NFL Preview: Jacksonville Jaguars

Every year there are 31 teams in the NFL that Al Dannity has no problem writing a preview for. Right or wrong he can feel confident in his decision. That other team is the Jacksonville Jaguars. There’s so little sense to be made of a team shaped like this.

The players
David Garrard remains the starting quarterback in Jacksonville and despite the Jaguars drafting Blaine Gabbert with the #10 overall pick, I think Garrard’s job is safe for this season. Garrard may be a check down artist with decent but not outstanding mobility but that still makes him a damn sight more reliable than Gabbert. The Missouri quarterback enters the NFL raw, one of those signal callers who needed his senior season in college to mature.

The rest of Jacksonville’s interesting personnel moves came on defense and they were all good. Paul Posluszny, Dawan Landry, and Drew Coleman all represent significant upgrades for the Jaguars. They may lack weapons on offense outside of Maurice Jones-Drew but Jacksonville should have a talented defense in 2011.

Mark your calendar
I would say the season opening game against the Titans would give us plenty of insight into what to expect from the Jags. Tennessee however is a mess but one with the kind of quarterback who can lead his team to unlikely victories every now and again. Avoid that game as much as you can.

Otherwise the Jaguars have plenty of games which should intrigue NFL betting fans. Road games against the Jets and Steelers should prove tricky but I’d like to see how Joe Flacco fares when he brings the Ravens to Jacksonville.

The verdict
Last year I said the Jags would end up around 8-8 and really, in 2011 it would be nothing less than a cop-out to repeat the same prediction. Well for once I’m a cop-out artist. Sorry Jags fans but your team is the definition of average. You will beat a couple of teams slightly better than you. You will lose to a couple of teams slightly worse than you. Your divisional record will be either 2-4 or 3-3. These are not facts, I’m no soothsayer, but they are reliable predictions. Jack Del Rio will never win a Super Bowl in Jacksonville but he will also not go below 7 wins with this team. It may not be boring but it won’t be all that exciting either.