For those who are unfamiliar with Deron Cherry, he's considered to be one of the finest safeties to ever play in the NFL. He was a six-time Pro-Bowl player and a five-time All-Pro in the mid-1980's for the Kansas City Chiefs. In 1995, Cherry became a limited partnership owner in the new NFL expansion team, the Jacksonville Jaguars. Recently, Deron Cherry caught up with Adam Tiecher of the Kansas City Star during his annual celebrity golf tournament.
I was alerted to some rather interesting comments Cherry made regarding the teams first round draft pick, Missouri quarterback Blaine Gabbert.
As a player, Deron Cherry seems to covet Blaine Gabbert. I wouldn't expect him to say otherwise, being a Jaguars minority owner. "We know he's physically talented," Cherry told Tiecher. "He's big and tall and a good athlete and can throw the ball. The other thing is that there's not that many quarterbacks at the top of the draft. When you get a chance to move and you can get a quarterback who can be your future, you have to do it."Cherry went on to say who he thought Gabbert reminded him of, "He compares favorably to me to Josh Freeman. When Josh was at Kansas State, he had some big games and then all of a sudden you'd see him play and you'd say, ‘This kid isn't a player.' But in Tampa he's in a good environment and he's got good coaching and he's turned out to be a pretty solid quarterback in the NFL."
The eye brow raising comment, to me at least, that Cherry made followed his praise of Gabbert and focused on current starting quarterback David Garrard. "Let's face it: David (Garrard) is serviceable but long-term whether he's going to be there or not, who knows? We needed a quarterback. Last year, we wound up playing a quarterback we signed off the street for one game, the game in Kansas City. That shows you how desperate we were," Cherry told Tiecher.
Well, for what was actually an insanely boring off-season for the Jacksonville Jaguars is beginning to ramp up and become rather humorous. Then again, could be I'm taking Cherry's comments out of context, like Jones-Drew's. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't expect Cherry to say anything different in his praise of Gabbert, as it's towing the company line. Cherry didn't seem to tow the line when he shifted his comments to David Garrard, however.