Heath Evans: 'Mike Mularkey Is Distancing Himself From His Players'

I avoided writing up a post about Michael Lombardi and the embarassing coverage he provided for NFL Network during their live look-in at Jacksonville Jaguars training camp on Tuesday because we've been down that road before and it didn't need to be traveled again.

That is until Heath Evans started talking on NFL Network on Tuesday evening. Evans went on air and said that Jaguars head coach Mike Mularkey is "distancing himself from his players" because he had not contacted Maurice Jones-Drew, who is in the middle of a holdout and contract dispute.

First of all, that's completely incorrect. Mularkey and Jones-Drew have not met face-to-face, because Jones-Drew has yet to be back to the facility since Mularkey was hired, but they have spoken with each other. They've spoken on the phone a couple of times, so to say that Mularkey hasn't contacted Jones-Drew is just flat out incorrect.

Evans then went on to say that the Jaguars won't win more than five games because Mularkey lacks "intensity" and intimated that the head coach is somehow creating a rift between himself and his players based on information that Evans had incorrect.

Look, I know the Jaguars are going to get criticism and I know it's difficult to know the in's and out's of all 32 NFL franchises when you're expected to talk about all of them. What I don't understand however, is the apparent common place it is for people to go on air and say things that are flat out factually incorrect.

If you don't know, why state something as fact? I don't get it.

Update: John Oehser of Jaguars.com seems to agree.

There are many real issues in #Jaguars camp. Injuries. Development of Gabbert.WRs. ...Mularkey not connecting with players not among them.

— John Oehser (@JohnOehser) August 8, 2012