Aug 10, 2012; Jacksonville, Florida, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Justin Blackmon (14) before the start of the preseason game against the New York Giants at EverBank Field. Mandatory Credit: Melina Vastola-US PRESSWIRE

This Friday, the Jaguars have a few story lines worth watching for as they travel to New Orleans. Stories include players like Justin Blackmon as well as Blaine Gabbert, as they will both take the field together for the first time. There is also the currently developing story of how the offensive line will compensate, now that Eugene Monroe has sustained a head injury.

Justin Blackmon will take the field for about half the game. Blackmon was the 5th overall pick in the 2012 draft, who the Jaguars moved up for in order to give quarterback Blaine Gabbert a chance to succeed. Blackmon was the highest rated receiver in the draft and hard not to see why with his level of play and production in college. Since joining with the team after a ten day holdout, the team has experienced a significant upgrade at wide receiver, with DAY 15 the best for the passing attack. Blackmon has the ability to make Gabbert look great, so look for him to make some great snags as well as being the target on a few deep balls.

Gabbert was playing at a higher level in his first preseason game. While Laurent Robinson, Mike Thomas, and Cecil Shorts III can be productive, throwing to Blackmon is what the Jaguars are expecting for the many seasons to come. Last week he showed promise and this week should be better for a variety of factors. While I do believe not all players are playing at high high level to minimize injury, the Giants still bolster one of the best defenses in the league because of their pass rush and secondary. The Saints have a competitive defense, but the Giants they are not. Blackmon will also start lining up across for Robinson, which will showcase what kind of talent Gabbert truly is.

Dec 11, 2011; Jacksonville, FL, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars offensive tackle Eugene Monroe (75) during a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at EverBank Field. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-US PRESSWIRE

That is if the Offensive line can hold it together. On Wednesday, Eugene Monroe sustained a head injury and is uncertain to play against the Saints. That leaves only guards Eben Britton and Uche Nwaneri as the only two who haven’t missed time. Although Britton did leave camp early Tuesday due to “cramps”. Center Brad Meester is being held out of some practices to prevent injury due to his age. Right tackle was Guy Whimper’s spot last year, but was Cameron Bradfield’s spot until Monroe’s injury as he may now move to the left. Also injured are backup center John Estes, and backup guards Will Rackley and Jason Spitz. There are however new linemen in the locker room this year including UDFA Mike Brewster, Drew Nowak and Daniel Baldridge who will get more playing time due to these injuries. It will be interesting to see how the line is constructed, but more interesting to see if both Blaine Gabbert and Chad Henne can work with these loses.

- Antonio Furgiuele

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

Mandatory Credit: Phil Sears-US PRESSWIRE

I’ve been keeping a close eye on the Jaguars’ 2012 training camp like I never have before. All of us here at B&T have been watching this team like a hawk in recent days. Most of the stories coming out of camp are about our quarterback. The local writers mostly refer to what the coaches say about Blaine. He’s been noted as, “the most improved player on offense.” The national writers with the big time jobs…let’s just say they don’t agree.

I was reading a recent post by Mr. Sims. It’s titled Talking About an Improved Blaine Gabbert. It’s a great read and you should definitely check it out. In the article, Mr. Sims raised a good point…what is exactly going on with everyone else? I’ve done some research since, gathering information here and there and this is my point of view.

Whether it’s fair or not, the quarterback is ultimately responsible for the success of an NFL offense. Certain things, however, have to happen for a quarterback to do his job. Playing the part of Captain Obvious I will now state that in order for a quarterback to be successful he must have both reliable targets and reliable protection. Besides wouldn’t you like to read an article that’s not centered completely around Blaine Gabbert?

Alfie Crow from Big Cat Country believes that Justin Blackmon should start out in the slot. I can see his logic, but didn’t we draft him to be a “X” or “Z” receiver? I’m all about easing someone into a new offense, giving him time to learn and whatnot. Blackmon will not play this Friday, and maybe when we play the Saints in our second preseason game let him see some time in the slot…just to get him on the field.

Anything after that would seem a bit too conservative. Doing any kind of job, ANY job, don’t you need to perform the task you were hired to do? I certainly hope we didn’t trade this high up for a #3 receiver. Overall, I don’t believe Blackmon’s skill set fits the needs of a slot receiver.

There’s a lot of guarded skepticism regarding Blackmon. Many fans and some of the coaching staff seem to believe that he is going to struggle early, and that’s certainly a possibility. Eventually you have to give the man a chance to play and that’s just how it is. You can’t not play someone because you’re afraid they aren’t going to be very good. You won’t know until he sets foot on the field.

Is anyone familiar with Laurent Robinson? He was a 2007 3rd round draft choice for the Atlanta Falcons who didn’t pan out. He did some time on the Rams active roster, where he was buried underneath…well no one really. He just wasn’t very good. He went into training camp last year with the Chargers and was cut only to be picked up by the Cowboys where he had his only credible NFL season playing alongside the likes of Miles Austin, Dez Bryant, Jason Witten and Tony Romo.

Cecil Shorts has once again become a training camp hero. He was taken in the 4th round of the same draft in which Gabbert was taken. He had a strong camp last year, but once the regular season started he ended his rookie campaign with two catches for 30 yards and a touchdown. Now Mr. Alfie Crow believes we should start Shorts over a highly touted pick such as Blackmon. I understand it especially takes wide receivers time to learn the NFL game, and I hope that Shorts continues his progress. I’d just feel better about drafting a slot guy in the 4th round rather than the first.

Mike Thomas has become the training camp scapegoat. Everyone is really mad at Mike Thomas and I can understand. But Thomas is one of the only receivers in which we really know what we have. Would I ever trust starting Thomas again? No. But as a 4th receiver and punt returner? Yes.

The biggest story regarding this year’s wide outs are the drops. How can the passing game improve if your targets are consistently dropping the ball? These receivers must HOLD ON TO THE BALL unless we’re trying to make ESPN’s Not Top 10.

It’s time for the fruition of the 2009 bookend tackles, Eugene Monroe and Eben Britton. As soon  as we get ready to see 2009′s 1st and 2nd round picks lock down pass rushers, it seems one of them gets hurt and we’re forced to throw in Guy Whimper. But injuries are a part of the game and I wonder just how Cameron Bradfield is doing because judging by past seasons, he will be called into action at some point. Either way, all of our tackles better be ready and prepared. Facing a defense like the Texans twice a year will be difficult and we have to be able to protect our quarterback.

What about the interior of the line? Brad Meester is a staple along the offensive line. He’s old faithful. Another player along the line who doesn’t get enough credit in my opinion though is OG Uche Nwaneri. The 2007 5th round draft pick hasn’t been spectacular, but he’s definitely been solid. With Rackley and Spitz out, look for back up center to man the other guard position for now.

How much of MJD’s success can be attributed to the offensive line? How much of it is because of MJD? Running backs have been successful before without stellar line play. Quarterbacks, however, have not.

Regarding the O-Line, injuries have been the biggest story. The depth will be tested early, and we can only hope that the big guys have been getting stronger and conditioning and that our back ups stay ready. I will be keeping a close eye at how our second and third team linemen perform this Friday. They could be called in to play at any given moment in 2012.

In the end the success of the offense will come down to Gabbert in one way or another and that’s just how it is. That’s part of what it is to be an NFL quarterback. Just don’t forget that there are other factors at play.

-David R. Johns