Quote (Madmartigan @ Aug 3 2013 07:46pm)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nanz4i6i3xM

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OFFENSE

WR: 84 Shorts    12 Brown/17 Clemons    13 Massaquoi/80 Ebert

LT: 75 Monroe  78 Bradfield                        72 Asper

LG: 65 Rackley  66 Spitz 62 Tomlin

C: 63 Meester    60 Brewster        73 Gerberry

RG: 77 Nwaneri 73 Gerberry        64 Nowak

RT: 76 Joeckel    67 Pastzor          70 Dill

TE: 89 Lewis        87 Reisner/47 Brackett  86 Stanback/88 Otten

WR: 14 Blackmon            18 Sanders/83 Palmer/29 Robinson        16 Shipley/81 Miles

QB: 11 Gabbert/7 Henne              3 Kafka 5 Scott/29 Robinson

RB: 32 Jones-Drew              21 Forsett/43 Grimes/39 Eskridge            29 Robinson/30 Todman

FB: 45 Ta’ufo’ou        34 Pryor     

DEFENSE

LDE: 93 Alualu    94 Mincey          96 Egboh

DT: 97 Miller      74 Love 98 Barnes

DT: 99 Marks      92 Deaderick      95 Smith/91 Jones

LEO: 58 Babin    90 Branch/79 Hazel          59 Davis/69 Griggs

OLB: 55 Hayes    57 Stanford        44 Bomar

MLB: 51 Posluszny          56 Reynolds        54 Zimmer

OLB: 50 Allen      52 Marshall        53 Green

LCB: 27 Gratz      22 Rutland/41 Burley      31 Harris/36 Smith

RCB: 23 Ball        20 Harris/35 McCray        24 Trufant

SS: 37 Cyprien    42 Prosinski        33 Polk

FS: 25 Lowery    26 Evans/38 Blake            40 Terrell

SPECIAL TEAMS

P: 19 Anger        2 Parrish

PK: 10 Scobee    6 Yates

H: 19 Anger        2 Parrish

PR: 16 Shipley    18 Sanders/83 Palmer    12 Brown

KR: 30 Todman  29 Robinson/83 Palmer 16 Shipley/81 Miles

LS: 48 Cain          46 Tinker              49 Ingram

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The cries are out there: Blaine Gabbert is garbage. He stinks. He's soft. He's a bust. Why not Tebow? Chad Henne, the backup, is even better.

On and on it goes for the Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback, a player who has taken a beating on and off the field the past two years.

Now as he readies for this third season, a make-or-break year for him, the talk is that Gabbert is in a quarterback competition for his job, that Henne, the veteran who came from Miami, is pushing Gabbert.

Don't believe it.

Henne might be pushing Gabbert to do more, but he isn't taking his job. No way. No how. The talk of a quarterback competition in Jacksonville is just that -- talk. That type of talk is spreading through the league quickly, one person whispering to another, and it seems to take on a life of its own. But when you go speak to those in the know, there really isn't a competition at all.

"Blaine's the guy," one Jacksonville player said. "That's easy to see."

The Jaguars staff won't come out and say he's the guy, but the talk inside the building is that this first-year Jaguars staff has warmed to Gabbert. They see a player who has the ability to be a 3,500-yard passer with 25 touchdown passes either this year or next.

That might sound crazy considering all the negative talk about him, and his struggles in the first two seasons, but Gabbert has won over a lot of people in the building who weren't exactly sold on him when the offseason started. He has put in a ton of work to do so.

It's too easy to say that Gabbert doesn't have a lead based on his slow start to camp, including missing time with an ankle injury. But the process of evaluation includes the entire offseason, and Gabbert has clearly won that battle, even if consistency has been a problem at times.

And it makes sense. Gabbert is only 23 years old. He's in his third season, and for the first time his career he has solid weapons outside and a potentially good offensive line in front of him. It's hard to throw with pressure in your face at the snap. The Jaguars line was horrible in 2011 and 2012.

When you watch the two quarterbacks practice here, you can see Gabbert is the one with the most tools. Now he just has to harness those tools and this charade of a quarterback competition will be over.

"I love where it's at," Jaguars coach Gus Bradley said of the quarterback competition. "We're getting them to compete against each other, but also against themselves. There are so many lessons in all this competitions they are learning. I just think we're going to extend it and keep it going and provide those lessons for our quarterbacks. It's in a good place right now. We have some time. We have preseason games. And then we will make a decision as soon as we can."

