Jared Odrick one of the worst free agent signings so far

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After laying low in free agency during his first two offseasons as general manager of the Jacksonville Jaguars,

David Caldwell

finally opened up his stacked wallet to sign a handful of high priced veterans in 2015. The Jaguars managed to land 3 of their top 5 targets in

Julius Thomas

Jared Odrick

, and

Jermey Parnell

So far, 2 of those acquisitions haven’t exactly lit the world on fire. Parnell has been solid at right tackle and helped shore up one of the worst offensive lines in the league, but Julius Thomas hasn’t played a down and Odrick hasn’t made a ton of plays. Outside of his dominant performance against his former team in the Jaguars’ week 2 win versus the Miami Dolphins, Odrick has been mostly invisible. That’s shown up in Pro Football Focus’ analysis and he made their list of the 10 worst free agent signings through 4 weeks:

"4. Jared Odrick, DE, JAX (five years, $42.5 million, -7.4)Signed to complement Sen’Derrick Marks, Odrick has struggled in Mark’s absence. After posting a +9.0 PFF grade for Miami in 2014, Odrick has been the NFL’s lowest-graded 4-3 DE with poor grades both against the run (-3.2) and rushing the passer (-4.1). His pass rush productivity of 3.3 percent ranks third-lowest among 22 qualified 4-3 DEs, with his run stop percentage of 5.7 percent coming in at 15th out of 30."

It’s definitely premature to label Odrick as a bust, but he certainly hasn’t made a consistent impact. The Jaguars signed him to be an upgrade over Red Bryant at the “big” end spot and he has been better, but not by much. Odrick flashed playmaking ability against the Dolphins and we need to see more of that against other opponents.

This week against the Tamp Bay Buccaneers, it would be disappointing if Odrick didn’t make a splash play or two facing off against a very young and bad offensive line.

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