has done a remarkable job as a back up, this won't ever be a Steve Young replacing Joe Montana, it wont be a Mickey Mantle replacing Joe Dimaggio, and this most certainly won't be a Sandy Buda replacing the late and great Al Caniglia!!!  Give it a rest Bradley - show confidence in Scobee by not benching him in the second half! Now while I realize he may be a little dinged up right now, maybe reach out to him and communicate with him that he is in fact your guy. He is your leading scorer for crying out loud and this is two years in a row you've put him through the ringer!!! To be where we want to be, we need Josh Scobee!!!

 

Secondly, and maybe this is a thought for upper management... With our opening game in Philadelphia and our game in week two in Washington DC, are we really going to ask our players to travel all the way back to Jacksonville between games? Will ownership buck up and allow for us to travel directly from Philadelphia to DC? When you consider that Philadephia to DC is 227 kilometers and Philadephia to Jacksonville is nearly 10 times that at 1382 kilometers, there is just no way we can ask our players to incur that kind of a travel schedule. For crying out loud we are already going to London this season to spread the gospel of the Jaguars!!!  Case in point - look at the University of Hawaii. There travel schedule was so tedious and uninviting that the only person they could get to take it's job  when it opened was this journeyman by the name of Norman Chow. I sure hope we do the right thing - not travel back to the motherland after the game and stop somewhere in between - say Delaware for example. I just checked and Amtrak runs right there on the way to DC. We could practice and bond in non enemy territory and prepare to go beat the heck out of the Washington ###########. I refuse to acknowledge their mascot.

 

Lastly, Bortles has been nothing short of spectacular. While I feel strongly you can't play Henne and Bortles at the same time and personally and i'm certainly  not in favor of a two quarterback system, I predict by week one quarter two Bortles will be the starter. I predict that Henne will throw for 119 yards and a touchdown in the first quarter against Philadelphia, but that simply won't be good enough and the reigns will be handed over to Bortles - yes that early. I am not suggesting Henne is trade bait at that point as we will need him in there late in the game when we are up by a lot and need someone else to play.  Morris/Stanzi simply are what they are...3rd string Jaguars.

 

This should be a great ride. Coach Bradely, I encourage you to A) Make Scobee the starter, B) Show leadership and limit our teams travel and C) Play Bortles early.  13-3 or maybe 14-2 is a real, real possibility. Your leadership is the key.