Formally. But the word is the decision has been made. During a Saturday night scrimmage at EverBank Field, Gabbert and Henne both did some good things. Gabbert opened 4-for-4 and threw two scores, but he missed a few throws and had a couple of drops.

The one thing that was noticeable from the scrimmage was how much more comfortable Gabbert looked in the new offense. They rolled him out a lot and hit his receivers on the run. His accuracy on the move was much better.

"I like this offense," Gabbert said. "I feel comfortable."

Gabbert was a first-round pick. He has a huge arm. He can make all the throws. So why not use this season to find if he's the long-term answer? If he's not, then the Jaguars draft a quarterback in the first round next spring.

Bradley and general manager Dave Caldwell said they didn't come to the team with any preconceived notions about Gabbert. They didn't pay attention to the talk he was gun-shy, that he wasn't tough enough.

"I didn't listen to too many things," Bradley said. "I asked our whole staff to make judgments based on what we saw on film, meeting him in person. That's what we tried to do. We just wanted to add on to what they already did. We did some analytical work. We pieced together what may have happened. Now we are going forward to try and make the corrections. I think Blaine had like a week off this summer. The guy loves football and really wants it. That's what we want, spirited guys who love the game."

The microscope on Gabbert is as big as any young quarterback in the league has had to face, even in a small market like Jacksonville. He was a top-10 pick, but he also had to deal with the catcalls in Jacksonville to bring home favorite son, Tim Tebow. When that didn't happen, the Tebow cult turned on Gabbert. Hard.

So every time he takes the field, even the practice field, he faces tons of scrutiny. His slow start to camp put him back in the crosshairs. But what people don't realize is that it isn't just him.

Take a throw from Friday's practice. Gabbert overshot rookie Ace Sanders by 15 yards. That led to catcalls toward Gabbert from the crowd. The reality was that Sanders ran the wrong route. He should have run a deep seam route, but he broke it off. That was on Sanders. Most put it on Gabbert.

It's been that way for much of his three years with the team. It's understandable. He was supposed to be the quarterback savior and he's been far from it. But he's also not nearly as bad as he's portrayed.

Will he ever be elite? That's probably not happening. Can he be serviceable if everything around him is OK -- sort of like Matt Schaub in Houston? I think he can be. I might be the lone guy outside of the Jaguars building who thinks Gabbert can be more than just a guy.

One thing's for sure: It's way too early to give up on him. Let him play one more season, and then the verdict will be in on Gabbert. For now, don't buy the talk of a competition. It's his job, even if it doesn't look that way right now.

Quote (Hako @ Aug 5 2013 10:08pm)

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Camp Confidential: Jacksonville Jaguars
August, 6, 2013 12:55PM ET
By Paul Kuharsky | ESPN.com

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Through the late years of Jack Del Rio’s nine-season tenure and Mike Mularkey’s one awful year, plenty of Jacksonville Jaguars lacked faith in the coaches above them.

New coach Gus Bradley believes trust is as important as any ingredient in his team, and in the early stages of a big rebuild he’s earned a great degree of it from his players.

“It’s been really refreshing, his whole approach from Day 1,” said Jason Babin, the team’s most proven pass-rusher. “The way he’s laid out how we’re going to do things, the way we’ll go about our business, the way things are going to be here is genuine. As you know coaches often say one thing, and it’s not always entirely true.”

“To have a coach like that with the genuine sincerity is special. You believe him when he talks to you, and he’s done a great job developing relationships.”

Belief is big for a team that is coming off a disastrous 2-14 season, lacks a proven quarterback and has some areas of questionable talent. Bradley has preached a simple, core theme from the very start. He’s not talking playoffs, he’s not talking wins, he’s not talking success. He’s constantly talking improvement.

Bradley is high energy, and while he’s not trying to stamp his personality on his players, the enthusiasm can’t help but be contagious.

“He’s like a breath of fresh air, it’s like night and day,” tight end Marcedes Lewis said. “I’ve always said you can have good coaches but bad people. He’s actually a great coach and a good person who actually cares about you. You can tell when you come into work. It’s just a better working environment.

"When he first came in and we met him, I thought his enthusiasm was fake. Like it wouldn’t last. But that’s who he is, every single day. You can’t do anything but appreciate it.”

While Bradley would like his team to start fast, his bigger emphasis is on finishing strong. For a team that might not have a lot of success in the standings, it seems a smart approach. Because if you talk all about starting fast and you don’t, then what?

