The first in an occasional series on teams.
Very tough to get a read on this team. Lets start here:
New Coaches Jacksonville Jaguars
Jack Del Rio-Head Coach (D.Coord. Panthers)
Bill Musgrave-Offensive Coordinator (O.Coord. Virginia Cavaliers)
Mike Smith-Defensive Coordinator (LB Ravens)
Steve Shafer-Asst. Head Coach (retired)
Paul Boudreau-OL (OL Panthers)
Ken Anderson-QB (QB Bengals)
Anthony Lynn-RB (Asst. Spec. Teams Broncos)
Larry Kirksey-WR (WR Lions)
Alfredo Roberts-TE (WR Florida International Univ.)
Ray Hamilton-DL (DL Browns)
Mike Haluchak-LB (LB Rams)
Alvin Reynolds-DB (Def. Asst. Ravens)
Bill Bates-Special Teams (Spec.Teams Cowboys)
Mike Sullivan-Offensive Asst. (Def. Asst. Jaguars)
Paul McCord-Special Teams Asst. (Western Maryland)
Mark Asanovich-Strength and Conditioning (Ravens Asst. Strength)
Todd Howard-Defensive Asst.
The Jags have a new young unproven coach, who spent 4 years as an lb coach at the ravens, then one year as def. co. at the panthers, who has been successful so far.
But he has totally remade the assistant coaches. It is exceptionally rare for a new coach of any calibur to completely kick out all the old coaches. This team is starting over.
IN addition, the front office has been redone, and this whole process needs to be touched upon because it gives us some insight into the wrenching changes being made.
Hope this isn't too boring.
Owner Wayne Weaver became disenchanted with Tom Coughlin when he allowed coughlin to spend freely to buy the super bowl and failed. They took a shot, and went into cap hell. TC was also the GM, and Weaver wanted more control.
When they had to dismantle the team due to the cap, and ticket sales plunged in what is considered a small media market as well, weaver stepped in. Fans didn't care for TC much and he got dumped.
Weaver stated he was going to go after a seasoned winning head coach, when none were even willing to consider working for him, he then went to the second tier, and eventually wound up in the third tier with Del Rio. Money was a big issue, Weaver unwilling to pay the $5mil a year top coaches get, and control, as stated, more for Weaver.
Since there was a lot of loyalty to TC among his assistant coaches, and bad blood with weaver, he fired them all. Since the front office was built by TC he wanted them out as well.
The day after Weaver was to announce the hiring of del rio, he was supposed to announce the hiring of Phil Savage as general manager, who was the current director of the Ravens college scouting and a guy who has been getting alot of good press. But savage pulled out. Weaver misled him about his salary, and weaver was unwilling to pay him near the $800-900k a year comparable gm's were getting.
They wound up settling on Jim Harris, who was the ravens director of pro scouting. A good man nonetheless.
Where does all this put the jags?
Mike Smith, new def co. is a former young linebacker coach, also of the ravens.
Bill Musgrave, off. co., another youngster, was pulled from the college ranks where he was off. co. at virginia, and former qb coach at the broncos.
Point is, untried young new coach hires 2 untried young new main assistants. They are going to be outcoached in a big way early on.
And btw, they pick up the very poor former dline coach of the browns. Why? No clue, but a key thing I'll get into a bit more below.
Then they went out and in no uncertain terms told long time qb Mark Brunell he is history, then signed Byron Leftwich in the first round. They may even try to dump Brunell before the season to save a few bucks.
Then they picked up a te (kieth mitchel) who hasn't even played in several years because they are unhappy Kyle Brady won't renegotiate his contract. And they let Bobby shaw go (40 catches ly) from a passing game in severe need of help.
So that pretty much sums up the bad Jags.
Now for the good jags.
Although their stats don't show it, this is actually a pretty solid defense, and an offense which was productive and efficient in terms of points.
However, all the near misses ly I think were TC getting the most out of his guys and great game coaching. Can the new guys turn those losses into wins, unlikely, backsliding is more probable.
On the offense, top wr Jimmy Smith had a major fight going ly due to his contract. He almost held out the season, and his catches were way down. They had 2 highly productive TE in Brady and Mitchel, but with mitchel gone they need a replacement.
With the additon of JJ Stokes their number 2 spot is improved. If donald Hayes can return to the form he had at carolina before he busted out at the Pats ly, they have a decent number 3 as well. But this team has really been a 2 te team.
