Quick Bytes: The daily digest of everything you need to know about the Jacksonville Jaguars (and other things).
So I just finished re-watching the Jaguars-Titans game and it honestly was not as bad as I had thought. Defense and Special Teams were outstanding and kept the game within reach. Vince Young continued to prove that he's not ready to be a team leader, and the Jaguars start the season much like last year, 0-1.
Of course, there's a teeny-weenie problem with our offensive line. Specifically the absence of any left and right guards. How important could that be to a team that likes to run the ball?
: The first issue the Jaguars had to address was figuring out who to bring in to fill out the Jaguars depth on the offensive line. The Jaguars signed OG Milford Brown and OT Chad Slaughter, players that are best described as journeymen, to say the least. Milford was most recently seeing game action with the St. Louis Rams when they suffered an offensive line massacre. Ryan of Turf Show Times, the SB Nation St. Louis Rams Blog, had this to say about Milford:
Ah, Milford Brown. His tenure in St. Louis was brief and unmemorable. The Rams never got much going up the middle last season and upgraded this year. Brown was let go and the Rams turned to two rookies from the 2008 draft to fill in the depth chart. He certainly didn't look like starter material with the Rams last season, but neither was anyone else around him on the line which could color my view.
So there's that.
: Chad Slaughter is a little more interesting. First off, he's big, 6-8, 340lbs, so he can certainly fill some space. Second, he's a tackle, not a guard, which helps back up Barnes, though still raises some questions about what happens in the middle of the line. Mo Williams and Vince Manuwai are beasts as run blockers, can Slaughter get into the rotation and be effective?
: Perspective time. Think ahead a few weeks, Brad Meester comes back, which means that Dennis Norman can play guard, which makes our line look like Barnes, Norman, Meester, Nwaneri, and Pashos, which is a pretty solid line, albeit one that has zero margin of error. The Jaguars have next to nothing on the shelf on the line and the injuries put into question the very key to what the Jaguars do.
That said, adversity brings good things out of teams. So have faith.
: The Jacksonville Police Department say that Richard Collier was "targeted". Jaguars players and Richard's family have inreased the reward for information from $1,000 to $10,000. Richard is considered to be in critical but stable condition.
:WTF is going on with Vince Young?
-Chris