What Happened To Our Glut of Receiver Talent?
By Luke Sims
In the offseason it looked like the Jaguars had enough wide receiver talent to be a contender in the passing game. In week one it seemed like it was all starting to come together. Then the offense jumped back five steps and was right back to where it was last year: last in the league.
While the team has been hit hard by injuries (13 players haven’t seen the field this season) the only receiver among them has been Laurent Robinson for two games with concussions.
Before the season, reading names like Robinson, Justin Blackmon, Cecil Shorts III, Kevin Elliott, and Mike Thomas (ok, maybe not Thomas) instilled confidence in our fan base. The decision wasn’t how many more receivers can we fit on the roster? It was which ones should be cut?
It felt like we had talent to spare. It felt like we were finally catching up to other teams with our draft classes. Then it all came crashing down.
Is that talent we saw still there? Did we all just fall for coach-speak? Was the preseason really so far from the truth? It’s tough to admit, but we were all duped. Our receivers aren’t terrible, but they certainly are not at a level where they can be effective yet.
This team doesn’t have a glut of talent at any one position. In fact this team is barely scraping by. But the evaluation process can’t be that far off, right? What in the world happened? Were we really all suckered into it? Did our coaches get it wrong? Is this just another case of In Gene We Bust? Or is it time to return to In Gene We Trust? We shall see. Right now I’m stuck trying to figure out where it all disappeared to.
– Luke N. Sims
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