If you’re in a dynasty or keeper league, you’re worried about Justin Blackmon. If you’re in a re-draft league and grabbed last spring’s fifth overall pick as a depth option, you’re worried about Justin Blackmon. If you play fantasy football and breathe oxygen, you’re worried about Justin Blackmon.
On the NFL Network the other day Kurt Warner rated the top rookie Quarterbacks two weeks into the season. Robert Griffin was the obvious choice for the first spot, but the former Rams legend shocked many when he rated Ryan Tannehill ahead of Andrew Luck and Russ Wilson. Insert horrendously offside concussion joke here.
In terms of fantasy football, drafting rookies will always be an inexact science. RG3′s preseason projections have found the garbage bin while owners around the world are furiously googling Greg Zuerlein with reckless abandon. Every Wednesday we’ll take a look at the favorable and unfavorable match ups for rookies around the league. Read the rest of this entry »
We know that when Justin Blackmon finally arrives at training camp after missing nine days so far, he won’t be Justin Blackmon. He’ll be some lesser, far more average figure at first. We also know that while Blaine Gabbert struggles quite enough on his own to complete passes to anyone, Blackmon was drafted at such a high position because his role is to hopefully play A.J Green to Gabbert’s Andy Dalton, giving the Jaguars a dynamic and young wide receiver-quarterback duo for many years.
We just don’t know when Blackmon will show up. Still.
There’s progress in his contract talks, and talk of talking. That’s encouraging and positive, but the Jaguars have reached the point now where it’s almost certain Blackmon won’t play in their preseason opener, and very soon they’ll be flirting with a two-week absence for the lone remaining unsigned first-round pick.
It is, quite simply, inexcusable. The hurdle that’s stalling the talks is easy to understand, or at least we assume it is. Blackmon is supremely talented on the field, but supremely stupid off of it, and Jags GM Gene Smith is surely trying to work in some language into the contract which insures the team against future moronic behavior. Blackmon’s expected to get a four-year deal worth about $19.5 million, and if there’s a need to cut him at any point in that deal, Jacksonville wants to include offset language to avoid having to keep paying a former player if he leaves and signs with another team.
That’s all swell, Gene. But weren’t you aware of this kid’s character concerns prior to drafting him? Sure, he then had a DUI after the draft, but that just means he’s living up to his scouting report. The Jaguars are getting what they paid for, or rather what they might pay for if they ever agree to compromise, a possibility that isn’t looking rosy.
From Vito Stellino:
Jaguars general manager Gene Smith said he is having “healthy communication’’ with Todd France, Blackmon’s agent.
Smith said that was a positive but it remains to be seen if the communication will lead to a breakthrough in the talks that will get Blackmon, a receiver and the last unsigned first-round pick in the NFL, into camp any time soon.
France confirmed the two sides are having conversations, but declined further comment.
Despite his character concerns, the offset issue will be difficult because the two picks sandwiching Blackmon (Morris Claiborne and Matt Kalil) didn’t have offset language in their contracts.
So Blackmon will sit, and he’ll wait, and so will Maurice Jones-Drew. Meanwhile, the Jaguars will continue to suck.
Ahhh hope. The object that fans of struggling teams eternally lust for, and the drug that’s the only cure for their addiction. They need and crave hope, because it’s the only tonic that protects them from the darkness of a prolonged NFL basement residency.
Like any drug, there needs to be a manufacturer that’s perfected the main production principles. And usually, the draft is the NFL’s Walter White, as even now in early August before your team starts to be the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked, there’s already hope out there, and a sun that will rise next April. Let’s explore briefly.
Does your team’s quarterback morph into a tiny turtle at the first sign of pressure in the pocket, and he can’t place a ball within a five-foot radius of a receiver? Don’t worry, Matt Barkley is going to be awesome.
Is it a running back you crave, because the running part of the running back title has become increasingly difficult? Montee Ball is going to be a star, as long as he has personal security guards around him at all times.
But there’s one team that’s attempting to smash this formula with its recent draft picks. I present to you, the 2012 Jacksonville Jaguars.
