Saturday Morning Buzz: Gene's Job

Is there any Jaguars fan that envies the task in front of GM Gene Smith and the rest of the Jaguars' personnel department? It's tough enough that they have to evaluate and grade all of the young men entering the draft. On top of that, they have to determine whether or not to submit contract offers to such people as O.J. Atogwe and Bob Sanders. These days, Gene Smith is a very busy man. Envy his job? I think not.

Gene Smith will be evaluating a draft class as the final decision maker for the third time in late April. That in and of itself is a mammoth task to coordinate. He also has to evaluate free agents as they enter the market. That mammoth task is starting to look more like a T-Rex (Rex for short). In the coming months Rex will rear his ugly head time and time again, but I, for one, have confidence that GM Gene will pick the right paths for the Jags. He hasn't led us astray yet, and I see no reason to believe he will in the future.

Atogwe, formerly of the Rams, isn't likely be a factor of reasonable discussion for the Jags. His price tag seems to be too high for Gene Smith to seriously consider adding him. Atogwe will land somewhere, and we can only hope it's outside of the AFC South.

Bob Sanders created quite the stir yesterday! Sanders may want a big deal with a new team, but it's not likely to happen. The topic of the Jaguars picking up Sanders was kicked around for the better part of the afternoon on Friday so there's not much left to add. Fortunately, that's never stopped me from piping in anyway. Gene Smith will go through the process of evaluating what it would take to put Sanders in teal next year. If the price vs. reward balance is in the Jags' favor, he'll give Sanders an offer. If not, we'll all soon forget all about this ordeal.

Wow with so much safety talk, it's almost easy to forget about the upcoming NFL combine. Almost. The combine is the biggest of all scouting events. Yes, I realize that most teams have already formed in-depth opinions and reports of many of the players, but during no other single event does so much evaluating, testing, and reporting occur. The results will be out soon enough (early March). I promise to focus more on the draft then, but I don't like to delve too far into draft prospects until it's over. It's just too hard to tell right now, and the biggest player stock moves will be during the combine and shortly thereafter. I guess that's just the nature of Rex. Do you envy Gene Smith yet? I know I don't.