The idea of playing Gabbert in this game to see if he's worth keeping for next year might have just made me pee myself a little from laughing so hard. He's failed miserably in every opportunity handed to him, and was benched in favor of Chad Henne. Not Russell Wilson, not Mike Glennon, not even Matt Flynn, Chad freaking Henne. What would the point be of playing him?

 

I've voiced my thoughts once before that you don't use late-season reps to "get a head start" on offseason evaluations. If a guy has performed well enough in practice to earn more reps, you play him. If he hasn't, well, that says something about him for your offseason evaluation period, doesn't it? I'm all for playing backups in garbage time after a game has been decided, but I'm not at all a fan of a gameplan that consists of "treat this game like preseason and bench everyone after the first quarter" in the position the Jaguars are at. If it's a veteran team that's clinched home-field, fine. If it's an aging team with nothing to play for that will have to make sweeping personnel changes in the offseason, fine, see what you've got. But the notion that Bradley, who is looking to keep his players fired up and carry some warm vibes with the younger guys who'll be returning to camp, would arbitrarily sit guys is a hard pill for me to swallow. If a guy's earned reps, he'll get more reps. If he hasn't earned those reps, Bradley doesn't strike me as the type of coach who would play him anyway.

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