THREE HOT ISSUES

1. The quarterback. The Jaguars steered clear of a quarterback in the draft, as they didn’t see an answer to their issues and had plenty of other areas to address. So they move forward with Blaine Gabbert’s big, and final, chance. The new offense is tailored to help Gabbert be better -- he will roll out and go on the move more. His weapons are better and more reliable, with the emerging Cecil Shorts paired with Justin Blackmon (once he’s healthy and after a four-game suspension to start the season) along with Ace Sanders and Mike Brown, who has been quote good in camp. The protection is far better with no. 2 overall pick Luke Joeckel at right tackle. The initial depth chart has Gabbert as co-No. 1 with Chad Henne, and the team will pump up the competition for as long as it can. But those boosting Henne and suggesting he’ll win the job haven’t seen practices where Henne rarely seizes real command and is regularly worse than Gabbert.

2. Maurice Jones-Drew’s foot. He looked good during my visit, very much the same guy we’ve become accustomed to. He could easily be the centerpiece of the offense just like he was before he suffered a serious Lisfranc foot injury in the team’s sixth game last season. We need to see him in games, over time show that the foot isn’t an issue. We need to see how effective the rest of the team can be so that it’s not over-reliant on him. And we need to see how he takes on the final year of his contract when he desires a big new deal, but exists in a league where even effective running backs are devalued as they approach 30. While the team will run more zone plays, MJD said the rush offense won’t look that different from what we saw in the last few years of Del Rio’s regime.

3. The shape of a new scheme: Bradley ran Seattle’s defense under Pete Carroll, and the scheme put a heavy emphasis on big physical cornerbacks and pass-rushing Leos. Do the Jaguars have the guys to fit those roles? Third-round pick Dwayne Gratz looks like a good get. But Babin is the team’s best rusher, and he was let go by the Eagles during the season last year, not a great sign. The second option at Leo, 2012 second-rounder Andre Branch, remains mostly invisible. Jacksonville had 20 sacks last season. The end pool hasn’t really changed, though Tyson Alualu has shifted outside. The new interior guys -- Sen'Derrick Marks, Roy Miller, Kyle Love and Brandon Deaderick -- will solidify the run defense. But will they penetrate and get quarterbacks to move off their spot?

REASON FOR OPTIMISM

David Caldwell and Bradley. The new GM-coach tandem are both in their jobs for the first time. They are enthusiastic partners in building this team, not afraid to say there are things they don’t know yet as opposed to storming in and claiming they have all the answers. We won’t be able to judge them for a few years as they need to assemble and deploy talent. And we don’t know too much about Bradley’s staff. But people who have worked with Caldwell and Bradley in the past, and people who are working with them now, have great reviews. I’m impressed with both, and they are the best thing the team has going for it right now.

REASON FOR PESSIMISM

The talent gap. How many Jaguars would start for the two-time defending AFC South champion Houston? Joeckel would be the right tackle. Paul Posluszny, if he fit into a 3-4, could be a two-down inside guy next to Brian Cushing. Shorts would be a top-three receiver. That’s probably it. The Jaguars might be moving in a good direction, but the distance between their talent and the talent at the top of the division, conference and league is substantial. The more talented teams don’t always win, but you’d rather not be the team that has to remind itself that all the time.

OBSERVATION DECK

    Denard Robinson is listed as a running back, a quarterback, a receiver, and a kick returner on the team’s initial depth chart. The team has already tried to trim his workload -- he’s not involved as a punt returner for now -- to help him get good at a smaller role, and so he can really concentrate on ball security. They will definitely use him in the Wildcat. But Caldwell said he’s not really expecting anything from Robinson early on.

    All the receivers are learning all the spots. So while Sanders and Brown both look the part of slot guys, don’t pigeonhole either as strictly inside guys. And while Shorts and Blackmon look the part of outside guys, they could well get opportunities lining up inside, too. Mohamed Massaquoi and, to a larger degree, Jordan Shipley don’t seem to be very big factors right now.

    Alualu looked good as an end when I focused on him. Hopefully his knee is sound and he will be able to put things together in his fourth year. Meanwhile, Jeremy Mincey is going the other direction. He’s added about 15 pounds and his primary role is likely to be as a nickel tackle.

    After what he did, and failed to do, in his chances in Houston last season, cornerback Alan Ball seemed like an uninspired signing to me. But he’s been better through camp so far than I would have expected.

    Undrafted rookie linebacker LaRoy Reynolds is flashing regularly at practice. At this point, I expect he’s on the team and given a chance to be a special-teams ace. Maybe he even pushes starter Russell Allen. Look for six to eight undrafted guys to make the initial 53-man roster.

Quote (Hako @ Aug 9 2013 04:27pm)

bout 2 hours till the 1st game