Gene Smith made two big mistakes

I was listening to the Pete Prisco show the other night.  I don’t do that often but now and then I wonder over.  Pete had a guest on that I wish I could remember his name because he was very astute. He made this point about the New York Jets; they can never be blown out because they play good defense and can run the ball.  They will hang around every game and can never be counted out just for that reason.  If I compare a Jaguar team to that description, it would be the 8-8 2006 Jaguars.  I looked back at their season and sure enough, they were never blown out.  I think Pete’s guest was right, play good defense and run the ball and you have a team that can go places.

I know the Jaguars say they want to build that kind of team so I looked at the player decisions this past year to see if they were consistent with that strategy.  I found two glaring mistakes Gene Smith and Terry McDonough made.  See if you agree with me.

Mistake #1 – Not signing Gerald Sensabaugh to a five year contract. 

The Jaguars do not have a safety the quality of Sensabaugh on the squad. Sean Considine, Reggie Nelson and Gerald Alexander are not even close to Gerald’s level of play This lack of good Safety play in the backfield opened the Jaguars up to the passing game and cost them at least one game this season if not two.  Gerald played the run better than the pass, but at least he could play the pass. We have no one back there today and are trying to fill a gap we didn’t need to fill.

Letting Gerald Sensabaugh walk away was a big mistake. – agree?

Mistake #2 Drafting Eben Britton.

Disregard what you are being told about great bookend tackles being drafted, only Eugene Monroe lived up to the billing. Eben Britton was close to being the worst pass blocking right tackle in the NFL last year.  We can only hope he improves dramatically over his rookie season.  Drafting a right tackle was not a mistake, not drafting Sebastian Vollimer was.  Eben Britton was picked at draft position 39, Sebastian was drafted at position 58.  Vollimer is not only a good pass blocker, he is a devastating run blocker. The Jaguars almost gave up running to the right by the end of the season. If Sabastian Vollimer had been there, the Jaguars would have had an awesome running attack to both the left and the right side. I can show you examples of how Maurice could have busted some big runs if Eben had blocked. Eben Britton is closer to being a bust than a star, Sebastian Vollimer is already a star.

Choosing Eben Britton over Sebastian Vollimer was a big mistake. – agree?

With these two players, Gerald Sensabaugh and Sebastian Vollimer the Jaguars would be a lot closer to having a good defense and a very strong running attack. They may have made the playoffs.

– Terry O’Brien