Dave Caldwell lists Maurice Jones-Drew, Paul Posluszny as 'core' players for Jaguars

The Jaguars have made sure that everyone knows they are in a rebuild that could take time and general manager Dave Caldwell reiterated that to Dan Pompei of National Football Post, although he also said that he doesn't "see any reason why the [the Jaguars] can't be competitive short term."

With holes all over the roster, it would certainly be surprising if the Jaguars were a competitive team in 2013; however, Caldwell highlighted a few players that could help the team be good early in the rebuild. The four players he chose to mention, though, may be surprising to some:

"Mostly we're looking at building a long term foundation," Caldwell said. "But I don't see any reason why we can't be competitive short term. We still have a solid core of players here-Maurice Jones-Drew, Marcedes Lewis, Eugene Monroe, Paul Posluszny. There are some key pieces here that if you get a youth movement, some speed, some aggression, some hunger, we feel we can get competitive pretty quickly."

Jones-Drew is a player entering the final year of the 5-year, $31.1 million contract extension he signed in April 2009 and reportedly has no upcoming contract talks with the team. Posluszny is a defensive team captain, but there has been some speculation that his role on the team isn't worth the $8.5 million he is due to count against the cap in 2013, the highest number on the team.

Given Caldwell's comments, though, it would seem as though both players are a "core" part of the team's long-term plan.