From the department of poor decisions:

Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Paul Spicer elected to not attend today's offseason training activity (OTA) at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium.  Fred Taylor, a regular no-show, was also absent, though he plans on attending a few between now and training camp.

Spicer's absence comes as a surprise, considering the amount invested at his position this year.  Spicer led the team in sacks last season, though at 32 years old, is rapidly approaching the end of his career.

It is probably contract related :

"I spoke to both of them this morning. I’ll let you ask (Spicer) how he wants to present it," Del Rio said when asked if Spicer’s absence is a result of contract discontent. "He expressed that he wouldn’t be here. I expressed that I’d like him to be here."

Paul last signed a contract with the Jaguars in 2006, a three year extension.  He's due to make 2.5 million dollars this season, and will be a free agent in 2009.  The Jaguars seem unlikely to give Paul Spicer the sort of extension that he would probably want at his age, though it's not suprising that he'd like to capitalize on his performance last season before he is rendered irrelevant by Quentin Groves and Derick Harvey.

There's always someone that's unhappy with their contract.  While Big Cat Country will always be unsympathetic to contract woes, it's not surprising to see Spicer do this, considering that the writing is on the wall for his future in Jacksonville.  He's a solid player that has a nasty habit of running his mouth and embarrassing the team, especially after we play the Indianapolis Colts. 

My advice to Paul is simple.  If you're not going to work out with the team, you better be working out somewhere, because all eyes are on your position, and nobody is safe. 

-Chris

"Mark Duffner"

"Linebackers; born July 19, 1953, Annadale, Va. Defensive lineman William & Mary 1972-74. No pro playing experience. College coach: Ohio State 1975-76, Cincinnati 1977-1980, Holy Cross 1981-1991 (head coach 1986-1991), Maryland 1992-1996 (head coach). Pro coach: Cincinnati Bengals 1997-2002, Green Bay Packers 2003-2005, joined Jaguars in 2006."

His first coaching Job at Ohio State in '75 was under the legendary Woody Hayes, a man who Duffner credits with having a drastic impact upon his life.

“It was the most unbelievable experience of my life. He was just an unbelievable person, highly educated and tremendous energy and work ethic,” Duffner said. “He had people skills like I’ve never seen ... it was a phenomenal experience for me.”

Duffner is a no-nonsense type of coach whom is clearly defensive minded. Below is a list of his record at Maryland from 1992 to 1996, which speaks volumes to this point.

Hmmm... anything jump right out at you? The points allowed dropped significantly over the duration of his tenure... Clearly a more effective defensive teacher than an offensive one.

Duffner is highly lauded by those he's worked with and even some sports media writers have given him positive marks. Below are three seperate excerpts all involving high praise for Duffner.

"Duffner (linebackers), Hamilton (defensive line), and Campo (secondary) are responsible for installing the game plan and making sure that what Smith calls is executed. Jacksonville's game plan for the Chiefs should be framed, and these three men deserve credit for limiting Larry Johnson to 12 yards rushing and holding the Chiefs to a total of 10 yards on the ground. Duffner and Hamilton coach the front seven and their group forced a one-dimensional pass attack."

4. Mark Duffner:

"Linebacker coach, Jacksonville
"Duf" is considered an exceptional teacher and has done a very good job of getting the Jaguar linebackers ready to go in the playoffs without their star middle linebacker, Mike Peterson. A new middle backer, a new signal caller and a road game against the Steelers -- that's a lot to get ready for. The Steelers averaged 1.7 yards per rush, and Ben Roethlisberger struggled all night. Coach Duffner got rookie Justin Durant ready and he looks like a star in the making. Durant (12 tackles), Clint Ingram (6), and Derek Smith (6) had 24 tackles, and two passes defended."

And this one from Jan 2000 praises Duffner and notes that the Bengals refused to allow Duffner to shop himself to the GB packers. Which points to his ability even eight years ago.

"ALMOST GONE: The team wants to keep its core unit together and that goes for the coaching staff as well. That's why G.M. Mike Brown refused linebackers coach Mark Duffner permission to interview with the Packers for the same job. Keeping Duffner is vital for the development of fast-improving young LBs Takeo Spikes and Brian Simmons...."

One thing I really like about Duffner is the quality of his character... something most Jaguars coaches and players have in common.

"As coach from 1992-96, Duffner disciplined or suspended at least four players for their involvement in dormitory theft and credit card fraud cases. Four football players received suspensions for gambling on college sports."

I like seeing a stat like this because even though Duffner took over a program in disarray in 1992 he still didn't "sell-out" and stuck to his values... demanding the same from his players.

“I’ve been really fortunate to have been raised Catholic and I work as hard as I can to live within the values of the Catholic Church. To coach football and have all experiences that I’ve had has been a real blessing,” Duffner said"

All-around a great individual.

The Jacksonville Jaguars offseason training activities start this week and with that begins the battle for positioning toward the final roster.  The NFL only allows 53 players on the final roster and an eight man practice squad.  I thought it might be interesting as be begin our position by position breakdown to look back at how many players we carry on our roster for each role.

