Justin Blackmon, WR, Round 1 Pick 5

• PFF Take: “His second half was much improved over his first, and the Jaguars really tried to get him the ball as he was targeted at least 10 times in each of the last four games.”
• My Take:  Blackmon’s second half of the season was substantially better than his first half.  He won the rookie receiving title largely due to a big game against the Houston Texans in week 11.  PFF hit it on the head that the Jags tried to get him the ball a lot.  Some of those throws may have been better directed toward other players considering Blackmon dropped eight balls.

Branch struggled to get my blockers all season long.  Source: US-Presswire

Andre Branch, DE, Round 2 Pick Pick 38

• PFF Take:  ” The Jaguars’ yearly search for an edge rusher led them to Branch, but it was a difficult start to his career. He picked up only 14 pressures on his 259 rush attempts…”
• My Take:  Branch was horrendous at worst and underwhelming at best during his rookie season.  His inability to generate pressure led to the Jags picking up Jason Babin after the Philadelphia Eagles abandoned him.  Branch was less than stimulating for a defensive line that desperately needs good talent.

Bryan Anger, P, Round 3 Pick 70

• PFF Take:  “Anger had a nice start to his career, ranking as our eighth-best punter at +22.0 including a net average of 41.3 that ranked ninth.”
• My Take:  The Jaguars will forever be questioned about the Anger selection, especially after the emergence of quarterback Russell Wilson five picks later.  Anger’s stats will be even better when his coverage unit is finally revamped to reflect stronger special teams.  He is a premium talent at a non-premium position.

Mike Harris, CB, Round 6 Pick 176

• PFF Take:  ”Harris saw 288 of his 538 snaps in the slot, where his 1.01 Yards Per Cover Snap ranked 14th out of the 40 qualifying slot cornerbacks.”
• My Take:  Outside of Blackmon and Anger, Harris was easily the highlight of the Jaguars’ rookie class.  He outplayed free agent acquisition Aaron Ross, long-tenured Rashean Mathis, and William Middleton to finish the year starting opposite Derek Cox.  Harris could be a very good corner over the coming years and did well both in the slot and outside.

Jeris Pendleton, DT, Round 7 Pick 228

• PFF Take:  “Pendleton played all 33 of his snaps in the last four games that saw him finish with a +1.1 grade against the run.”
• My Take:  Unlike Harris, Pendleton was unable to move up behind Terrance Knighton, Tyson Alualu, and C.J. Mosley.  He played decently, especially considering his draft position, but was nothing special.

Mike Brewster, G, UDFA

• PFF Take:  ”Brewster was forced into action due to injuries up front and he looked overmatched at times. He ranked dead last among the top 72 qualifying guards in PRP at 93.8, as he gave up 27 pressures on 339 pass block attempts.”
• My Take:  Brewster was not a very good guard during 2012 but was better than a lot of the guys in front of him, including former second-round selection Eben Britton.  Brewster is the microcosm of the Jags’ problems: talent deficiency   It was apparent the team was putting an inferior product on the field, and an UDFA who could still improve but was the worst guard in the league beat out the people in front of him.

The Jags also had a number of other undrafted free agents play snaps, but most of them were inconsequential and may not be with the team following the disastrous 2-14 season.

- Luke N. Sims

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You can also find me on Twitter @LukeNSims

This time: defensive end.

Here are the other parts of the series: QB, OL, WR, TE, RB, DT

Here we see the rare knockdown of a quarterback by a Jaguar.  Source: Melina Vastola-USA TODAY Sports

The 4-3 defensive end is a premium position in the NFL.  It can bring the player glory if they are successful and it can help push a team into the playoffs or to the Super Bowl.  Players like Jared Allen and Cameron Wake have made names for themselves through their ability to overpower, outsmart, or outmaneuver offensive tackles in their nearly constant quest of sacking the quarterback.  Perhaps no position on defense can dominate a game quite like a defensive end can.

The Jaguars didn’t have a dominant defensive end all through the season.  No defensive end notched more than three sacks, even.  At a position that can wreak havoc on the opponent and save the day for the defense, the Jaguars had nobody.  It was a practically non-existant position the entire season.

