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Bryan Anger "not willing to negotiate" with Jaguars

The Jaguars letting Bryan Anger walk wasn't much of a surprise. The fact that the Jaguars were willing to negotiate with him and Anger was the one who decided to leave is.

By Ryan Day
Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

The Jacksonville Jaguars moved on from former third-round punter Bryan Anger, who never quite became the "weapon" he was drafted to be. He's digressed over his four-year career, ending last year with just a 39.5-yard net average (22nd in the league) and just 26 of his 80 punts downed inside the 20-yard line (16th in the league), which is why the team went after Carolina Panthers punter Brad Nortmans.

When he became a free agent this year after finishing out his four-year rookie contract, it made sense the Jaguars would either ask him to take a scale of pay relative to his performance (below average) or just not offer him anything at all.

That's why it's surprising that when general manager Dave Caldwell was asked about Anger's release during a Thursday afternoon press conference that he said the team was willing to negotiate but that it was Anger and his agent who wanted to walk away.

"It’s a situation we didn’t want to have to use a pick on in the draft," Caldwell said. "We offered a deal to Bryan. They weren’t willing to negotiate with us. Brad’s people reached out to see if we were going to move on. We felt like we owed it to Bryan to give him the opportunity to come back here. So we moved on to next best guy out there."

Anger will be able to find a place in the league, but he probably just wanted to be somewhere that didn't hate him for former general manager Gene Smith's mistakes.

He finished his career in Jacksonville with 360 punts for a 41.5-yard net average. Only 31.4% of his punts in his four-year career were downed inside the 20. He also received an All-Pro vote once.

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