With Jaguars watching, once partially paralyzed boy plays football | jacksonville.com

Luke Akerstrom ran down the field holding a football with his right arm, with the crowd cheering. The farther he went, the wider his smile became. Someone who didn’t know the 6-year-old’s story might have wondered why his gait seemed a little bit awkward. But to everyone there at that field it was a beautiful sight. It was Luke running, a year after his family and doctors weren’t sure when or if that would happen again.

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Attention to detail

Sylvester Croom has coached long enough to know what’s important. That’s one reason the Jaguars’ new running backs coach wasn’t annoyed, bored or anything except very interested late last week when the team’s newly compiled offensive staff spent a few hours one morning on one page of the team’s evolving playbook. Croom, 57, the former head coach at Mississippi State and a 20-year NFL assistant, said that morning was about details so small many might miss them. And that was fine, he said.

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No timetable yet

Paul Posluszny couldn’t be more optimistic about his long-term future. As for the short-term, Posluszny – the Jaguars’ middle linebacker and leading tackler last season – said although he doesn’t know exactly when he will be allowed to practice, he’s not ruling out that happening during the next few months. Could that mean participating in organized team activities?

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NFL Confidential: Jaguars get a game on Thursday night | jacksonville.com

INDIANAPOLIS — The Jaguars found out Friday they will be playing at least one prime-time game next season despite their 5-11 record. Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that the NFL Network will carry a Thursday night game from Week 2 through Week 15 and every team will make at least one appearance.

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Gene Frenette: Better foundation ahead for Blaine Gabbert to improve | jacksonville.com

It's impossible to know whether Greg Olson, the Jaguars' newly hired quarterback coach, will transform Blaine Gabbert into a long-term solution at the NFL's most important and scrutinized position. There are likely more doubters than believers at this moment. What is certain is Gabbert has a much better chance to develop now than he did in a dysfunctional 2011 rookie season. For those still down on Gabbert, who went 4-10 as a starter with a league-low 65.4 quarterback rating, be mindful that he had the worst of three different worlds. There was no offseason preparation time due to the NFL lockout. The Jaguars had a deficient receiving corps that was so improperly coached, it necessitated a midseason firing. And Gabbert, the youngest quarterback in history to start 14 games as a rookie, was thrown into an environment where his own position coach had to be moved.

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Maurice Jones-Drew talks changes in Jacksonville | ProFootballTalk

Maurice Jones-Drew likens himself to "The Wolf" in Pulp Fiction. He’s been hired to clean up the struggling ratings at OCNN. Getting the Jaguars turned around figures to be even tougher.

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A clean process

Some things Mike Mularkey knew he wanted to do differently this time. Mularkey, after a two-year stint as the Buffalo Bills’ head coach in 2004-2005, said in the six years since he thought often about he how would approach a chance to interview again for an NFL head coaching position. And if he got the job?

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Getting started

The coming days, weeks and months will be busy ones for Mike Mularkey and the rest of the Jaguars’ coaching staff. For Mularkey, that actually means the pace won’t change much. The Jaguars’ coaching staff on Monday met as a group for the first time at the team’s facility at EverBank Field, this coming days after Mularkey – hired 19 days ago as the franchise’s third permanent head coach – completed the bulk of the process of hiring a staff.

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