When a draft day trade is struck, there doesn't necessarily have to be a winner and a loser. Generally, the team trading up is usually one of the better teams in the league looking for top flight players to help them take the extra step needed to be a Super Bowl contender while the team trading down is looking to maximize the value they can find in the draft to help their team long-term.

In many cases, both teams get exactly what they're looking for, but the draft is an unpredictable thing and often times one team will end up looking like the poor decision makers of the two. Trading up is a risky move that will leave a team looking dumb if they pick a draft bust (*cough cough* Derrick Harvey) or smart if they pick a winner. It is a move that sometimes works, but trading down is a move that usually works.

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The Jaguars have had several positions to address in each of their offseasons since Gene Smith took over as general manager following the 2008 season. While Smith has certainly dedicated his efforts in each year to upgrade the positions that most crucially need upgrading, there are some positions that just don't get addressed.

There are only a few free agents worth pursuing at any given position with the talent to be a building block and future starter and there are slim odds that a starting-quality player will be found in the draft after the first two or three rounds. With these limited amount of resources, no team is able to completely change the face of their team for the better in one offseason and it takes years of compiling high-quality players at each position to make a good team.

Among the positions that could be on the back burner is cornerback, but should it be? And if it is, how much longer can the Jaguars wait to replace Rashean Mathis, who will be 32 and recovering from ACL surgery before the start of the 2012 regular season?

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Had Kyle Williams not had the two of the biggest special teams disasters of the 2011 NFL season in the NFC Conference Championship, there's a good chance it would be the San Francisco 49ers getting ready to play the New England Patriots in a few hours. Their 13-3 season was the first winning season for the 49ers since Steve Mariucci was head coach, Garrison Hearst was the leading rusher and Terrell Owens was the leading receivers in 2002.

Yet they did so with a former first overall selection at quarterback, Alex Smith, who was widely, if not unanimously, considered a bust entering the 2011 season. They won 13 games with the 26th ranked offense and a passing offense that didn't ask for their limited quarterback to do too much.

Jim Harbaugh set up a template for success that the Jaguars can and should follow for the 2012 season.

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When Gene Smith explained exactly what his drafting philosophy was last year, it wasn't the cut and dry, rank-and-pick selection style that Vic Ketchman made it out to be. Instead it made a lot of sense why the Jaguars have happened to address needs in each of their last three drafts.

"You have grades ranges – what I call levels – within a round," Smith said. "When you get farther down the board, you get more players who become more similar. You take the greatest need within a grade range, but you’re going to take the guy who is a level above if he’s still there." - Jaguars.com (April 21, 2011)

The reality is that the draft is certainly need based, but a drafter can't sacrifice value to address that need. The Jaguars need to find a wide receiver, but if there isn't one worth taking at the seventh overall selection, they'll look elsewhere. Given their recent draft histories, I also doubt the Jaguars would take a position they don't perceive as a need just because a player is ranked slightly higher on the draft board.

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In 2003, Jack Del Rio was hired as the head coach of the Jaguars, serving eight full seasons before being fired during his ninth season in 2011. Through those eight full seasons he coached the Jaguars, he never once lead his team into the playoffs as the AFC South division champions.

Also in 2003, Peyton Manning earned his first ever AP All-Pro and won the 2003 NFL AP MVP award after leading the Colts to a 12-4 record. Between 2003-2009, the Colts had seven consecutive seasons with 12 or more wins and won the AFC South in every year during that span with the exception of the 2008 season in which they were dethroned by the 13-3 Tennessee Titans.

While the Jaguars certainly weren't world-beaters any time during that era of Colts dominance, each year they were given very little chance at winning the AFC South title. But with the absolute implosion that was the Colts in 2011, the future for Mike Mularkey's Jaguars isn't so daunting.

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Between the 2007-2010 seasons, Mario Williams racked up 43.5 sacks making him one of only six NFL pass rushers to accumulate over 40 sacks during that span (DeMarcus Ware, Jared Allen, John Abraham, James Harrison, Trent Cole and Williams. With a move to a 3-4, Williams became an outside linebacker and had no problem racking up five sacks in five games before a torn pectoral ended his year. If a player of his quality were to hit the open market, there's no doubt the demand for them would be high and they would receive a very large contract.

$22.9 million per year is too much for any team, though. That's the amount that the Houston Texans would have to pay Williams if they were to use the franchise tag on him. An amount that would likely make him the highest paid player in the NFL for the 2012 season and an amount that John McClain of the Houston Chronicle says the Texans "can't afford."

So now the Texans are faced with no other choice than to come to terms on a long-term deal with the former first overall pick before he officially becomes an unrestricted free agent on March 13, exactly 48 days from today. They must do so while also worrying about re-signing superstar running back Arian Foster and other expiring contracts such as G Mike Brisiel, TE Joel Dreessen, C Chris Meyers, among others. Which boils down to a very real possibility, if not likelihood, that Mario Williams will hit the free agent market in March.

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How does a team with the NFL's leading rusher and a top 10 ranked defense win just five games? By having one of the worst pass offenses in recent history.

Let this soak in for a second: the leading receiver for the Jaguars in 2011 was tight end Marcedes Lewis with 460 yards receiving. There were 99 different players in the NFL this year with more than 460 yards receiving, but not a single one of those 99 were Jaguars.

In fact in the 17 seasons since the Jaguars entered the league in 1995, only the 1997 Buccaneers, 2003 Lions, 2004 Ravens and 2011 Jaguars have had their leading receivers finish with under 500 yards receiving.

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Analyzing and breaking down the play of Blaine Gabbert is all the rage right now. All the cool kids are doing it.

In recent years sports blogging has taken off and the average NFL fan has transformed into an analyzing machine. Everyone has an opinion about every player and is quick to go to the computer to voice it. The easiest position to formulate an opinion about is the quarterback position and this has led to a tremendous amount of Gabbert analysis.

Everyone has created an idea in their head about the type of quarterback that Gabbert is and will be in the future, and is quick to look for any shred of game-day evidence to back their point and allow them to say "I told you so."

The culture of instant criticism has led me to wonder what the reactions would have been to the rookie seasons of some of the NFL's other quarterbacks had there been the same opportunity to hyper-analyze as there is today.

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