FanPost

I Got My Hater-Blockers On



A recent Fan Post here on BCC sparked up a lot of conversations which ultimately, until next season, will continue running in circles until somebody gets afforded their "I told you so" rant post, but that's not the point of this post. Since when has giving up on a 1st round draft pick ever, EVER, been a good idea before that season was even over? Before he ever had a legitimate offseason? Hell, before he even had a chance to start 15 games? I get it, we are all dissatisfied with what we've seen so far, it's hard not to be.

Can we for one minute, put the tomatoes away and remember how football used to be when it was fun? Before we were all experts of "the eye test" and before we suddenly thought statistics, madden player ratings and fantasy football were the proper way to asses a player's value? Well I'm no expert, and I never have been, but I'm a Jacksonville Jaguars fan. I stood by David Garrard until the team decided to cut him, and I knew it would be a rocky year with Gabbert, most of us did. This recent bandwagon of guys trying to bury Gabbert got me thinking about what kind of sain/logical fan can really put such little faith...or even patience into our beloved Jaguars. It's simple: the kind who cares more about winning today than winning tomorrow.

Of course, if you ask them directly, they'll say they have nothing but the future in mind, but that doesn't make any sense. You mean to tell me the guys who are sitting back and waiting for the future to arrive are the same guys who haven't even given our Quarterback 15 F%^&'n games? Really? His talent is for the team to decide, quite frankly, which is why I, personally will no longer be feeding the Gabbert trolls. Either he gets better or he doesn't, end of story.

What is interesting is that these guys that are so interested in the "future" (aka replacing Gabbert with a top 5 QB this year) are not actually looking into the future. In our laps, we will most likely have either Claiborne (who many feel is a better coverage prospect than Patrick Peterson), Kalil (who a great many feel is the best OL to come out in a while) OR Blackmon (who I'm not particularly high on, but is rated by many to be the 3rd or 4th best guy in the draft and is a definite need). But we'll draft another QB, instead? Barring some crazy trade, I can't possibly imagine this benefiting us more than sticking with Gabbert and taking one of the above mentioned.

For the haters, let's say Gabbert sucks next year. The confetti will come down, Brian Levenson will be marching people around in circles and drinking electric vodka lemonades from football shaped fruit while he talks about tough David Garrard was. Awesome. But low and behold, now we have a high draft pick again. Seems natural right? Bad QB, bad draft pick? We'll have our shot at whatever flavor of the week QB there is in the 2013 draft and hell, if a QB is available, it couldn't hurt to take him.

But what if we did take, say Barkley, this year. What if they both suck? What if they're both great? What if one of them never gets the opportunity to outshine the other one. What if one loses total confidence because his replacement has been drafted one year into his career?

What if (Barkley) comes in and wins the spot, looking great, but still has no one to throw it to, or any protection and he gets hurt, leaving us with Gabbert to take over the rest of the season (in this scenario, presumably suck) and we end up with a mid-round pick in 2013 and no real shot at picking up someone significant?

I could play what ifs all day, but no matter how long I play with it, I see this: drafting a QB in the first round this year destroys our long term rebuild that is stars on offense away from being completed. If Gabbert sucks next year, we'll be picking in the top 10 and have another try, anyways, but as a much better team to bring in that stud rookie (that much of the fanbase will settle for no less than). People talk about how jumpy Gabbert is to pressure, but no one is talking about how jumpy our fans are to pressure. You want him to be tough and stand in the pocket when he delivers? Where is our toughness to look at the mainstream medias words in the face and support our team...rather than take the sack and throw our QB away?

I got my hater blockers on, now, and if someone doesn't even have the patience to give a guy 2 years before they call for his head, I have no reason to even consider reading their opinion, anyways.

FanPosts do not necessarily reflect the views of the authors of Big Cat Country or SB Nation.