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The Jacksonville Jaguars are starting Chad Henne against the Oakland Raiders on Sunday, as they've ruled Blaine Gabbert out due to the laceration on his throwing hand which required 15 stitches. It's possible Gabbert will miss more than a single game due to the injury, which has led some to think that it opens the door for Chad Henne to become the starting quarterback for the season.
Some people include Chad Henne.
"My job is play as well as I can and hopefully just keep the job," Henne told reporters before practice. "That's how I'm going to play it. I'm going to prepare as the starter, play my best and show the coaches that I can get the job done."
When Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley decided that he was going to go with Gabbert as the starting quarterback, he was pretty adamant that he wasn't going to quickly change his mind if Henne played well in the preseason and I'd be quite surprised if he changed his mind over the next week or so, that is unless Henne is just flat out exceptional.
"I think if we didn't go through this whole process there may be some of that," Bradley told the media when he announced Gabbert as the starter and asked if anything would change his mind. "But because right from the start we started this and the reason why we took this length of time is so that we would have some conviction and to stay strong."
Henne's state of mind as far as taking over the starting position is understandable, however it's a bit odd he would come out and say that. In order for Henne to change Bradley's mind, it would undoubtedly take more than just a single game against the Raiders, even in a win. Henne would have to show he was exceptionally better than Gabbert, who the team is still trying to get a full read on.
And that's been the problem with Henne so far, is he hasn't been able to show he's that much better of an option than Blaine.
I'm sure Bradley, Jedd Fisch, and the rest of the offensive staff saw the same things when reviewing the tape of the Chiefs game, in that Gabbert wasn't the biggest issue with the offense on the day. He had some turnovers that were the result of obvious miscommunication and a missed block on a screen, but the lion's share of the fault laid at the interior of the offensive line.
If the interior of the line can improve their play, I would expect Henne to have a decent outing against the Raiders. But then again, the Raiders defense was able to limit the Indianapolis Colts to just 274 total yards, including holding Andrew Luck to under 200 passing yards and sacking him four times.
I think we all know the Jaguars starting quarterback for the 2014 isn't on the roster, but the last thing a bad football team needs early in the season is yo-yoing of the quarterback position.
But then again, it probably really doesn't matter.