Quote:I have a hard time agreeing with this logic and so many board members keep posting it over and over and over . . . 

 

Knighton was a bust during his time in Jax. He played here 4 seasons. IIRC, in 3 of those 4 years he showed up to camp overweight, at times, grossly overweight. He had maybe one season that could be described as "above average", if that. He also had one season (Mularkey?) where his play got him relegated to the bench. Just because he went to Denver and turned it around doesn't mean he was ever going to play like that in Jacksonville. 

 

Knighton had a history of underperforming in Jacksonville and he was looking for a pay day. I can't fault Caldwell for letting him walk. The exact same logic goes for Rashad Jennings. 

 

(As a side note here - I do thoroughly enjoy all the people who routinely blasted these same picks by Gene Smith for years now saying that Caldwell should have kept them)

 

I was a huge fan of Daryl Smith (I think most of us were). But given his age, I can understand Caldwell letting him walk. We have no idea what kind of contract Smith wanted. Sure, he only got a one year contract in Baltimore, but does that mean he would have signed for something similar in Jax or did he accept the one year contract because no one was offering anything better? Given the limited information available at the time, again, I understand letting him go. 

 

I personally think Caldwell has been and is establishing a "work ethic" culture. If you underperform, you're gone. He did it with the FAs he let walk, and he's doing it with players that were on our roster at the beginning of the year. I don't remember if it's this thread or another one, but someone mentioned that he thought players weren't interested in playing hard for this team. I can see that. But I can also see Caldwell not accepting that "justification" for poor play. You perform, regardless of the teams reputation or other problem areas, or you're gone. (If Gerhart continues his poor play and remains on the team next season while the other RBs continue to improve, then I'll admit I was wrong).

Knighton was NOT a bust. Are you kidding me? He was a DT whose sole purpose was to clog the line and he did exactly that. The reason he was so highly touted was that he also, occasionally, showed up on the stat sheet. Knighton showed up to camp overweight almost every year and, despite that, he still performed at a Pro Bowl level and showed off some incredible athleticism for a big man up until Mularkey came along and had his period and benched him for having a few bad games.

 

I can't believe anyone that has been watching Jaguars football would say Knighton was a bust when he was, at times, the best player on a fairly talented front seven.

 

As far as Denver goes, anyone that is watching both teams can see that Knighton isn't nearly as effective in their 3-4 as he was in our 4-3.

 

As far as Daryl Smith goes, there was absolutely no downside to resigning him assuming his contract details were on point considering there was no one to put in his place. This was a LB that could effectively play any of the LB positions at a high level.

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