Now that the adrenaline rush has died down and we were all able to get some sleep on the pick, I have a few thoughts. First and foremost, the "base hit" philosophy went out the window in the first round for the Jacksonville Jaguars. As I've been saying all off-season, you can't base hit on a quarterback. You've got to take a swing. Gene Smith put Albert Pujols at the plate with runners in scoring position last night.
"We're excited to add a talented player at a premium position. We had him rated highly," Jack Del Rio told the media last night. It's clearly the Jaguars had Missouri quarterback Blaine Gabbert rated very highly on their board. "There's special situations where if you're able to get a guy that you've done that you feel very good about starts to slide, especially at the quarterback position," Gene Smith told media members last night. "We just felt this one right here made too much sense not to get a player we felt could be a very good player for us in the future."
The big question for Jaguars fans now is what happens at the quarterback position? Taking a quarterback in the top 10 is going to cost quite a bit, especially without a rookie wage scale. On top of that David Garrard is set to make about $8 million in the 2011 salary. The big question will be if the Jaguars plan to let Blaine Gabbert sit for a while during his rookie season or if they want to play him right out of the gate. Typically, top 10 draft picks at the quarterback position play in their rookie season, but the Jaguars are in a situation where it's only necessary if they want it.
After the dust has settled, how do you feel about the pick?