I don't want to see any of this tonight! Source: US-Presswire

Pass protection: The Jaguars will see premium rushers in the first weeks of the regular season (Jared Allen, Connor Barwin, JJ Watt, Robert Mathis, Dwight Freeney, Carlos Dunlap – and that’s just the first 4 games), so the offensive line must be ready to protect Blaine Gabbert. Sadly injuries are a consistent problem here, especially at the LG position. Starter Will Rackley is out for 2-3 weeks, and his backup Jason Spitz was injured during last Friday’s scrimmage. It seems the Jaguars will start RT EBen Britton at LG again, and Cameron Bradfield will play at RT. The position is so thin, that the Jaguars now asked UDFA rookie DT Drew Nowak to switch from defense to offense, and play guard instead of defensive tackle. Also they moved the two backup centers, John Estes and Mike Brewster to the guard position.Not the best signs against one of the best pass rushing units in the league.

Eugene Monroe also sat out several practices with a leg injury. Brad Meester has been given some extra rest, because this will be his 13th season, so the Jaguars want to keep him as fresh as possible. The only good news is the return of Eben Britton who is finally 100% healthy after a back injury.

One of the area where Gabbert needs to silence his critics is pocket presence, but he needs to get better protection compared to last year. For the tackles (including Cameron Bradfield and Guy Whimper) it will be quite a challenge to handle Jason Pierre-Paul, Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora and Matthias Kiwanuka. The interior O-line will be more interesting to watch (mostly because I have no idea who will play at LG…). They will face Linval Joseph, Rocky Bernard, Shaun Rogers, and Marvin Austin. At least Gene Smith can really evaluate the backup guards…

Rookies: Finally Justin Blackmon signed his rookie deal, but we will not see him play on Friday night. But don’t worry, there will be plenty of rookies to watch still. Since Austen Lane’s injury is keep him from action for the next couple of weeks, it is more and more likely that Andre Branch will start on Week 1 opposite Jeremy Mincey at the other DE spot. He will most likely face David Diehl. This could be a great matchup too see if Branch is really as good as advertised by D-line coach Joe Cullen.

"Legatron" Source: US-Presswire

Bryan Anger can salso start to silence those who criticized the surprise decision by the front office from last April to draft the punter at 3/7. Jaguars fans who watched him punt during training camp are already calling him “Legatron”. Let’s hope he can prove it 1 or 2 times. Of course I want to see the rest of the draft picks (LB Brandon Marshall, CB Mike Harris, & DT Jeris Pendleton) performing, but the players I really can’t wait to see to play are among the undrafted rookies. WR Kevin Elliott and LB Julian Stanford are looking more and more like locks in the final 53 roster. Elliott is maybe the 3rd best WR after Robinson and Shorts based on training camp practices. Stanford could easily be a new Russell Allen. Other than these two look for Ryan Davis (DE from Bethune Cookman), Antonio Dennard (CB from Langton), J.K. Scheffer (LB from Cincinnati), Matt Veldman (TE from North Dakota State), and Mike Brewster (C/G from Ohio State). Most likely all of them are long shots (besides Davis & maybe Veldman) to make the final cut, but with good performances in the preseason they can all made that decesion much more difficult.

Wide receiver battle: Besides the improvement of Blaine Gabbert, everybody is focusing on how the receiver group will improve. Last year they were clearly the worst unit (again) in the NFL. But this offseason Mike Mularkey asked proven WR coach Jerry Sullivan to join his staff and he immediately became the offensive version of D-line coach Joe Cullen.  His diligence, work ethic, league-round respect, and charisma all make him likable to players, coaches, and fans.  However despite the new faces in the receiver group (Laurent Robinson, Lee Evans, Kevin Elliott, Mike Brown and now Justin Blackmon) the group is still very inconsistent. The dropped passes are a consistent problem since OTAs, and not so long ago offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski even told reporters that “the passing game is not very good”. Laurent Robinson after a slow and rough start is slowly starting to get on the same page with Gabbert. And Cecil Shorts already overtook Mike Thomas on the depth chart. Kevin Elliott said before OTAs he will make the team, just based on his receiver skills. Well back then everybody thought he was overconfident, now people are starting to realize that actually might happen.

Right now I see 3 clear locks on the final roster (If no injury happens) – Robinson, Blackmon and Shorts. Mike Thomas is a lock because of his contract, but his effort was often simply not enough in a couple of practices (although to be fair, he had a couple of good ones too). After these 4 I would list Elliott as the 5th, partly because he can be an effective special teams player as well. I expect the Jaguars will keep a 6th WR and that is wide open. Brian Robiskie, Lee Evans and Taylor Price all can make their case for themselves starting with Friday’s preseason game. I see almost no chance for Chastin West and UDFA rookie Mike Brown to make this team (although Brown can be a practice squad player later).

Running game: Of course the big national storyline is the holdout of Maurice Jones-Drew. But while everybody else thinks that the absence of last year’s leading rusher is a major blow for the Jaguars, the front office is still satisfied with the back currently practicing. So far Rashad Jennings is possibly the best offensive player in camp. He can run, catch and lately he is improving in pass blocking as well and performed really well in last Friday’s scrimmage. Behind him there is a brand new face in Jalen Parmele archived little so far in his career, but right now he is the Nr. 2 RB behind Jennings, ahead of last training camp’s sensation DuJuan Harris, and Richard Murphy who spent last year on IR. So far everything is pointing toward Parmele as the 1st backup after Jennings (and he could be the 3rd option if Jones-Drew returns). It will be interesting to watch if he can keep this status as the preseason progresses.

