As we all know, Maurice Jones-Drew's holdout has become official as he will not be reporting to training camp on Thursday according to reports. A new report has surfaced from CBS Sports Mike Freeman that Jones-Drew is "angry" with the Jaguars and might be willing to push the envelope.
But a source close to the running back stated that Jones-Drew is angry with the team for not rewarding him with a new deal. This is not a shock. Of course he's angry. But I'm getting the feeling Jones-Drew may be willing to push the envelope a bit in terms of when he shows up. He won't hold a portion of the regular season (at least I don't think he will) but there's no question, a source close to the back says, he's considering testing the will of Jaguars leadership.
That's a battle he can't win and Jones-Drew knows this and he'll likely come to his senses.
As Freeman noted, this isn't a battle Jones-Drew will win publicly or with the team. I'm sure he will miss a few days, even a week of training camp, but has to realize this isn't worth the fight and the negative image from fans that will indeed follow.
If he really wants to push the Jaguars to the point of testing the "will of leadership" the team can turn around and begin to fine him $30,000-per-day of training camp skipped. Pushing this situation too far will make the relationship close to unrepairable and will ruin any shot of Jones-Drew getting a new deal after the 2012 season. I don't have anything to base the feeling on, but I feel like Shad Khan might be one of those owners willing to let a player "rot" rather than cave in and trade them.