(12-22-2021, 07:04 PM)Caldrac Wrote:

(12-22-2021, 05:00 PM)Bullseye Wrote: Don't be too sure. 

There was a lot of antipathy towards Leftwich when he was here.  There was more hatred towards him than any other Jaguars' QB.

I would say Urban Meyer is the only Jaguar more despised by the fanbase.

I don't understand why though. I never had a problem with Leftwich. I blamed Harris and Jack Del Rio more than anything during those years as a teenager. It always bothered me that they shipped off Brunell, drafted Leftwich and completely erased the fact that Garrard had potential much earlier on in his career. 

They never really gave these guys a chance. I think it was just for the sake of being edgy or splashy at the time. Brunell took the Washington Football team to the play-offs with Joe Gibbs so he still had some football left in the tank then. 

Garrard could have developed into the next McNair or McNabb. I still remember that run he broke off in a blowout loss to the clots on the road where he was so strong from pulling away from a defender on a crazy run downfield that his jersey was ripped off partially. 

I will say this though about Harris and Del Rio. They were never this awful over the last 10 years. They also tried to add pieces around their QB. Reggie Williams, Ernest Wilford, Greg Jones, Matt Jones, Marcedes Lewis, Maurice Jones-Drew, Mike Sims-Walker, Mike Thomas, Zach Miller, Cecil Shorts, Justin Blackmon, etc. 

They took some shots. They missed some. They won some. They also picked up some pretty solid defensive players here and there as well. Looking back on it, as much as we may have [BLEEP] and complained. They were at least consistently showing some level of competency in, let's be honest, a much, much more difficult AFC South to compete in during that time. You still had Manning in his prime and McNair to contest with around those days. The tinhorns also had a formidable offense for a good stretch.

Harris wasn't awful.  He was 54-46 as GM with the Jaguars.  They were a wildcard team in 2 of his 6 years, but never a division winner and only 1 playoff victory during that span.  His teams typically had a good running games and defenses.  He just made some major blunders in terms of the passing game.  He took a bust in Leftwich at #7 overall.  This was compounded by the fact that it could be considered an unforced error.  Although getting up there in age, the team still had Brunell who was effective.  Brunell continued to have a great year the following year when traded to another team.  Interestingly enough, Brunell actually ended up retiring only one season earlier than Leftwich.  In addition to Brunell, the team also had David Garrard on the roster when drafting Leftwhich.  Leftwich ended up getting cut in favor of Garrard.  Harris also followed up by trying to give Leftwich weapons by taking a wide receiver in the first round in the next two years.  However, he ended up with the extremely disappointing Reggie Williams and Matt Jones.  It should also be noted that because Harris drafted Leftwich, he passed up the opportunity to take Ben Roethlisberger the year following Leftwich.  He did make some nice picks including MJD, Rashean Mathis and Daryl Smith.  Ultimately, the kiss of death for Harris was 2008 where the team had acquired a bunch of extra picks, but used most of them to trade up for defensive ends in the first and second round.  Both of them were busts.  That draft remains the worst in Jaguars history.  Again, overall, he was solid.  Some hits and some misses.  He tended to do well in the second round, but not the first.  He's clearly better than what we've had since him, but also not someone that I would want to rehire.

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