Teams are required to have their roster at specific levels through training camp.  Because NFL Europa ceases to exist, teams have a hard cap of eighty players under contract.  On August 26th, the roster must be cut down to 75 players.  The final cut date is August 30th where the roster may only have 53 players.

Tracking roster sizes for each position is actually fairly complicated.  Players that are multi-functional, particularly on the offensive line, can throw off a count.  For the purposes of this analysis, I will treat all offensive linemen together.  Cornerbacks and Safeties are separated, but the Free and Strong safeties are counted together.

Offensive Roster Breakdown

Observations:

You can go out on a limb and assume that on the opening day roster (which is what I used to generate the numbers) that we will have three tight ends, one full back, and four running backs.  There is very little variance in the year-by-year breakdown.

The experience of last year at quarterback leads to the assumption that we will carry three on the roster this year, rather than go through the unmitigated disaster of listing Matt Jones as our 3rd QB.  Nothing is worse than hearing anyone in the media ponder the use of Matt Jones as the Jaguars signal caller.

Speaking of wide receivers, of the 10 on the Jaguars roster, only five or six can reasonably expect to make the final roster.  The position will be explored in a more depth part of this series, but it is obvious that the top three spots are filled.  The other three are an open competition of the muddled middle.  More on this to come.

Defensive Roster Breakdown

Observations:

The defensive numbers are a little more tricky.  The Safety numbers are artificially inflated in 2004 and 2005 by Nick Sorenson who despite being lights out on special teams, was a safety in name only. 

2007 was the only season since 2004 where the defense had the same amount of players as the offense.  Gregg Williams is going to have to make some hard choices, especially at cornerback, to trim the roster down to size.

Predictions:

1. The Jaguars will only keep five wide receivers on the final roster.  Adding another quarterback will limit the slots available, especially with the difficulty of trimming down some of the defensive positions.  It simply makes more sense to cut/practice squad a wide receiver rather than a cornerback.
2. As mentioned previously, the Jaguars will abandon the two quarterback experiment and hope that we never again have to all upon Todd Bouman.  Realistically, were the Jaguars to have a disastrous  quarterback meltdown due to injury, Bouman will probably be available, whereas Paul Smith would not clear waivers to make it on the Jaguars practice squad.
3. The Tightest Competition will be for the skill position players at receiver and corner, there are clear cut starters and very few open spots. 
4. Defensive end is another area to watch, as there are nine players fighting for four or five spots.  If you speculate that Spicer, Hayward, Groves, and Harvey are sure things, you've actually got five players battling over one possible spot.  The Jaguars have only carried five defensive ends once in the last four years.
5. Conspicuously absent from this analysis are special teams.  Some of the variation in roster spots comes from multi-role players like kick returners, gunners, wedge breakers, etc.  The 2008 Jaguars will have a rough time keeping special teams stars with the competition for solid roster spots.  Also, the Jaguars are unwaivering in their starting of a long-snapper, kicker, and punter.  Those three spots are the most consistent of the analysis.
   

This the first part in a position by position breakdown of the 2008 Jaguars.  With a little thought, it should be clear as to the makeup of the final roster.  While a lot can change due to injury, it's already apparant what the top of each position looks like.

Who do you think is a "sure thing" to make the roster.  No points if you guess David Garrard, Jerry Porter, Derick Harvey.  Who's almost guaranteed to get cut? (bonus points if you say Matt Jones)

-Chris

Quick Bytes: The daily digest of everything you need to know about the Jacksonville Jaguars (and other things).

:  I almost wrote an entire post today about my frustrations with SI's Peter King and his Monday Morning Quarterback.  This week's incarnation epitomizes my love/hate relationship with Mr. King as he quickly brushes off the nuggets of gold in his article, while spending far too much time spewing nonsense.

...I remember talking to San Diego GM A.J. Smith the night of the draft. "We got our corner,'' he said happily, referring to first-round pick Antoine Cason. You might wonder why Smith was so focused on getting his corner, with two good starters -- Jammer and Cromartie -- in house, even after losing Florence in free-agency to Jacksonville. "I'm a firm believer in this game today that you need three starting corners to win.'' Amen

:  Rick "Goose" Gosselin might be the hardest working reporter I've ever seen.  When he goes to the combine, his goal is to talk with every single prospect.  You don't see this on TV, but there are times when there are up to ten prospects in the media room at a time, and some only stay for less than five minutes.  To meet all of them, Rick must sprint between tables just to keep up with it.  It's quite remarkable.

Let's go with the Cowboys and Jaguars. The Cowboys improved in the draft on special teams, selecting elite college returnmen Felix Jones and Mike Jenkins, and the Jaguars improved their pass rush. I thought there were four elite edge rushers in this draft, and Jacksonville landed two of them in Derrick Harvey and Quentin Groves

:  Sticking with the "big shots", SI's Don Banks explores the consequences of the 80 man roster limit and how the loss of NFL Europa is going to hurt teams.

