"We’re a young team that fought its way into (playoff) contention. Another strong offseason and we ought to knock the door down"
Those are the words of the Jaguars embattled head coach, Jack Del Rio. The day after the team's third collapse in his tenure, Del Rio set the bar high for the 2010 Jaguars.
If I was in a particularly cynical mood today, I would be writing about how this move screams of trying to placate the ever growing lynch mob wanting to tar and feather him and send him out of town tied to a CSX locomotive. I would want to say that a coach who has seen his team crash and burn in December more times (three) than actually beyond Week 17 (two) has no right to say that with the right kind of offseason this team will be a legit contender.
If I were in such a mood, I would be saying that this supposed defensive mastermind has managed to lead a defense that gave up the second most points in team history this year, and is a coming off the kind of day you expect to see from Tampa Bay in the snow. If I were a cynic I would be pointing out that barring the Jaguars somehow having the second coming of Dan Marino fall to them in the draft, David Garrard will once again be the quarterback of this team. The same quarterback who has made me ponder if the Jags would be better off jettisioning and signing Jeff Garcia as a stop gap. That last part would only come out if I was having a really bad fit of cynicism.
Rather, I'm happy Jack decided to raise the bar so high for himself. I'll set it abit higher and say that the Jaguars need to win either a playoff game or the AFC South for Del Rio to stay past 2010.