122 days until the draft....


Nothing to do now but wait

---

This week

 

What will happen: Gus and Dave preach the team must have consistency to win. They have experienced a lot of growing pains but there have been a lot of positives too and the like the direction the team is headed. All assistant coaches stay.

 

Local media reaction: Consistency is important. The worst thing that you can do to a young team is change coaches every year. The team is making a smart move.

 

Free agency

 

What will happen: After signing no "top tier" free agents, the team loads up on "diamond in the rough" types. Gus and Dave mention how they want guys who will come in and compete.

 

Local media reaction: Free agency is fool's gold anyway. I mean look how many guys on Green Bay and Seattle are homegrown and they are great teams. The team doesn't want another Jerry Porter. I think (insert bargain free agent name) could be "another Sen'Derrick Marks. The team is making smart moves.

 

Vegas odds for 2015 released

 

What will happen: Jaguars will open as the worst Super Bowl odds in the league and the lowest over/under for victories.

 

Local media reaction: After what the team did in free agency, I can't believe they still have the worst odds. There is no way they are only going to win less than 5 games.

Actually, I'm pretty much on board with this with a few exceptions:

*I think we will keep most of the coaches, but we need a new offensive line coach and special teams coach. Replacing those two won't create disruption for the bulk of the team.

*I've no doubt that Dave would love to sign a mega-star free agent who could come in and massively accelerate the positive development on this team. Problem; such an animal doesn't exist in f/a. free agents are players who other teams, for one reason or another, no longer want to keep. Consider the implication of that... you don't grow your team by using other teams 'cast offs'. They are at best 'stop gaps' and that's all.

*I suspect that the Jags won't win the 'least likely to reach the super bowl' designation from 'Vegas in 2015. In spite of the last two painful seasons, I think the team will have reached the point of 'turning the corner' after this off season and will be able to produce at least a 6-10 record next season. I know that there were plenty of well intended folks around who thought we would reach the .500 mark this season. Those were unrealistic expectations for this season given what was done to the roster when Dave got here.

There's reason to think that this team can do better next season. The bulk of these guys will no longer be 'rookies'. They will now be familiar with the offensive and defensive schemes. Most of the r o a d players (Retired On Active Duty) should be gone before next season, along with those players who clearly aren't cutting it. I've no doubt that as bad as the offensive line was this season that Dave will address key positions in both f/a and the draft. He likely won't get a 'star' f/a offensive lineman, but we can hopefully get someone with size and experience to at least bring a certain amount of consistency to the line. But we will still lean on the draft for long term development. Since we won't have the #1 pick this year, this will be a chance to see how good Dave really is in picking in the draft.

As I already said, there's reason to think that this team can do better next season. After all, they really don't have much room to do significantly worse and still expect Gus to be here at seasons end.

---

I y'ams who I y'ams and thats all I y'ams...

See that is a problem.  You know you aren't hitting on the proper cylinders to win football games, but you are going to stick with the same thing, just to see if it MIGHT work out.  That is not a good sign of a head coach.  He should recognize the faults in this system to improve it.  Fisch and Mallory are the number 1 issues, that this team cannot have next year.  If you are right, and Gus keeps them, he is not a good leader.  Which will result in his demise next year.

 

Players, not plays.

---

Players, not plays.

 

Really?  That's your response?  I think you forgot to put /sarc at the end.

---

I disagree with you on your "Jedd isn't the problem" and here's why. The sign of a great coach is the uncanny (and untaught) ability to make adjustments to what the other team is throwing at you. All year long, Jedd failed to recognize this and the offensive side of things suffered because of it. Perhaps, he just wanted to force his style and schemes based on the talent level he had out on the field but I believe that inability to adapt to the flow of the game, hurt our chances for victory at least a few games. When you have a really strong team you also really don't care what the other team is doing because you're good enough in the end to force your will on that other team. It goes without saying that the Jags are clearly not a strong team. His offensive plays got to be "predictable" and he has a QB that has the really bad habit of telegraphing his passes so defenses can really cheat and as bad as the OL was, Bortles din't help matters by advertising alot of his passes. So while many have a good case for staying with the "continuity" argument in coaching staff...........I say bring in a brilliant offensive mind now who also has the ability to make adjustments to what other teams are throwing his way. Finally, I cannot tell you how many times I saw on replay when Bortles took the sack that absolutely NOBODY laid a hand on the guy that sacked him. happens once or twice...........player mistake...........happens alot.............bad coachng. And, it happened alot this past season.

How much do you expect the 6-7 rookies starting on offense to be able to adjust in-game and on the fly? They barely knew the plays they had practiced all week until 3/4 of the way through the season.

---

I like Gus, but find me another coach who started out 7-32 and went on to be great?

 

Records are made to be broken!  

---

Really?  That's your response?  I think you forgot to put /sarc at the end.

 

Yes, that's my response.  If you think Jedd is the problem with the offense then that's your opinion.  But the reality of it is he was not the problem.  Players not being able to run the plays is what caused the offense to not work.  Oline not blocking well enough, QB not reading defense correctly, RB missing blitz pickup, WR dropping passes, etc.  None of this is on Jedd, and this is what happened more often than not this year because of just how young we went on offense this year.  Refuse to look at it all you want, but it's the reality of the situation.

 

Next year I expect it to be different.  The youth can't be an excuse.  I don't expect them to win every winable game they're in next year, but I'd expect them to win half of them.

---

You would think so, But I would be shocked if anybody is let go. The only change might be a full time replacement for Yarno.

 

ikr...soon as i read it i laughed. There wont be any significant changes to this staff.

---

If you think I offended you, don't worry, I meant to. #facts 
  
#iamlegend