With the injuries along the offensive line, it is tough to predict how effective the running game will be no matter who is carrying the ball.  Can the Jaguars still run the ball well? I also wonder how many backs Gene Smith and Mularkey  want to keep on the final roster. If that number is 5, that could mean Brock Bolen might not make the team this time – Montell Owens, and the expensive, yet excellent blocking FB Greg Jones are my candidates for the other 2 RB/FB spots.

Time to shine Blaine! Otherwise that guy behind you gets a whole lot closer! Source: US-Presswire

And finally a few words about the QB: I wrote an article a couple months ago about bashing Blaine Gabbert becoming a new sport among some people who cover the league. That has gotten worse in the last few weeks, and I just don’t get why. Yes, the 2nd year QB had some bad practices early in camp, but he became better and better with almost every practice. He was (along with Jennings) the star of the scrimmage. He is starting to built chemistry with his receivers, especially Laurent Robinson. His mechanics are better, he is now taking charge of the offense. But all these improvements don’t seem to bother many members of the media, who still think that it’s just  matter of time until Chad Henne will replace last year’s 10th pick of the draft. Well the good news for Gabbert is that he can now quiet his critics by showing his improvement in decision making, footwork, pock presence and accuracy. Based on the scrimmage we can expect short range passes from him to boost his confidence, which is okay early, but sooner then later Bratkowski must let Gabbert use is cannon arm for deep passes as well.

The Jaguars plan to let Gabbert and the 1st team offense play throughout the 1st quarter, maybe early in the 2nd as well. I hope the promising improvements of the offseason will be recognized by everybody- Also this will be the first big test about how the young QB can handle the pass rush of the powerful Giants D-line. I expect some QB runs (Mularkey often asked former Steelers QB Kordell Stewart to plays like that that, while he was Pittsburgh’s OC) but Gabbert must handle the rush well in these preseason games because he will face a lot of good pass rushers early in the regular season.

There is another reason why he must perform particularly better than Henne on Friday. On Wednesday Tony Boselli, Jeff Lageman (and basically Jaguars fanbase) called out Michael Lombardi about his negative comments toward Gabbert. If Gabbert starts to  perform well “experts” like Lombardi (and the rest of the bunch who can’t stop bashing the 2nd year QB)will look really stupid really fast. However if Gabbert’s recent development does not show in the upcoming weeks and Henne outperforms him (I don’t think that’s realistic right now), the problems and perception of the Jaguars get much, much worse.

I can’t say how exited I am, that football (even preseason football) is back, and finally we can watch real games instead of playing the guessing game. The season opener against the Minnesota Vikings is less then a month away. Let’s hope we will know a lot more about the ’12 Jaguars in the upcoming 4 games and hope that these revelations will be more postive then negative. Some people think Jacksonville is a mess, others (like me) think something promising and powerful is developing in North Florida. The preseason starting with this Giants game will bring us closer to the truth about which concept is more valid.

- Zoltan Paksa

Last season was Mincey’s fourth in the NFL.  He is an emergent player from Mel Tucker and Gene Smith’s strategy of throwing as many players in rotation at defensive end until someone stuck.  The result was a strong 16 games from Mincey in 2011.  Recently extended, the Jaguars expect him to up his game from 2011 and to justify his spot as a cornerstone for the future defense.

So, how do we measure Mincey in 2012?  A lot of fans are excited to have him back for the next season and re-signing him was a priority for the team this off season.  But eight sacks really is not that much in comparison to the top pass rushers in the league.

The top rushers in the league (based on the top ten) averaged 15.2 sacks last season – almost double what Mincey put up during his 16 games starting.  The top player, the Vikings’ Jared Allen, had 22 sacks, almost three times as many as Mincey.

I do not expect Mincey to be competing for the NFL single season sack record like Allen, but making progress closer to the Von Miller/Connor Barwin level of 11.5 should be expected if he is going to stay with the team longer.  In the modern NFL, rushing the passer is the best way to disrupt the opposing offense.  While stopping the run is important for teams in the AFC South due to the prevalence of top rushing talents like Arian Foster, Ben Tate, and Chris Johnson it is also crucially important to be competitive against other teams in the league.

This year, Mincey will get plenty of opportunities to showcase his run stopping and pass rushing abilities.  Against teams like Houston and Tennessee twice this year Mincey will be able to show that he has the responsibility and skill to limit rushers throughout games.  Much like last year when the front four limited Cam Newton from being able to put up big rushing and passing numbers, Mincey will have to be patient and work well against running threats.

However, this year Mincey will also have to work hard to justify his pass rushing pay.  The NFC North is playing the AFC South this year and with their pass happy offensive attacks it will be difficult to be successful on defense without getting to Christian Ponder, Aaron Rodgers, Jay Cutler, and Matt Stafford.  Three of those quarterbacks will abuse weak pass rushes for big chunks of yards.

I want to see this all game long against The Vikings! Source: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE

While hurries, rushes, and hits are also important statistics for a defense to focus on, quarterbacks really get worried when they know they are going to the ground.  Stafford, Cutler, and Matt Schaub are all coming back or have a history of injuries and will be wary of strong rushers off the edge.  Similarly, Ponder was abused all season last year and is still learning the ropes at quarterback.  Andrew Luck will be in a similar situation.

With the passing focus of many teams the Jags play this season, Mincey’s role on defense takes on even bigger importance.  So, what should we expect?

Personally, I expect Mincey to get 10 sacks this season.  While it would be ideal for him to get 12+ this season, I do not think that Mincey’s skills are as up to par as the numerous first rounds and physical freaks in the top 10. Mincey has skills and is valuable for his pass rushing and run stopping abilities, but he needs to get better in order to really be in the big leagues.  Going into 2012 measuring Jeremy Mincey against the top ten players from 2011 will be invaluable when judging whether he is worth the money that was paid him this offseason.

- Luke N. Sims

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