The potential ripple effect that will be spawned by the simmering controversy threatens to impact everything from the amount of throwing starting quarterbacks may be forced to do in camp, to the elevated playing time and risk of injury for veterans this preseason, to the decreased opportunity that rookies will receive in their bids to make an NFL regular-season roster

: Even ESPN will get some love from me today.  This article, by Elizabeth Merrill, follows a 6th round pick, Xaiver Omon, from draft day to his rookie minicamp with the Buffalo Bills:

His girlfriend, Lauren Williams, suggests they go outside and shoot some hoops. He sinks the first shot, misses the second, then Ludacris bounces on his cell phone. It's a 716 area code, and Omon wonders if it's a prank. The man on the other end is an exec with the Buffalo Bills. Omon doesn't have time to think it's strange, that the Bills weren't at his pro day, and now they're calling. He falls to his knees. Within a couple of minutes, he'll start to cry.

: Charlie Bernstein of JagNation brings us a great quote from Jack Del Rio on our new pass-rushing missile in Quentin Groves.  Charlie, who's both an gentleman and a scholar, does a great job over at JagNation, and if you're not reading them you're only getting half the story on the Jaguars.  (If you can't tell, we're a pretty tight fraternity of Jaguars writers

Jack Del Rio:
"He can play some end of the line 'Sam' but the way a 3-4 team might use him, you can do some of that if you're going to play a reduction front with that. But we didn't draft him with that in mind," Del Rio said. "We drafted him to be a right end, a pass rusher and a guy that if he shows he's capable of stacking the point and fending off tight ends, then we'll put him in position to make plays. We saw enough of that on tape, that he can stack the point. He did do 30 reps on the bench, he does roll his hips and when his hand placement is good, he has plenty of strength at the point.

It's Sunday Morning, that means it's time for a little off-topic reading.  I've arbitrarily decided that until football season beings, Sunday's will be where we take a part of our day and read some examples of fantastic writing.  This week's off-topic features the King of American Writing, Mark Twain.  This piece, "On the Decay of the Art of Lying", was submitted to a writing contest for a 30 dollar cash prize.  It did not win.  But it's a fantastic piece of satire, and worth a few moments of your Sunday.

Also, and please may Big Cat Country not be your reminder, but it's Mothers Day today.  This website and my passion for football wouldn't exist were it not for my Mother's persistence.  I may not understand her obsession with Oakland's Rob Ryan but she introduced me to football.  So on this day of days, I like to say thanks!

Mark Twain, below the fold:

Continue reading this post »

Here's something fun to remember as you enjoy your friday

I remember being at this game.  I remember singing "goodbye" to Dan Marino.  I also remember the crushing disappointment of the next week as the Jaguars run the Super Bowl was thwarted by the Tennessee Titans.  I remember thinking back that this game was filled with hubris and that we paid for it over the next several seasons.

Anyhow, I'm a bit under the weather this week.  I'll be back later this afternoon with possibly another interview.

-Chris

Quick Bytes: The daily digest of everything you need to know about the Jacksonville Jaguars.

:  Let's start with another walk down memory lane.  In this piece from deep inside the Sports Illustrated Vault we learn about the life and development of  Tony Boselli and his road to the Jacksonville Jaguars.  This will surprise you, as a youngster, Tony loved to eat:

Despite earning minimum wage, he never complained about his paycheck because he was close to the action and close to the food. On his breaks he would devour Big Macs, french fries, milk shakes and apple pies. "One of my managers called one day and said, 'I can't afford him. He's eating more than he's making,' " Tony Sr. says. "So, I transferred Little Tony to the landscaping crew."

:  If you don't mind a little math, Big Cat Country favorite NFL Stats breaks down the Ellsberg Paradox and why coaches should go for it more on fourth down.  While the Jaguars are not mentioned directly, the shadow of Jack Del Rio is everywhere.

: The Football Professor has done the math and made their 2008 season projections .  They have the AFC South finishing like this: Indianapolis Colts 11-5, Jacksonville Jaguars 10-6, Houston Texans 7-9, Tennessee Titans 7-9.  I'd be OK with that outcome, though the road to a Jaguars Super Bowl must run through a division title.

: Believe it or not, there's actually a little bit of drama at the running back position for the Jaguars.

: I'll never understand how the writing is so terrible at ESPN.com, but ESPN the Magazine does fantastic work.  Are they so terribly divided that they can't share the talent?  Anyhow, David Garrard is the subject of a fantastic article, though it leaves me with some questions about his wife:

"Jack took a chance on him," says Garrard's wife, Mary, sitting next to her husband on the couch. She pauses, purses her lips. "It would have been really hard for me to hitch my cart to a guy who ended the season like Dave did in 2006."

Garrard says. "I'd had a few turnovers, and I needed to step up. That play changed the way people saw me. It changed the way I saw myself." Garrard adds that when he called Mary after the game, she just kept screaming into the phone, "Ka-ching! Ka-ching! Ka-ching!"

: A list of 2009 free agents , courtesy of Adam Schefter of NFL.com.  Let's go ahead and spread a rumor that the Jaguars are targeting T.J. Houshmandzadeh.  And yes, I had to copy/paste that.