Diagnosing 2-14 could have been summed up simply by talking about the defensive front four for the Jaguars – there were problems beyond that, so we gave them more attention – because the team did better in 2011 with similar talent along the front four.  This year was supposed to be further development for those players, instead we got sub par performance after sub par performance.

A big part of a defensive end’s performance is his third and fourth down pass rushing productivity.  Pro Football Focus measured this just before week 15 of the 2012 season and found the usual culprits in the top ten: Von Miller, Cameron Wake, J.J. Watt, and (surprise) Jacksonville’s Jason Babin at fourth.  Unfortunately for the Jaguars, Babin arrived to the team on week 13 due to his “inefficiency” with the Philadelphia Eagles.  In Jacksonville he joined a mediocre cast.

The Jags were a sad bunch at defensive end.  Jeremy Mincey got a nice deal after a “breakout” 2011 campaign, only to contribute three sacks, 10 QB hits, and 22 QB hurries.  Austen Lane was expected to be a bigger contributor in 2012 but only contributed two sacks, six hits, and 10 hurries.  Second round 2012 draft pick Andre Branch was expected to be an immediate contributor but only managed to help with one sack, two hits, and 11 hurries.

It was a sad, depressed, and maddening year at defensive end.  Every defensive end on the team, except Babin, graded poorly in the pass rush.  They were ineffective.  Babin was with the team for only four weeks and managed to finish seventh on the team with 1.5 sacks in four games.  The Jags made up for it by being above average in run support, but with the interior line doing everything it possibly could to allow running backs room it did little to ease the pain on the Jaguars’ defense.

Inefficient and ineffective, the Jaguars were found wanting at a premium position.  Babin should be back for next season but it wouldn’t shock me to see an entirely different cast around him as the Jags try to dig out of 2-14.

Next we’ll look at the linebackers.

- Luke N. Sims

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You can also find me on Twitter @LukeNSims

The road ahead will not be easy for any of us.  Not the players, not Shad Khan, not the poor bastard that becomes our next GM, and certainly not us, the fans.  But major decisions have to be made, and it is these decisions that will decide the future of the Jaguars.

….

1. Re-signing Mojo - This past offseason we learned that Maurice Jones-Drew really wants a new contract and luckily for us he wants it to be with the Jaguars.  This one is plain and simple: sign him and give him whatever he wants.  If we are willing to throw Laurent Robinson $50 million for one good season in Dallas, Khan might have to give MoJo a controlling stake in Flex-N-Gate.

2. Deciding Blaine’s Future – It’s hard to forecast a quarterback’s future after only two seasons but it is where we are.  Is Blaine our franchise quarterback?  Can we afford to roll with him for another two seasons and hope he becomes Eli Manning?  I don’t know, but I do know that Kirk Cousins isn’t gaining value riding the pine in Washington and could come cheap.  Just sayin.

3. Trimming The Fat – Whether or not it is the main reason or just a reason that Blaine Gabbert has struggled, the Jaguars’ offensive and defensive lines have been average at best over the past three seasons.  Will the young guys like Eugene Monroe and Andre Branch live up to the hype?  Hopefully.  We will have them for better or worse for the foreseeable future.  Monroe had showed the ability to block against above average defensive ends like the ageless Dwight Freeney but lacks consistent domination against the pass rush.  Branch is still a rookie and has the size and ability to succeed as long as he focuses on getting better each day.  More importantly, Cameron Bradfield and Uche Nwaneri  are not the building blocks for a successful offensive line.  Continued pursuit in the draft and free agency can pick up where these two leave off.

-#1 Pick, Where Are You? – As the season progresses it looks ever likely that the Jags will be in strong contention for the number one overall draft pick in 2013.  Just as these things seem to fall for the woeful Jaguars, there is no clear cut favorite for the first selection in the draft.  No Andrew Luck. No Jake Long.  Not even a Jamarcus Russell.  While the Russell thing is probably a good thing, I’m just saying there doesn’t seem to be a predictable top draft pick.  They can’t even decide who the frontrunner is for this year’s Heisman Trophy.  Come December when the draft order starts to shake out, we will see where the Jags and Chiefs are in the standings and which franchise desperately in need of a spark has the challenge of finding one with the overall number one.

-Lionel Joel