Paul Kuharsky Reports on the Jaguars: Alexander promoted, Groves demoted

This is just the team sending a message to a player who needs to play with more focus and passion. It’s all about perfoprmance, about doing your job. Just ask Nate Hughes. My guess is that Groves will get it, and come back strong.

selected Derek Cox as the biggest rookie surprise of the AFC South

"When the Jaguars traded the New England Patriots a second-round pick in 2010 and a 2009 seventh-rounder for the third-round selection they used to draft William & Mary cornerback Derek Cox, a lot of eyebrows were raised.

I’m not one to put too much stock into predraft publications, but Cox wasn’t in Pro Football Weekly’s draft guide and Mel Kiper had Cox as his 106th cornerback. One person in a decision-making position in the AFC gave me the standard line about which of Cox’s school namesakes the player more brought to mind (not William). I asked another about where his team had Cox rated; he indicated it was nowhere near that high.

All of them and anyone who suspected GM Gene Smith and his scouting staff had overreached can’t say much now. They have to admit early returns suggest they underestimated Cox.

He has been a solid starter for Jacksonville. His two picks lead all rookies, and the first one ended his first NFL series, a takeaway of a Peyton Manning pass aimed for Reggie Wayne. He’s also got a fumble recovery.
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 The Jaguars say he’s a ball hawk who got beat some early and has been very solid since. The job’s not too big for him. Cox is not intimidated by names, reputations or statistics. He’s humble, smart and quietly goes about his business.

If he keeps doing it like this, he’s the sort of selection who could come to define the Smith regime — in a good way.

Side note: The seventh round pick the Jaguars dealt away to New England as part of the package for the Cox pick was used by the Patriots on wide receiver Julian Edelman. Edelman is AFC East maestro Tim Graham’s selection for his division’s Rookie Surprise."

This draftclass is amazing, and Gene Smith slowly make me a real big beliver then something REAL BIG started this year!

I just hope we can hang on to Gene.

the fact Harvey was downgraded to a guy who just came from the rams practice squad is a terrible sign for Quentin. It means if cannot start to play well, he will be not with this team next season (that’s what Jeff Lageman and Vic said on “Jaguars This Week”.
And by the way, Derrick Harvey must sack the QB this week. I mean the Saehawlks O-line is banged up like our O-line was last year. Seriously when sack the QB if not in these 2 upcoming games!!!!

Kind of surprising he gets demoted 2 spots, I guess performance is evaluated on a week by week basis because I remember him making a few nice plays against Indy and a couple against Houston.

I think demoting him is partially based on performance but they might also be trying to foster competition to the point that we have several DEs or blitzing linebackers or whatever you want to call them who are talented enough to play on a regular basis.

The only job I had during my football career was to rush the passer and I can tell you that it’s one of the most tiring positions out there. Having two or three guys who can roll in would be a tremendous advantage for us.

Maybe we can make our DE’s function similarly to the Patriots RB corps. We’ll see Groves again very soon.

we are all missing out on one fact. The depth chart is listed as a 4-3 defense. Yeah he doesn’t really anywhere in a 4-3 defense, but I bet once we get into a 3-4 we will see plenty of him on the field.
Look at this team’s 43DE’s. They are all run stuffers, minus an arguable Derrick Harvey. Otherwise there is Ellison and Greg Peterson were both DT’s, and Julius Williams is a runstuffing DE that actually played a lot inside in college despite his lighter weight.