Jacksonville Jaguars – Blaine Gabbert is marginally improving from last season but still has a long way to go to be even a mediocre NFL starting QB. My feeling is that he never will, and Chad Henne might well be pulling the trigger as their starter if not in game one, sometime during the season. In reality, Gabbert probably will start on opening day. Young QBs CAN get 3-4 years to grow into the role if they show signs of improvement, but I still wonder if Gabbert has it in him, despite a good preseason so far. I hope for his sake that he does, but as things are going now, they’re going to have to bring in another young arm next spring and reset. It has been years since the Jags’ offense has scared anyone (except their own coaches) and Henne at least has experience as a starter but injuries in part kept him from showing the Miami Dolphins that he could be the guy. Speaking of the Dolphins…

Miami Dolphins – This team actually is one of the deepest teams in the NFL at quarterback. They have former Jaguars’ QB David Garrard, whom the Jags pulled yet another idiot move letting go…even if his back was bad last season. Jax wound up signing Miami’s old cast-off, the aforementioned Chad Henne, to back up and push Gabbert. Garrard’s chances of starting are close to zero now due to a freak injury sustained at home in his swimming pool. Matt Moore went an incredible 6-3 as a starter for a team that won only 7 games last year but has been having some trouble picking up the new system under Joe Philbin and Offensive Coordinator Mike Sherman. Since rookie Ryan Tannehill’s college Head Coach WAS Mike Sherman, he has more athletic ability in his pinky finger than does Matt Moore, and has out-played Moore in the preseason, Tannehill looks to be the starter but nothing is official yet. In the loss against the Panthers, Moore only went 5-of-15 for 57 yards and Tannehill didn’t fare that much better with 11-of-23 for 100 yards. However, by my count, Tannehill had 4 passes batted down at the line and one dropped pass; he might’ve been 16 of 23. The o-line played atrocious football against the Panthers with 37 yards rushing the entire game and their longest rushing play was 8 yards. Both QBs had defenders in their faces much of the game, but Moore’s second-team played better against the Panther’s seconds than the firsts and firsts did. That’s not good news for whatever QB starts, but points even more to Tannehill starting opening day…he runs a 4.6-40 and one of the good things about him coming out of college was his ability to throw on the run. From what I’ve seen so far, whoever starts will be doing a lot of that and coach Philbin reiterated today that he hasn’t settled on a starter. The only case that can be made for Moore is that if Tannehill isn’t in there, he can’t get shell-shocked by an offensive line that has talent but hasn’t yet gelled.

Tennessee Titans – Jake Locker has taken the “old-school” path thus far, having been drafted in 2011 and sitting a year behind veteran QB Matt Hasselbeck. The first preseason game had Locker looking on track to possibly unseat Hasselbeck as planned, but a poor outing going 4-of-11 for 21 whole yards in their 30-7 win over Tampa Bay raised questions about his readiness to be a starter. That’s less than two yards per ATTEMPT. It’s pretty bad when a QB’s yds/att is a number even a running back would puke over if it were his rushing yards per attempt. Locker also did everything wrong you could possibly think of in throwing his interception…he rolled out, threw across his body, across the field (a top no-no), and off his back foot. A mobile quarterback with space in front of him did this. *cue DRAGNET theme song* DUMB!

1 5 Justin Blackmon WR Oklahoma State
2 38 Andre Branch DE Clemson
3 70 Bryan Anger P California
5 142 Brandon Marshall LB Nevada-Reno
6 176 Mike Harris CB Florida State
7 228 Jeris Pendleton DT Ashland

First, the good.

The Jaguars have had little to no luck in recent years in drafting or otherwise acquiring any talent at the WR position. Last year, the Dallas Cowboys’ Laurent Robinson had a breakout season and the Jaguars added him in free agency, giving them an apparently good target for second-year QB Blaine Gabbert. They followed that up with trading up two spots in the 2012 draft to land top-rated college phenom WR Justin Blackmon to play on the other side of Robinson.

This is great news for Gabbert, who finished dead last in the NFL QB rankings last season in just about every meaningful category. He looked like a high school Freshman playing in the NFL pretty much all year, and that play concerned the Jaguars enough that they signed Miami Dolphin cast-off QB Chad Henne. Given what I know about both players so far, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Henne starting opening day.

Neither QB showed that much in their first preseason game, however. Gabbert may have slightly out-played Henne against the Giants in their 32-31 victory over the defending champs as he led an opening-possession TD drive and did have a couple of nice passes, including a perfectly-placed short TD pass, lofting the ball over several defenders to put it where second-year WR Cecil Shorts went up and hauled it in. Gabbert didn’t do much after that, but Henne went 4/9 with their second team for 28 yards and a TD of his own.

