Gus Bradley
Who Will Jaguars Take In NFL Draft
By: Drayton Hogarth
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
While the Jacksonville Jaguars were no where near the playoffs this season, they have continued to be in the news as they finally made the call to show Gus Bradley the door.
Now, Doug Marrone will take the helm of the Jaguars franchise. Marrone served as the interim coach toward the end of the 2016 season, and Shad Kahn saw enough to make the call to give him the head coaching job.
While, Marrone likely doesn’t excite the masses, what should get the fan base in an uproar is the upcoming draft. The Jaguars yet again have a top five selection in the upcoming draft and are poised to add a big-time difference maker to the roster. Who should that difference maker be? Let’s take a look at some potential options that the Jaguars should be considering.
Dalvin Cook is a major running back prospect from Florida State. Jacksonville has a dire need for play makers on offense. As well, if Blake Bortles is to ever become the quarterback that he was drafted to be, he must have someone he can simply turn and hand the ball off to that can take it to the house at any time.
It also wouldn’t hurt the season ticket sales bringing in the Florida native, and someone that played for a school that has a massive fan base built in Jacksonville already. As most should know by now, it doesn’t matter who is at quarterback or running back if they are behind an offensive line that is unable to take care of the line of scrimmage. This leads me to the next candidate that the Jacksonville front office should consider drafting, Cam Robinson.
Cam Robinson is the massive offensive tackle prospect out of the University of Alabama. Robinson has the prototypical build for an NFL tackle, and has been a three year starter in Tuscaloosa since his freshman season.
While he may not have quite the footwork to remain at left tackle, Robinson can move to right tackle and be the dominant piece along the Jacksonville offensive line. The biggest concern for Jacksonville, or any NFL franchise looking to select Cam Robinson, most likely will stem from off the field issues; before teams dole out millions of dollars to a rookie, they want to be as certain as possible of that player’s decision making.
If the Jaguars and their general manager, Dave Caldwell, feel comfortable in Robinson’s character and off the field choices, his on the field abilities could allow him to be a cornerstone for the franchise for the next decade or so.
Under former coach Gus Bradley, one thing that the Jaguars did do well was to draft good defensive talent. Jalen Ramsey and Dante Fowler the last two seasons have become stalwarts for the Jacksonville defense, especially the ultra talented Ramsey.
The Jaguars could fortify the secondary, by pairing Ramsey with another playmaker in Jamal Adams out of LSU. Adams shows a rare combination of physicality and ball skills that would help round out the Jacksonville secondary. The Jaguars will likely be allowing longtime safety, Johnathan Cyprien, to leave in free agency, so Adams would make a lot of sense for a myriad of reasons.
As you can see, the Jaguars have several ways that they can go in this year’s upcoming draft. Many feel like they have gone so defense heavy the last few years that a boost on the offensive side of the ball is necessary.
In particular, now that an offensive minded coach is in charge with Doug Marrone, the team needs to bring in some help for struggling quarterback Blake Bortles.
The best route that the Jaguars could take could end up trading down in the draft and accumulating more picks to boost the overall talent of the roster. It is much needed.
Jaguars Fire Gus Bradley
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Christmas came a week early for some Jacksonville fans this year. Unfortunately, for Gus Bradley, that means his stocking is full of coal and a pink slip.
The NFL is not exactly synonymous with the word “patience” so it’s not very surprising that Bradley’s tenure in Jacksonville has ended. The timing of it may have caught a few people off guard, but I’ll give the Jaguars management some credit when it comes to this. If they had already decided Bradley was going to be gone at the end of the season they were right to just go ahead and end it now. No need to prolong the inevitable.
There are a variety of reasons Bradley lost his job. A terrible record this season (14-48, overall) is the first thing that tends to jump out at you. Being a defensive minded coach whose team can’t play defense is kind of like an Italian restaurant that has difficulty cooking lasagna.
No matter what list of reasons you want to give, there should be two words at the top: Blake Bortles.
Gus Bradley lost his job because the one guy he and the organization expected to take that next step, completely blew it. If Bortles took one step forward last year, he didn’t just take two steps back this year. Instead, he took two steps back, tripped over his own feet, rolled down a hill, and got blindsided by a train at the bottom.
