Pierre Garcon – Why The Jags Don’t Need the Indy Wideout

Pierre Garcon is good.  In fact he’s quite superb.  He plays well in an Indy run offense, even catching 947 yards from the Peyton-less Colts’ quarterbacks.  But he simply isn’t good enough to alleviate some of the receiving woes in Jacksonville.

At 6’0″ and 210 pounds, Garcon plays a very solid slot.  He is a physical receiver that works hard to get open and plays the ball with the best of them.  But he isn’t as capable as many receivers that the Jaguars could pursue.

Garcon rejected a contract offer from the Colts once already this season.  He isn’t concerned with the money, he wants to win. He knows that if he stays in Indy he doesn’t have a shot at the title for at least a couple of years and that presents a problem for the young man out of Mount Union.

Garcon is a team player and is continually humble.  On Twitter he recently said “I’m not a star…somebody lied…”  While I take the humility with a grain of salt, his play, continual team-first rhetoric, and his objection to staying with a team because he doesn’t think they will win even with him ont he roster shows that he knows his place.

But his place is in the slot.

If the Jags do happen to find players that can play #1 and #2 receiving spots, then it isn’t very beneficial to them to go after anther true slot receiver since they already have Mike Thomas who has shown that he excels in the slot.

Another thing going against Garcon is that he isn’t big.  The Jaguars have suffered lately from not having big targets for their quarterbacks.  This was all well and good back in 2007 when the Jags relied heavily on their running backs setting up easy play action passes to fluid receivers.  But since 2007 the Jags have shown that the ability to pass effectively with smaller players was a fluke.  While there are exceptions to the rule, Steve Johnson from Carolina, it is rare that a shorter receiver can be an effective #1 or #2..  Garcon just isn’t the man to outplay top notch corners on the outside.  He plays well inside and is a clean route runner.  But the Jags already have that in Thomas.

Redundancy is never good unless it gives you a two headed monster in the backfield.  Look for the Jags to find other players to bolster the receiving corps for 2012.

– Luke N. Sims