[Note by River City Rage, 02/11/09 8:02 PM EST ]: Mild edits, it's not 23 million in guaranteed money, it's 17 million and a 5 million cap hit for this season.
Via Michael C. Wright and the Times Union:
The team announced the moves via e-mail at 4:15 p.m. EST. "In going through our personnel evaluations and roster analysis we are making decisions that we believe will help improve our team for the 2009 season and beyond," G.M. Gene Smith said in a release.
As I just said in a conversation with Chris
me: must say I'm amazed Gene had the balls to pull the moveChristopher: yeah, me tooit's one thing to say you've got principals...its another to cut 17 million dollars worth of guaranteed money23
The purging of the 2008 Jaguars that began with the resigning of Shack Harris has now truly begun with the two poster children of that excesses of an offseason that didn't result in a Super Bowl run but managed to lead to the most disappointing season this franchise has had since injuries did in the 2000 team.
Frankly, I believe Porter and Florence's combined signings will go down right next two R.Jay Soward's drafting as one of the worst front office moves this team has ever made. As Chris noted, the team just cut $23 17 million in guaranteed money. The team had the cap room to do this, and with the expectation that we won't sign any big name free agents, it won't have that big of an impact.
However, it does send an earth shattering message to the rest of the locker room. If there was still any lingering doubt, I think the message is now totally clear, Gene Smith is in 100% control and what he says goes.
-John