Jaguars GM David Caldwell has blank slate, even at QB

The Jacksonville Jaguars have new leadership in place, in the form of general manager David Caldwell and head coach Gus Bradley, and owner Shad Khan has given them the freedom to overhaul the roster as they see fit. The two have preached competition and going young, which means no one on the roster is safe, regardless of tenure or salary.

This also means at the quarterback position with Blaine Gabbert, who the new regime has no loyalty to. When I say "no loyalty" I mean he's not their guy, he could be their guy, but they won't be afraid to replace him with their guy. They didn't make the investment, so as far as they're concerned he's just another guy on the roster and could be replaced with someone better.

Michael Silver of Yahoo! sports when on to detail some teams who could be addressing quarterback in the offseason, including the Jacksonville Jaguars.

"Don't be surprised at anything we may or may not do," a high-ranking Jaguars source told Michael Silver of Yahoo!. "There are no options off the table."

While the front office has put forward their best coach speak in talking up Blaine Gabbert, that shouldn't be a surprise given the time of year it is. The team's not going to come out and just go "Yep, he's awful." while they haven't found a new solution for the position. The front office has also made it a point to hammer home that no one's start position is guaranteed, even at quarterback, and that there will be competition brought in one way or another.

All of this however, isn't a surprise.

The surprise in the article Silver wrote has to do with the "Blame Gabbert" portion of his story, where a former Jaguars assistant tells Silver that nothing was ever Gabbert's fault and there a internal concerns about his leadership ability, accountability, and overall attitude.

This doesn't seem to jive with what we've seen however, at least in terms of leadership and accountability. I can't speak for Gabbert's attitude behind closed doors, but this is the first that we've heard of it, at least in a negative light. As far as Gabbert's leadership is concerned, we haven't seen or heard anything indicating he's not a leader or can't be. Players have publicly supported him. Typically, if you're not a leader in the locker room it's going to come out in one fashion or another, and like the attitude portion this is the first we've heard.

The only part of Silver's story I feel like I can say seems to clash with reality is the concerns about Gabbert's accountability. While publicly the coaching staff and the front office in the past have passed the buck on the blame for Gabbert's struggles, Gabbert has never done so. In fact, Gabbert has gone out of his way to shoulder the blame for the offenses failings in press conferences and in post-game comments.

Maybe there's something going on behind closed doors in that regard, but I'm always wary of "former assistant" criticism, because it generally reeks of someone being upset they were fired. There's plenty of assistants who could feel that way after last season, however.