Coming off the Jewish New Year, which was essentially 2 days of prayer and introspection(and no TV/computer/etc.) I did a lot of thinking about various things, including various Jaguars-related issues. I also had some lengthy football related conversations with my brother, and as a whole changed my mind on various things.

First of all, and perhaps most controversial of all, retrospectively I have to say that you got to want Garrard as your QB right now. Although he did in fact have a horrible preseason, he has proven himself to be a league average QB, and he could have held the reigns much better then McCown did, and would have allowed Gabbert to not be "thrown into the fire," something this coaching staff did not want to do. While his salary was high, you would have gotten more bang for your buck, assuming Garrard was exactly league average. I don't recall exactly what the article said, but I think an article my brother had read said that Garrard would have provided $13 million dollars of production over McCown.

The next conclusion I came to is that Gene Smith MUST go. The reasons are numerous, and not one of them is that he is a poor evaluator of talent. The best overall reason, in my opinion, is to present a hypothetical situation. If it was the 2000 draft again, and Gene was the only GM with the knowledge of Tom Brady turning out to be as good as he is, Gene would draft Gene in the first round, and end up with worse players in later rounds, when a normal person in that situation would exploit that piece of info, look for other really good players in the earlier rounds and then at some point toward the end of the draft would finally draft Brady. Obviously you could poke flaws in the situation, but the general idea applied to some of Gene's draft choices is applicable. 

My final major point, at some point prior to or at season's end, this coaching staff  has got to go. Up until a few weeks ago, I was still caught up in old excitement about some these coaches(Cullen in particular; dude is intense, but I still am not seeing the desired statistical production). Truth is that while they might be decent coaches, things are just not working out with them. I think it is time for new blood to take hold of this roster, and hopefully achieve greater success. In particular, over the holiday, I was throwing around names of potential coaching candidates, including a few names I have seen mentioned on this site. I am not really sure who I have concluded I would prefer most, but a few guys I am a bit hesitant about are Ferentz and Ryan. Regarding Ferentz, I am not sure why he would come to the NFL, and I am not sure what is so appealing about him. Couple that with Gene's departure, and I do not think he is a legit name to consider. As for Ryan, he is a 3-4 guy who has s system heavily reliant upon unique blitzes and lining up heavy on one side of an offense. That is likely not going to work as effectively with a 4-3 defense. Take Rob Ryan's defensive scheme out of him, and what more does he really offer?! My final point on the coaching situation is that if the Jaguars don't display a decent effort today(which toward the end of the second half, I guess you could say they are), I would say getting JDR out and promoting an interim HC from within might just be worth it.