Jacksonville Jaguars Daily: Barry Church fined $24,309 for Rob Gronkowski hit

Barry Church fined for hit on Rob Gronkowski in AFC Championship Game - ESPN.com
Jacksonville Jaguars safety Barry Church was fined $24,309 for his hit on New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski in the AFC Championship Game, according to ESPN’s Mike Reiss.

For a third straight day, Gronkowski was listed on the Patriots’ injury report as a Did Not Practice due to a concussion.

The hit, which happened late in the first half of the Patriots’ 24-20 victory, knocked Gronkowski out of the game. He was later diagnosed with a concussion.

What grade would you give the Jacksonville Jaguars for their 2017 season? - BigCatCountry.com
As the Jacksonville Jaguars head into the offseason — presumably to fix their quarterback situation in free agency and their lack of young tight ends in the draft — it’s time to start looking back on what was a memorable, if not ultimately underachieving season.

Who thought the Jaguars would secure a playoff spot and the division title before the end of the year? Who thought we’d get our first home playoff game in 18 seasons and then end the AFC Championship game mere minutes away from a trip to Super Bowl LII.

Not me.

Blake Bortles said he’d be “thrilled to be able to stay” with the Jacksonville Jaguars - CBSSports.com
Normally, the quarterback of a team that makes it to the conference championship game would be pretty much guaranteed to return to the team the following season. That’s a whole lot of success to turn your back on, after all. This year, though, there are two teams that lost in their conference championship that may not have the same quarterback by the start of next season.

One of those teams is the Jacksonville Jaguars. Blake Bortles struggled badly through his first three seasons in the NFL, and it was quite a surprise when the Jags picked up his $19 million fifth-year option last offseason. Bortles showed a decent amount of progress in 2017, though his play was obviously not the driving force in getting Jacksonville to the title game.