Organized Team Activities (OTA's) start up again this week, but it's still the dead zone. I figure it's that time to do the oh-so-way-too-early roster breakdown, and handicap the positions. We'll go position by position on the football team and look at who's competing for a roster spot, who's a lock, and who's on the bubble.
First, we'll start with the easy one: Quarterback.
Will be on the roster:
David Garrard: Garrard by all accounts has been typical David Garrard during mini-camp and OTA's. He's been very good on some days and very bad on others. Most of the time however, he falls right in the middle of each extreme. Early in the off-season I thought there was an outside shot the team could make a move in the draft, via trade, or in free agency and drop David Garrard and his close to $8 million price tag, but barring an epic collapse in the pre-season that now looks highly unlikely. The team can win, somewhat, with David Garrard but he does not seem as though he's the long-term answer for the football team. As of right now though, he's the best they have.
Likely on the roster:
Luke McCown: Luke McCown started off mini-camps with a strong showing, looking just as good as David Garrard in nearly every session, and better than him in one of them. His play however has tapered off as the team gets into OTA's. McCown's performance has been short of unimpressive during the OTA sessions, and much like Garrard he's been basically average. Some thought with a full year learning the offensive system and now a full off-season to work with, McCown could push David Garrard. That doesn't seem to be the case, however. Barring a strong push from undrafted rookie Trevor Harris or another quarterback being added, it's very likely Luke McCown is on the final roster as the back up quarterback.
On the bubble:
Trevor Harris: Trevor Harris is the underdog favorite in OTA's so far. I was left unimpressed with what I saw of him on the field at practice, but to his credit the majority of the time he was handing off to runningbacks or making short passes to the tight ends. The couple times he got in on drills some of his passes fluttered, but he did show the ability to take coaching and apply it. A few times after a wobbly pass down the seam, Jaguars quarterbacks coach Mike Shula would bring him over and go over something with him and the next pass would be a spiral on a rope. Trevor has some potential to maybe be a long-term back up in the league, but I'm not sure I buy him being starter material. He should however, be a lock for the practice squad at the least.
I should mention that it seems odd to me that the Jaguars have only 3 quarterbacks on their roster to this point. Typically they will have four guys, especially when one of the quarterbacks is the established starter. As we get closer to training camp, I would expect the Jaguars to sign another quarterback as a camp arm.
Who?
Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe Todd Bouman's still out there...