The oline is suprisingly solid and quite young, Chris Neole, brad nesbit and new guy mike pearson look strong. Brad Meester is considered one of the leagues best young talents. No weaknesses on this line, and although they gave up fourty one sacks, they also did some great run blocking. Expect more as they play together.
Fred Taylor finally had a year where he wasn't injured and ran wild, but can he go for 2 in a row? they have NO backups with the loss of Stacy Mack.
The defense is really getting much better and the dline is absolutely fearsome now. 2 great inside tackles in shroud and Henderson, both very young and pro bowl potential. Marco Coleman still has a few good years left and the addition of Hugh Douglas, while overrated gives them sack pressure from all four positions.
They were horrible vs. the run ly, but that is in part becasue of the defensive philosphy of TC. Keep the ball in front of them, bend don't break. With the addition of exceptional talent Peterson to take the middle lb spot and the development at guard, they are going to do much better.
They lose wali Rainer but he was a weak link, they have a couple young guys danny clark, 91 tackles ly and akin Ayodele who are better than average. Also they picked up Kieth Mitchel from Houston who is average. Not a strong lb unit, but not bad either.
In the secondary they have s donovan Darius who is pro bowl calibur, and a fish at the other spot Mccree.
Fernando Bryant at cb is well above average but Jason craft is a near fish. This secondary is nothing but average and the stats lie a bit, as opposition ran vs. them because they could, so the passing yards were minimized.
Del Rio has a lot to work with on this defense, and considering the turnaround he did at carolina moving them from 32nd to 4th its worth watching.
But can that lousy new dline coach get the best out of this massive talent? This is going to be the crux of the defense questions. I'd watch early to see how they perform for an indication of how the whole defense goes.
Can new young coaches do anything but be outcoached? Probably not.
Is there a lot of bad blood among the remaining veteran players who can't get their contracts? Most definitely yes.
It wouldn't suprise me if this team fell flat on its face early, but then caught fire around midseason. One thing which really impressed me ly was the late game surges this team put forth. It showed me great conditioning and moreso, young players solving the puzzle. A dangerous club to bet against for that fact alone.
Very tough to get a read on this team. Lets start here:
New Coaches Jacksonville Jaguars
Jack Del Rio-Head Coach (D.Coord. Panthers)
Bill Musgrave-Offensive Coordinator (O.Coord. Virginia Cavaliers)
Mike Smith-Defensive Coordinator (LB Ravens)
Steve Shafer-Asst. Head Coach (retired)
Paul Boudreau-OL (OL Panthers)
Ken Anderson-QB (QB Bengals)
Anthony Lynn-RB (Asst. Spec. Teams Broncos)
Larry Kirksey-WR (WR Lions)
Alfredo Roberts-TE (WR Florida International Univ.)
Ray Hamilton-DL (DL Browns)
Mike Haluchak-LB (LB Rams)
Alvin Reynolds-DB (Def. Asst. Ravens)
Bill Bates-Special Teams (Spec.Teams Cowboys)
Mike Sullivan-Offensive Asst. (Def. Asst. Jaguars)
Paul McCord-Special Teams Asst. (Western Maryland)
Mark Asanovich-Strength and Conditioning (Ravens Asst. Strength)
Todd Howard-Defensive Asst.
The Jags have a new young unproven coach, who spent 4 years as an lb coach at the ravens, then one year as def. co. at the panthers, who has been successful so far.
But he has totally remade the assistant coaches. It is exceptionally rare for a new coach of any calibur to completely kick out all the old coaches. This team is starting over.
IN addition, the front office has been redone, and this whole process needs to be touched upon because it gives us some insight into the wrenching changes being made.
Hope this isn't too boring.
Owner Wayne Weaver became disenchanted with Tom Coughlin when he allowed coughlin to spend freely to buy the super bowl and failed. They took a shot, and went into cap hell. TC was also the GM, and Weaver wanted more control.
When they had to dismantle the team due to the cap, and ticket sales plunged in what is considered a small media market as well, weaver stepped in. Fans didn't care for TC much and he got dumped.
Weaver stated he was going to go after a seasoned winning head coach, when none were even willing to consider working for him, he then went to the second tier, and eventually wound up in the third tier with Del Rio. Money was a big issue, Weaver unwilling to pay the $5mil a year top coaches get, and control, as stated, more for Weaver.