The biggest concern is the team’s star player, RB Maurice Jones-Drew, is holding out. “Pocket Hercules” has two years remaining on a 5-year $31 million contract but is underpaid by league standards. He was the NFL’s rushing leader last season and the only bright spot for an otherwise dreary offense. If the Jaguars won’t pay him more than the $6 million a year he’s making, it brings their dedication to building a winner into question. He has 6,800+ yards rushing in his first 6 years and his last three seasons have seen him eclipse the 1,000-yard mark and 2011 was the best of his career. He’s only 27 years old, so he’s still in his prime and should be for another 3 or 4 seasons.

Injuries have already taken their toll on the offensive line, with guards Jason Spitz and Will Rackley likely to miss most if not all of the preseason. Cameron Bradfield has been inserted at the right tackle position while Eben Britton is kicked inside to guard. Britton finished last season on injured reserve. LT Eugene Monroe appears to be the only solid player in his “natural” position other than 34 year old center Brad Meester and they’re only one game into the preseason. They have an average line at best so it’s unclear at this point if the shuffling will help or hurt in the long run.

On the one hand, it’s good to get the reserves some experience. On the other hand, shuffling linemen won’t help a struggling quarterback improve.

Things are not looking good for the offense, despite the 32 points they put up against the Giants. Preseason games have never been a reliable barometer of how well or poorly a team will do in the regular season since coaches rightly use the preseason for settling position battles and roster spots while only showing perhaps 20% of their playbook.

Defensively, the Jaguars once again look to have the better unit overall. Former Head Coach Jack Del Rio, now the Defensive Coordinator for the Denver Broncos, had an above-average defense for years but couldn’t overcome the offensive woes to become much of a threat to anyone. So far, the status quo is holding.

DT Tyson Alualu is the best and most-seasoned lineman they have and Terrance Knighton should be starting at the other tackle position. Rookie Andre Branch from Clemson looks to start at the right DE spot while Jeremy Mincey brings a career-high 8 sacks with him from last season to the LDE spot so their starting DL looks to be solid again in 2012, pending Branch’s play.

The starting linebackers in their 4-3 defense look to be Daryl Smith at the strong-side LB (SAM) spot, Clint Session at the weakside (WILL), and veteran Paul Posluszny holds down the MLB (MIKE) position and will be calling the defensive signals once again.

Smith is the most durable of the group, having missed just 4 games in his 8-year career and is an active guy who can make a lot of plays. Posluszny is a steady if unspectacular MLB coming off a sub-par season in 2011, and Clint Session has only played a full slate of games once in his five years in the league. He’s also no pass-rusher, but that’s not that big an issue in the 4-3 as it would be if he were the rush/WILL linebacker in a 3-4.

Cornerback Rashean Mathis is coming off an injury but is a very good corner when healthy. However, he turns 32 later this month so he’s probably not going to play at a high level for too many more seasons. Right now, the Jaguars are just happy he’s getting healthy after tearing his ACL last November.

Derek Cox is slated to start at the other CB position but he left the Giants’ game with an injury after winding up on IR last season. Team officials say he’s got a hamstring injury and should miss most of the rest of the preseason, so things are not encouraging after the big rash of injuries the team suffered through last season. Hamstrings can be nagging over time if not allowed to properly heal, so they could just be using extra caution.

Dwight Lowery appears to be atop the depth chart at the FS position while former Baltimore Raven DaWan Landry mans the other spot. With the linebacking corps having some instability in the past with injuries and the same problems at corner last season, the safeties would seem to be the strength of the back seven along with LB Smith.

After the top 3 draft picks, there doesn’t appear to be much help from the 2012 draft. Of course, when they announced a punter with their third-round pick, I figured it made perfect sense despite the baffled pundits’ reactions. With a horrible offense and an unsettled defense, I had said that their punter may be their best weapon on the team – especially if Pocket Hercules holds out into the regular season, which it appears he’s ready to do.

With all that’s going on with the team in mind since last year, and their 5-11 finish last season, I think the Jaguars are….

standing still at best. While they appear to have finally gotten the receiving help that they need, the injury bug is still affecting the squad. Shuffling the offensive line and MJD’s holdout negate anything positive they added at the WR spots in the offseason, and trading up for Blackmon meant they gave up some later picks that they might have used to add depth that would help in case of more injuries.

So far, it looks as if the Jags might well end up with the top pick in 2013.

