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Who is the worst player in Jacksonville Jaguars’ history?

By Daniel Lago

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Early on in their existence, the Jacksonville Jaguars had an unprecedented run of success. By their 5th season, the franchise had made it to 2 AFC championship games and looked poised to become a perennial contender. That didn’t happen, as the Jaguars found themselves in salary cap hell and the subsequent decade-plus of poor decisions and lack of player development highlighted the futility we’ve had to witness over the last several years.

You don’t end up with an unprecedented streak of top 10 draft picks without making a handful of horrific decisions along the way. The Jaguars have selected a player in the top 10 of the NFL draft since the year 2008! Unsurprisingly, very few of those players have worked out, with some of them warranting discussion as the worst player in franchise history. Chris Burke over at SI.com underwent that discussion and posted an article about it, choosing mega-bust Derrick Harvey as the Jaguars’ worst player:

"DERRICK HARVEY"

"DE, Jacksonville JaguarsJacksonville made Harvey the eighth-overall pick at the 2008 draft. By the 2010 season he was on his way out of town, as Jeremy Mincey began cutting into his snap count. The Jaguars’ flip-flopping between 3–4 and 4–3 schemes did not help Harvey’s NFL transition, but he has little room for excuses. Making matters worse: Jacksonville traded four picks to Baltimore for the right to take Harvey—for only eight sacks in three seasons. After Harvey was waived by the Jaguars, he was signed by the Broncos for a season, before his NFL career came to an end."

It’s hard to argue with Harvey being the pick here, but I respectfully disagree.  While Harvey was a bust, being ineffective is not as bad as being decidedly crippling. Blaine Gabbert might be the worst quarterback in the history of the NFL to start as many games as he did. His 5-22 record is bad enough, but when you consider the Jaguars traded up to draft a guy who currently has a career completion percentage of 53.2% and a comically low yards per attempt (5.6), how can you not pick Gabbert as the worst player in franchise history? The team wasted 3 years trying to see if Gabbert would ever develop into anything more than an average practice player, but instead we watched him get worse every season. Sorry Harvey, but Gabbert takes this dubious award.

Next: Jags worst loss in history?

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