Quick Bytes: The daily digest of everything you need to know about the Jacksonville Jaguars (and other things).
: I almost wrote an entire post today about my frustrations with SI's Peter King and his Monday Morning Quarterback. This week's incarnation epitomizes my love/hate relationship with Mr. King as he quickly brushes off the nuggets of gold in his article, while spending far too much time spewing nonsense....I remember talking to San Diego GM A.J. Smith the night of the draft. "We got our corner,'' he said happily, referring to first-round pick Antoine Cason. You might wonder why Smith was so focused on getting his corner, with two good starters -- Jammer and Cromartie -- in house, even after losing Florence in free-agency to Jacksonville. "I'm a firm believer in this game today that you need three starting corners to win.'' Amen
: Rick "Goose" Gosselin might be the hardest working reporter I've ever seen. When he goes to the combine, his goal is to talk with every single prospect. You don't see this on TV, but there are times when there are up to ten prospects in the media room at a time, and some only stay for less than five minutes. To meet all of them, Rick must sprint between tables just to keep up with it. It's quite remarkable.Let's go with the Cowboys and Jaguars. The Cowboys improved in the draft on special teams, selecting elite college returnmen Felix Jones and Mike Jenkins, and the Jaguars improved their pass rush. I thought there were four elite edge rushers in this draft, and Jacksonville landed two of them in Derrick Harvey and Quentin Groves
: Sticking with the "big shots", SI's Don Banks explores the consequences of the 80 man roster limit and how the loss of NFL Europa is going to hurt teams.The potential ripple effect that will be spawned by the simmering controversy threatens to impact everything from the amount of throwing starting quarterbacks may be forced to do in camp, to the elevated playing time and risk of injury for veterans this preseason, to the decreased opportunity that rookies will receive in their bids to make an NFL regular-season roster
: Even ESPN will get some love from me today. This article, by Elizabeth Merrill, follows a 6th round pick, Xaiver Omon, from draft day to his rookie minicamp with the Buffalo Bills:His girlfriend, Lauren Williams, suggests they go outside and shoot some hoops. He sinks the first shot, misses the second, then Ludacris bounces on his cell phone. It's a 716 area code, and Omon wonders if it's a prank. The man on the other end is an exec with the Buffalo Bills. Omon doesn't have time to think it's strange, that the Bills weren't at his pro day, and now they're calling. He falls to his knees. Within a couple of minutes, he'll start to cry.
: Charlie Bernstein of JagNation brings us a great quote from Jack Del Rio on our new pass-rushing missile in Quentin Groves. Charlie, who's both an gentleman and a scholar, does a great job over at JagNation, and if you're not reading them you're only getting half the story on the Jaguars. (If you can't tell, we're a pretty tight fraternity of Jaguars writersJack Del Rio:
"He can play some end of the line 'Sam' but the way a 3-4 team might use him, you can do some of that if you're going to play a reduction front with that. But we didn't draft him with that in mind," Del Rio said. "We drafted him to be a right end, a pass rusher and a guy that if he shows he's capable of stacking the point and fending off tight ends, then we'll put him in position to make plays. We saw enough of that on tape, that he can stack the point. He did do 30 reps on the bench, he does roll his hips and when his hand placement is good, he has plenty of strength at the point.