Dante Fowler: “I was a caged animal this year”

Dante Fowler’s premiere season probably didn't go the way he hoped. As we all know, Fowler missed his entire rookie season after tearing his ACL in his first ever practice as a pro. After returning from injury and looking like an all pro in the ‘underwear olympics’ practices of the offseason, Fowler kind of fell off the map. He wasn’t very noticeable in the rest of training camp, or in the Jaguars preseason games. He started to show some signs of life in weeks two and three, where he got his first sacks and also a quarterback hit that caused an INT. Since that time, however, Fowler has been relatively quiet as a pass rusher, until this past week when he had a violent sack against the Titans.

Fowler has previously discussed being hampered by a shoulder injury that he obtained early in the season. It’s possible that the injury is what he was referring to in his latest Instagram post, but some people are questioning if Fowler was actually pointing the finger at the Jaguars coaches.

Now, as I previously mentioned, it’s quite possible that Fowler was referring to his injuries when talking about himself as a caged animal. However, considering the Jaguars coaches being questioned before Marrone took over, and the fact that they told Fowler to tone it down in training camp, his words could be taken as an indictment against the coaching staff.

Are Fowler’s comments a shot at the Jaguars coaches, or just him being angry about injuries? Or, is something else entirely that we may not know about? All are possible options, and unfortunately, we probably won’t ever know the actual truth.