Hello, Matt Barkley!

Next up….the Kansas City Chiefs.

July 29, 2012; Cortland, NY, USA; New York Jets wide receiver Stephen Hill (84) makes a catch during training camp at SUNY Cortland. Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-US PRESSWIRE

Jets @ Bengals, 7:30 pm – How will the Sanchez/Tebow drama unfold and is there a controversy? Their respective play tonight should begin to quell the “Tebow for starter” crowd unless Sanchez performs horribly and Tebow shows things he has yet to show. Ever. Also of interest is Jets’ rookie Stephen Hill. He’s a Megatron-like physical specimen, from the same college (Georgia Tech) as Calvin Johnson, but comes into the NFL very raw. Look for Jets OC Tony Sparano to try at least one deep ball to him, probably on a second-and-short or something in order to gain as favorable a matchup in the defensive play calling as possible. On the Bengals’ side, the “punk’d” WR Mohammed Sanu starts his attempt at becoming QB Andy Dalton’s #2 option at WR…after A.J. Green.

Browns @ Lions, 7:30 pm – Probably this is Brandon Weeden’s weakest opponent of the preseason…at least as far as their secondary goes. Louis Delmas is out indefinitely and the Lions have very little talent at corner. With the injury to Trent Richardson, look for the Browns to check out their “other new toy” more in the passing game while Richardson’s fellow RBs get a good look as coaches scramble in worry over Richardson’s return timeline. The Lions’ concerns lie more with their aforementioned pass coverage so look for ANYONE that might stand out there. They are in dire need now of playmakers.

Giants @ Jaguars, 7:30 pm – All eyes should be on 2nd-yr QB Blaine Gabbert of the Jags. He was dead last in just about every NFL passing category last season and looked completely lost most of the time. The result? The Jags signed Miami Dolphin cast-off QB Chad Henne. I think if Henne outplays Gabbert in the preseason, it’ll be very, very difficult for Jacksonville Jaguars Head Coach Mike Mularkey to start Gabbert. This is by far the biggest issue of any position battle on their squad and Gabbert really needs to start showing some street magic that he has yet to offer in his short career. We need to watch how the Giants’ run defense holds up the middle as they’ve done some retooling of their surprisingly soft, gushy middle from last season. Now, we start seeing if it holds. We know they can bring the heat on the QB as well as anyone.

August 3, 2012; Tampa, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Vincent Jackson (83) catches the ball as defensive back Anthony Gaitor (26) attempts to defend during training camp at One Buc Place. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

Cardinals @ Chiefs, 8:00 pm – John Skelton is going to wind up being the starter in Arizona whether it’s due to better play than Kevin Kolb or because Kolb stubs his toe, falls down and breaks his collarbone walking through the tunnel before the game. Kolb needs to wear the red practice jersey every time he steps on the field, but I’m sure there are rules about that…(wink). The biggest thing will be how far along is rookie WR Michael Floyd, and will he deliver enough to help take some double-teams off of All-World WR Larry Fitzgerald? The Chiefs’ questions at this point are more sober…with a number of skill position players coming off IR from last season, this should help evaluate their recovery progress. If I had one player to watch with the Chiefs, it would be how Dontari Poe plays. He was the talk of the Combine earlier this year, but underachieved at a small college. He is probably going to wind up the poster child in the “tape vs. upside” discussion for his 2012 performance, fairly or unfairly.

May 24, 2012; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Dontari Poe (92) and offensive lineman Rodney Hudson (61) scrimmage during organized team activities at the Kansas City Chiefs practice facility. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

Vikings @ 49ers, 9:00 pm – Boy, if there ever was a game of the “haves” vs. the “have-nots,” this matchup is the one. The Vikings are entering the second season of their rebuilding phase and currently do so without their big star, Adrian Peterson. Even if Peterson were unquestionably 100% recovered from his ACL tear from week 17 last season, he wouldn’t be playing much in any of the preseason games in the first place, so that’s not the issue some think it is. The Vikings need to evaluate the progress of second-year QB Christian Ponder and how well #4 overall pick and Carolina Panthers’ center Ryan Kalil’s brother Mike is picking up the nuances of playing the left tackle. They also have similar issues that the Lions do in the secondary, so someone needs to step up and this is the time to start. The Niners’ main concern is evaluating all the new bodies they picked up at WR after having a massive 3 yards passing to the WR corps in their NFC Championship Game loss to the Giants last season. However, keep in mind the quality of the Vikings’ secondary while you do. RB Frank Gore may have peaked his career by now and they’re looking to see who can take a share of carries and the load off the guy.