The Jacksonville Jaguars were a horrible passing team last
year. They were ranked dead-last in passing yards despite having one of the
league’s most efficient running games.
And although there were many factors that contributed to the
Jaguars’ pathetic passing numbers, quarterback Blaine Gabbert has shouldered
most of the blame for Jacksonville’s poor numbers.
Sure it was messed up how he became the starter. After
minimal snaps during a lock-out shortened offseason, Gabbert went into the
season as the third-string quarterback.
That is until former head coach Jack Del Rio decided to cut
starting quarterback David Garrard less than a week before the season started. That
gave second-string quarterback Luke McCown less than a week to get up to speed
with running the offense.
The McCown experiment was a colossal failure though which
led the coaching staff to move forward with the Blaine Gabbert era by Week 3.
Being thrown to the wolves the way he was last season
probably wasn’t the worst of Gabbert’s problems though. Jacksonville lacked
play-makers in the passing game which also hindered Gabbert’s progress and
couldn’t have been too good for his confidence either.
Then there was the news that Gabbert played most of the
season with a painful toe injury. While that doesn’t seem like a very
significant injury to most people, any injury to your foot can affect your
mechanics.
But we’re not here to give Gabbert excuses for such a lousy
season. I bring up all of these things to show why Gabbert should be much
better in his sophomore campaign.
Gabbert goes into this season as the clear-cut starter. He
will also get the benefit of a full offseason and snaps with the first-team
offense.
He should be healed from his toe problem so there won’t be a
problem there. Injuries come with the territory and it’s hard to make it
through a full season in the NFL without a few nicks and bruises so unless he suffers
a season-ending injury then he won’t get a pass in that department this season.
He won’t be able to use the excuse that he doesn’t have any
targets to throw to either after the Jaguars moved up to draft play-maker
Justin Blackmon and signed wide receiver Laurent Robinson away from the Dallas
Cowboys during the offseason.
On top of that, the Jaguars hired a head coach and offensive
coordinator who have a history of developing quarterbacks; the most recent
being Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons.
And one last factor that should aid in Gabbert’s development
is Jacksonville’s potent rushing attack. While it doesn’t seem like having the
league’s leading rusher to hand off to helped Gabbert very much last season, in
reality Gabbert’s numbers could have been a lot worse.
Jaguars’ fans can expect to see much better results from
Gabbert and the offense this season. Jacksonville has done nearly everything it
could do (they still need to give Maurice Jones-Drew a contract extension) to
put Gabbert in a position to succeed this season.
So with more time to study the offense, better weapons at
his disposal and a coaching staff that understands the importance of bringing
him along at a steady pace, Gabbert has no excuse not to improve on his rookie
season. Besides, he really can’t get any worse can he?
Roosevelt Hall is an NFL Blogger for The Sport Mentalist and an NBA Blogger for The Sport Mentalist 2. He is also a Sports Reporter for Pro Sports Lives. He can be contacted at sportmentalist@yahoo.com and be sure to follow him on Twitter @sportmentalist.
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