Quote:Watching the playoffs, I started to get a better understanding of how long it can take to build a team through the draft.   I was watching these teams, and I was curious about some of the players, how long they had been in the league, so I googled a few at random.   Like one play, the Steelers' Lawrence Timmons made a tackle, so I said, who is this guy, how long has he been in the league, and found out he was drafted in 2007. 

 

I am realizing that if you draft well, and get just 2 or 3 core players each draft, you can still be on an upward trend after 5, 6, 7 years.  If you're drafting players that you expect to be on the team 7, 8, 9 years, then the building process can go on for a very very long time. 

 

So for us to expect the Jags to become contenders in 3 years, with the plan they have in place, tearing everything up and starting over and building through the draft, was probably asking too much.  Way too much.   The way we are doing it, we shouldn't be even starting to reach a peak level of team talent for another 2 or 3 years from now.   By that time, some of these guys will be in their second contracts, and that's why we have to stay way under the salary cap for now and carry over as much money as possible.  

 

It takes incredible patience and a very long range view, and it's understandable the Jags would not try to sell the fans on waiting 4 or 5 years before we had a contender.   No one would buy tickets.   So the fans are a little bit in the dark about the plan, and that's the reason for the frustration.