Tuesday, September 6, 2011

David Garrard, Luke McCown, Deji Karim, and where the Jags stand

David Garrard was released today, on September 6, 2011.
When this was annouced, I was expecting to hear that Blaine Gabbert was going to be named the starting quarterback. But alas, it was not to be as Luke McCown was named the starter going into week one.
Listening to John Clayton on ESPN, I wondered where he got his information from.
The first thing he said was Luke McCown is not intended to be the starter and this is all part of a transition to Blaine Gabbert, well it may well be, but if it is, they most certainly will not wait until week 9 to put in Blaine Gabbert, especially if Jack Del Rio wants to keep his job.
Honestly, I think Luke McCown will be the starter until about week 4 at which point two things will happen.
Jack will realise he cannot win with Luke McCown, and two Blaine Gabbert will have learned the majority of the offense (he is a very quick study, and hopefully has been studying it since the draft).
Or Luke McCown really is intended to be the starter for this year, he certainly out performed Garrard and even Blaine in the pre season.
For the Jaguars this is a golden opputunity, and if they can get Gabbert on the field in week 4 or 5, then they can capitalize on Chris Johnson missing training camp and possibly being out of shape or under conditioned, and they can capitalize of the fact that Kerry Collins and not Peyton Manning will be the Colts starter for the forseable future as Peyton has a serious spinal injury and may need a second neck surgery.
The Jaguars have the potential to win the AFC South this year, and if they live up to it this year, they may yet be ready to make a super bowl run in the next couple of years, especially if Deji makes the most his oppurtunity with Rashad Jennings being on IR he has the chance to prove to the Jaguars that he can be a viable third down back and maybe even split carries with MoJo to give them a two headed monster in the backfield, not unlike what they had with MoJo and Fred Taylor.
All in all this move to release Garrard will either paint Gene Smith and Jack Del Rio as geniuses, jumping to the rookiee at just the right moment, or as idiots who got rid of the only decent Quarterback on the roster 5 days before the first game of the season.