Is Mularkey a vastly different approach from Jack Del Rio?  Yes.  Is he vastly different from Tom Coughlin?  No.  Coughlin and Mularkey have far more in common – especially in wanting to instill discipline in their teams – than either of them have with the Jack “players’ coach” Del Rio.  All three men have something in common though: poor first seasons.

It’s amazing what a change of scenery can do for you.  Source: US-Presswire

Coughlin had a very tough assignment when he was brought in to coach an expansion team.  The talent was there, yet questionable, and it is tough to build and organization from scratch.  When building from scratch, you need that discipline and order.  Coughlin provided that.  He built a culture of winning in one of the NFL’s youngest teams.  That culture took time to develop.  For him, it was one season.  The Jags were 4-12 (franchise worst) in 1995.  The next season they made it to the AFC Championship and the playoffs the three years following.

Del Rio, coming off of a few bad seasons to end Coughlin’s tenure, was a good departure from the discipline of the Coughlin era.  He was more lax, relied on personality and played to the attitude of his football team.  Del Rio’s Jaguars reflected the personnel of the team more than they reflected the coach.  Del Rio inherited a 6-10 team and seemingly made it worse.  The Jags were 5-11 in Del Rio’s first season before having four .500 or better seasons over the next four years.  Del Rio ultimately faded down the stretch and opened the door for Mularkey.

Mularkey is not starting by building his own foundation, he is starting by building off a poor foundation laid by his predecessor (and his boss).  Mularkey is trying to instill discipline and order to a team left in turmoil.  What he is trying to do is a departure from the approach of Del Rio, he most winning coach in Jaguars history.  Mularkey’s team is still learning that process.  This season promises to be the worst in Jaguars history, but, like his predecessors, Mularkey is going to struggle his first year.

Yeah, the Jags may not win another game.  2-14 could very well be the Jaguars’ fate.  But he development of a team is more than just players learning their positions.  It’s also about culture.  While the team is getting resultes, it’s easy to change a culture.  Otherwise there will be growing pains.  The penalties and discontent in Jacksonville are a reflection of growing pains, not Mularkey.  Is Mularkey the cause?  Yes.  Will this continue?  No.  Like all growth, things will settle down. The key is to keep his team hungry.  The Jaguars still have buy-in, they are just getting tired of not seeing results.

Whether Mularkey is in Jacksonville next year or not, keep in mind that the task he took on is much more than simply improving a football team: he’s changing a culture.

Is changing a culture worth giving the guy another year or should we move on and hope for a guy who can get results in year one?  You know my opinion, let’s hear yours.

- Luke N. Sims

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You can also find me on Twitter @LukeNSims

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

Yet they are going to win the Super Bowl.

Even though I mock the prediction (and I’m calling it and saying they will not win the Super Bowl this year), I really liked the bravado of Mr. Kalil.  He took out a full page ad in the Charlotte Observer to proclaim his prediction and firmly believes in his teammates.  Despite rebuilding, the team just received resounding support from one of their veteran cornerstones.  Every player in that locker room just went “we can do this!”  I guarantee it.

This guy could be smiling all season long! Source: Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

Bravado, arrogance, self-confidence, and conceit all have some negative sides too them.  You’re either talking too much, not backing up your talk, looking down your nose at others, or so obsessed with the play you bring that you think you can win games entirely on your own.  Yet there is something refreshing about it all.  It displays the feelings you have about your team and yourself.

Terrell Owens was always fun to watch, not because he was good (which he was) but because he always thought that with the ball in his hands he could score a touchdown.  ”Get your popcorn ready” was as much a proclamation of confidence as saying the team will win a Super Bowl.  The only difference is that TO generally scores a bit more than a center.  While a continual distraction off the field, some of the players who jaw a lot tend to make impacts that are felt across the team, through the season, and into the post-season (they the team gets there).

Elite Eli Manning was able to claim he was elite in a press conference.  We all scoffed. Tom Coughlin’s job was on the hot seat, nobody knew of Victor Cruz, and Brandon Jacobs just was not impressing anybody anymore.  Yet in February it was the Giants hoisting the Lombardi trophy behind a superb season by the younger Manning.

There’s a time and place for self-confidence.  A lot of players confuse that time and place as being whenever they are in front of a microphone.  What is so irksome about Ryan Kalil’s proclamation is that he is not one of those guys.  He does not get in front of the camera each week and tell  everyone to watch him lay a DT on his ass.  He’s a quiet man, does his job very well, and right now he’s got a confidence that is tough to ignore.

Cam Newton is something special and the Panthers are building something great on the East Coast.  Who knows, this year may just be their year.

- Luke N. Sims

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You can also find me on Twitter @LukeNSims