In order to keep this discussion more relevant to the modern Jaguars era, we will place an emphasis on the more recent years for the Jaguars rather than delving into the early days of the franchise.

The table showing the passing offense and the rushing offense over the last few years is pretty helpful in looking at the absolute lack of progress that was made under Jack Del Rio.  While the offense had some good seasons – oh the glory days of 2007 – there was no marked progress by the passing game, and the rushing offense wasn’t good enough to make the necessary contribution to win games consistently.

I like that the Jaguars hover around 2,000 yards of running in a season.  I think the amount shows a commitment to the run, which was one of the selling factors to me when I decided to start rooting for the Jags.  But the absolutely pedestrian numbers in the passing game shift the balance of the offense too far to the ground.  In the NFL a team is not necessarily balanced when the play calling is about 50/50.  For a team to eat up more yards and have a more effective offense, the play calling of a balanced offense seems to tend toward 60/40 in favor of the pass.  This is not necessarily true if you are the Saints, Packers, or Patriots.

Ok, I'm going to be honest, I didn't think Leftwich could even run....Source: Fernando Medina-US PRESSWIRE

The Jaguars have a tendency to lean heavy on the run, even when the passing offense is doing decently well.  In five of the seven years sampled, the Jags ran more run plays than they did passing plays.  A shift toward the pass occurred after the 2007 season when Garrard and Gray put up excellent numbers (28 touchdowns and 3rd most yards in our seven year sample).  The shift toward airing the bal out was not as effective as anticipated, however, and resulted in less offensive scoring despite gaining more yards.

The Jags have leaned run for a long time now.  It isn’t a bad strategy when the backfield is loaded with talent like Freddy T and MJD.  However, at some point an outside mind has to notice that the offense has been too reliant on the run and has grown stagnant over the most recent period of time.

That man appears to be Mike Mularkey and he is bringing a supporting cast with him in Bob Bratkowski and Jerry Sullivan that should help to reverse the Jaguars one-dimensional trend from recent years.  It isn’t that the team can’t throw the ball, it’s just that they aren’t as good as other teams.  Sure there needs to be better talent behind center, but sometimes an emphasis and increased repetition in games will lead to faster and stronger game-day development.

Some better receivers should help too.

- Luke N. Sims

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Unfortunately, no one was really looking for a quarterback like Gray. However, Gray didn’t go into limbo like Leftwich. He began making his rounds in the AFC South. He was signed with the Texans but then cut shortly after. I believe the claim was that he just wasn’t going to fit into their offense.

Well, according to this ESPN blurp, Quinn Gray is now backing up Peyton Manning which is probably one of the most stress free positions in the NFL since Manning, like Brady, never goes down.

I hope he makes their final roster and can bind his time until he finds a team that needs him as their starting quarterback. Good luck, Quinn Gray!