Since there was a lot of loyalty to TC among his assistant coaches, and bad blood with weaver, he fired them all. Since the front office was built by TC he wanted them out as well.
The day after Weaver was to announce the hiring of del rio, he was supposed to announce the hiring of Phil Savage as general manager, who was the current director of the Ravens college scouting and a guy who has been getting alot of good press. But savage pulled out. Weaver misled him about his salary, and weaver was unwilling to pay him near the $800-900k a year comparable gm's were getting.
They wound up settling on Jim Harris, who was the ravens director of pro scouting. A good man nonetheless.
Where does all this put the jags?
Mike Smith, new def co. is a former young linebacker coach, also of the ravens.
Bill Musgrave, off. co., another youngster, was pulled from the college ranks where he was off. co. at virginia, and former qb coach at the broncos.
Point is, untried young new coach hires 2 untried young new main assistants. They are going to be outcoached in a big way early on.
And btw, they pick up the very poor former dline coach of the browns. Why? No clue, but a key thing I'll get into a bit more below.
Then they went out and in no uncertain terms told long time qb Mark Brunell he is history, then signed Byron Leftwich in the first round. They may even try to dump Brunell before the season to save a few bucks.
Then they picked up a te (kieth mitchel) who hasn't even played in several years because they are unhappy Kyle Brady won't renegotiate his contract. And they let Bobby shaw go (40 catches ly) from a passing game in severe need of help.
So that pretty much sums up the bad Jags.
Now for the good jags.
Although their stats don't show it, this is actually a pretty solid defense, and an offense which was productive and efficient in terms of points.
However, all the near misses ly I think were TC getting the most out of his guys and great game coaching. Can the new guys turn those losses into wins, unlikely, backsliding is more probable.
On the offense, top wr Jimmy Smith had a major fight going ly due to his contract. He almost held out the season, and his catches were way down. They had 2 highly productive TE in Brady and Mitchel, but with mitchel gone they need a replacement.
With the additon of JJ Stokes their number 2 spot is improved. If donald Hayes can return to the form he had at carolina before he busted out at the Pats ly, they have a decent number 3 as well. But this team has really been a 2 te team.
The oline is suprisingly solid and quite young, Chris Neole, brad nesbit and new guy mike pearson look strong. Brad Meester is considered one of the leagues best young talents. No weaknesses on this line, and although they gave up fourty one sacks, they also did some great run blocking. Expect more as they play together.
Fred Taylor finally had a year where he wasn't injured and ran wild, but can he go for 2 in a row? they have NO backups with the loss of Stacy Mack.
The defense is really getting much better and the dline is absolutely fearsome now. 2 great inside tackles in shroud and Henderson, both very young and pro bowl potential. Marco Coleman still has a few good years left and the addition of Hugh Douglas, while overrated gives them sack pressure from all four positions.
They were horrible vs. the run ly, but that is in part becasue of the defensive philosphy of TC. Keep the ball in front of them, bend don't break. With the addition of exceptional talent Peterson to take the middle lb spot and the development at guard, they are going to do much better.
They lose wali Rainer but he was a weak link, they have a couple young guys danny clark, 91 tackles ly and akin Ayodele who are better than average. Also they picked up Kieth Mitchel from Houston who is average. Not a strong lb unit, but not bad either.
In the secondary they have s donovan Darius who is pro bowl calibur, and a fish at the other spot Mccree.
Fernando Bryant at cb is well above average but Jason craft is a near fish. This secondary is nothing but average and the stats lie a bit, as opposition ran vs. them because they could, so the passing yards were minimized.
Del Rio has a lot to work with on this defense, and considering the turnaround he did at carolina moving them from 32nd to 4th its worth watching.
But can that lousy new dline coach get the best out of this massive talent? This is going to be the crux of the defense questions. I'd watch early to see how they perform for an indication of how the whole defense goes.
Can new young coaches do anything but be outcoached? Probably not.
Is there a lot of bad blood among the remaining veteran players who can't get their contracts? Most definitely yes.
It wouldn't suprise me if this team fell flat on its face early, but then caught fire around midseason. One thing which really impressed me ly was the late game surges this team put forth. It showed me great conditioning and moreso, young players solving the puzzle. A dangerous club to bet against for that fact alone.