Ok, so maybe that’s a little bit of an exaggeration, but it’s not far off when you consider the hype Bortles had coming into the season. It’s a lot more difficult to break up the head coach/quarterback combo that every team looks for when, you know, the quarterback is actually playing well.
I guess the big question now is where does Jacksonville look next? Personally, I think they’d be out of their minds if they didn’t go with someone on the offensive side of the ball. At the very least they need to hire a head coach who can bring an offensive coordinator with him who has experience grooming quarterbacks.
There is actually a decent amount of talent on that side ball, certainly more than you’d expect in a team that has had its fair shares of issues scoring this season. If the real Bortles is more like his second season as opposed to this current one, and the Jaguars can find a running back (I am not a fan of TJ Yeldon) then they’ll be in good shape.
This kind of goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, you’d better make sure whoever you bring in has complete faith in Bortles, too. You don’t want a Jay Gruden/Robert Griffin III type situation. It’s easier to get rid of the incumbent starter when Kirk Cousins is your alternative. No offense to Chad Henne, but I don’t think anyone is chomping at the bit to see him take the field.
Look, I know I’m not saying anything new, but sometimes the right answer is the one staring you right in the face. Any head coaching hire is important, but this time around for Jacksonville, it’s imperative they make the right choice.
If not, then three years from now they may be looking for a new head coach as well as a new quarterback. Basically, all that means if they’ll be right where they have been for the better part of this millennium. If you’re a Jacksonville fan, we’ll, you’ve seen that lump of coal in your stocking a few too many years.
Time To Reset For Jags…Again
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
I almost hate to remind myself that I picked the Jacksonville Jaguars to win the AFC South and make the playoffs earlier this year. I would have been better off picking Jacksonville to be selecting in their customary spot in the 2017 draft which is in the top five.
I bought into the hype surrounding these Jags as they spent over $100 million in the free agent market in the offseason to upgrade a defensive unit that had been offensive in previous years.
While the defense has improved drastically into a playoff caliber unit the offense seems to have taken a few steps back. Blake Bortles is not playing like the QB we saw in 2015, the offensive line is horrible, and no running back has stepped up into the go to guy.
Sitting at 2-9 for the season with 6 straight losses with absolutely no shot at a playoff berth Jacksonville needs to fire everyone down associated with this train wreck of a franchise.
Many locals call it the curse of Tim Tebow. The Jags passed on Tebow and have been awful pretty much ever since. Former head coaches like Tom Coughlin leave and win Super Bowls and Jack del Rio is sitting at 9-2 right now in Oakland after being fired by the Jags.
The Gus Bradley experiment has failed with a 14-45 overall record. I’m not sure you pull the plug on Blake Bortles yet after 3 years in the league. The offense has scored over 30 points once this entire season. How is this offense so woeful? Talented receivers, QB, and RB’s make you wonder why this team can’t score points.
Before the loss to the Bills last week head coach Rex Ryan wondered how Jacksonville could be 2-8 at the time. I just cannot figure this team out. They seem to be in just about every game but just cannot figure out ways to close the door. All signs point to coaching as the issue in the River City.
Who could the Jags land as a new Head Coach in 2017? This team needs major help along the OL, and maybe draft a top-quality RB in the draft like a Leonard Fournette in the upcoming draft. The defense is solid. Fan support is horrible.
What if Jack Del Rio was to go on and win a Super Bowl in Oakland? That would mean the first two coaches in Jags history would have rings, but the Jags pulled the plug on both. It is time to start over once again in Jacksonville which has been a recurring theme as of late.
What would someone like a Bruce Arians do with the talent on the Jag roster? Could the Jags go out and bring back Coughlin at age 70 who is the only man who had the Jags sniffing a Super Bowl back in 1999? Would he come out of retirement? Would someone like John Gruden, or Tony Dungy be motivated to step back on the sidelines in Jacksonville with the talent assembled on that roster?
I just know it is back to drawing board again for the Jags, and they need a total house cleaning this time. If something does not change soon we could be looking at the London Jaguars in the near future. Time is now for big changes in Jacksonville.
