(07-11-2019, 07:18 PM)JagFan81 Wrote: Hey all.

Not been on too much over the summer, I've found it tough to get excited for this upcoming season.

Dont get me wrong, really looking forward to Foles and De Filipo and what they try and do. D should be back to that elite level. I think well stick around the D hold them under 17 and O just needs to score more than that.

My big problem is there is just so many question marks over this team. What Fournette will show up? Can the WR's step up ( Cole fell off a cliff last season), Can Lee comeback? Can the O line stay healthy?. What will LB look like ( lack of depth and now no Telvin)? Can the team focus on games and not tun their mouths as much? Can Marrone get control of this team again?

I'm praying that we can get some un-Jags like good bounces as we dont need everything to fall into place, just minimize the mistakes and take your opportunity. 

Go Jags!

Welcome back.

I have questions about this team too, as this thread evidences.

However, I take solace in the fact this team has fewer questions coming into the season than the 2017 season, where we went to the AFC title game after having nine straight losing seasons.

The questions you raise are interesting ones, and I would like to address some of them, for whatever my perspectives are worth.

1.  What Fournette will show up?  I think he'll be a Fournette that will be better and more mature than the Fournette of the rookie year.  For the first time in a long time, Fournette is being doubted by football people.  I think that will motivate him.  But I think the team is better equipped to handle his absence should he become injured or otherwise falter, in part because we have a better QB, in part because I like the RB depth on the team.

2.  Can the team focus on games and not run their mouths as much?  I think this question presumes a couple of things:

• That the team as a whole was not focused last year; and
  
• That being talkative and opinionated somehow made the team less than optimally focused.
  

I think you could argue a few players may not have been focused-notably Dante Fowler-who has since been traded, and Fournette, who has been chided by TC and Marrone.  I presume Fowler was not focused because of the fight he had with Ngakoue.  While I am not privy to the dynamic between he and Ngakoue, Ngakoue hadn't shown issues with his temper like Fowler had.  Furthermore, the team not only did not offer Fowler the contract extension or 5th year option, they traded him mid season.  To me that final point suggests the team faulted Fowler for that dust up.  Fournette's lack of focus has been discussed in various spots by any number of people, not the least of which was TC.  I don't think Ramsey's off season interview, conducted on his own time, evidences a lack of game focus.  If you noticed in 2017, we had a talkative bunch.  They trash talked but backed it up.  What doomed this team was not a lack of focus, but a lack of good health. 

3.  Can Marrone get control of this team again?  Presuming he lost control of the team last year, then the answer is yes.  But I don't think him losing control of the team is a fair description, as I discussed in the discipline thread here https://www.duvalpride.com/showthread.php?tid=30783 .  My concern with Marrone were the decisions he made about the assistant coaches.  Throughout Marrone's stint here, I don't think coaching was an overarching negative issue with the team.  To the contrary, I think it was a strength. 

I don't think the 2017 Jaguars had an abundance of exceptionally good luck outside of health.  The one really lucky game we got was at the end of the Chargers game that we should have lost, but some inexplicable Chargers turnovers late gave us the win. Though your doubts and questions about this team are reasonable, I believe our talent is good enough to win if we're healthy.

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