As the Jaguars embark on another season, it’s anything but just another season.

On one day, Wayne Weaver fired the coach and sold the team, all before breakfast and changed the course of Jaguars history. Firing Jack Del Rio was long overdue (hard to believe Del Rio was the Jaguars head coach for 9 years with only one playoff win) and selling the team was somewhere on the horizon. The timing of the sale seemed a bit abrupt until the facts revealed that Weaver and Shad Khan had been working on it for a while.

“It’s a one owner at a time league,” Khan said in December as the wheels of the sale were grinding away. Everybody was anticipating some changes, but Khan was prudent, waiting until the sale was complete on January 4th before making any changes. When he started, he showed immediately he meant business. Changes in the front office and the hiring of a president of the club were his first moves. That was followed by the hiring of three VP’s to make the Jaguars run a bit smoother on the business side.

“Corporate cultures grow for different reasons,” one Jaguars observer said. “Sometimes they are planned, sometimes they grow by necessity and other times it’s just organic. They go in a certain direction.”

The Jaguars had gotten to a point where it seemed the same leadership was going to take them in the same direction. That’s where Khan’s ideas shifted the team’s direction. All but the leadership in the IT and Communications departments has changed. Fresh ideas abound at Jaguars headquarters.

After spending time with Gene Smith, the Jaguars General Manager, and checking on his reputation around the league, Khan threw his full support behind the long-time Jaguars personnel man. That lead to Smith selecting Mike Mularkey as the Jaguars head coach.

Having a chance to attend OTA’s, mini-camps, training camp and pre-season practice, I can tell you the on-field situation is completely different. Mularkey has a plan, he tells the players what he’s looking for, and is seeing if they can perform at a high level with that kind of expectation.

“We want the players to succeed and they need to know we’re going to put them in situations to succeed,” Mularkey said recently after practice. Mularkey is a no-nonsense coach that the players appreciate. “We know what we’re doing, when we’re doing it and how we’re supposed to do it,” one Jaguars player said after a recent practice. “Last year, we didn’t know what we were doing,” he added.

It’s hard to predict what kind of success the Jaguars will have on the field. There are so many factors that go into winning in the NFL, not the least of which is staying healthy. But there’s no question they’re vastly improved over last year and now have a chance to win.

“That’s all you want,” one local reporter recently told me. “To have a chance to win. Last year you knew in most games they didn’t have a chance. This year, they have a chance.” They’ve upgraded almost across the board on offense and still have a championship-worthy defense.

Shad Khan has designs on the Jaguars winning championships and becoming the international face of the NFL. To quote one Jaguars insider, “The Weavers did a great job setting the stage and establishing the Jaguars franchise. Now they’ve passed the baton to a faster runner.”

I can’t remember a draft pick for the Jaguars that was a universally liked as their choice of Justin Blackmon. Perhaps when they picked Fred Taylor but outside of that, it seems that every other pick was greeted with some skepticism. Certainly there were complete busts in R.J. Soward, Reggie Williams, Derrick Harvey and Matt Jones. And there have been some iffy picks like Reggie Nelson and Tyson Alualu.

Blackmon is a whole different story.

He’s a player other teams wanted. He’s considered elite. He’s big enough at 6’1″ and 207 lbs, he’s fast enough at just under 4.5 in the 40 but it’s his attitude that changes the equation.

“He has an edge,” Head Coach Mike Mularkey said right after making the selection. “I like the fact that he comes to the line of scrimmage and says ‘Nobody can cover me.'”

Blackmon fits a need the Jaguars clearly have on offense, upgrading the wide receiver position and hoping to give help to Blaine Gabbert. Add him to off-season acquisitions Lee Evans and Laurent Robinson and all of the sudden the Jaguars have a passing game that looks like something the NFL will have to pay attention to.

That is if Gabbert develops the way everybody in the Jaguars organization hopes.

It’s hard to believe that General Manager Gene Smith would be willing to part with a draft pick to move up in the first round but he says it’s easier when you’re moving up to get a starter. “He’s a player we coveted and the way things came together we were able to get a very good football player,” Smith said in his usual understated style.

From New York by phone, Blackmon said he expects to come to town and get to work. “I’ll go over the middle, I’ll be the guy who’s working hard.”

He’s not a stretch by any definition, he fills a need the Jaguars have, and he creates a buzz for the Jaguars fans, waiting for what he might be able to do.

If Shad Khan has told his football “people,” namely Gene Smith, to get quarterback Tim Tebow, (and there are rumors that he has), how do they make that work?

To begin with, that puts Smith in a spot where he’ll have to eventually make a tough decision: swallow hard, stay with the Jaguars and go get Tim Tebow no matter that he doesn’t think it’s the right football move or eventually give up his job as GM because the owner is making the personnel decisions anyway.

Maybe it’s not as cut and dried as that but certainly there’s plenty on intrigue and a full domino effect going on in Jacksonville and around the league now that Peyton Manning is in Denver and the Broncos have decided to make Tim available.

If the deal involves a 5th round pick, it’s almost a no-lose situation for the Jaguars. While they never want to part with draft picks, a fifth rounder is a small price to pay for a bona fide hometown hero who is a feel-good acquisition with tremendous public relations upside.

He’s not the football player the Jaguars want at this point. They’re building a team with an offense that employs a strategy a pocket passer can flourish in. For all of the good things Tim does, he’s not that.

So let’s say they go get Tebow at the right price (assuming that he actually wants to come here). So then what? After all the PR dies down, and the ticket sales level off (possibly as many as 6,000 new season ticket holders claim they’ll buy tickets just to see Tim in a Jaguars uniform) it’ll come down to football and competition.

And that’s a very cold hearted, calculated business.

Tebow was put in the lineup last year for Denver not because he had beaten out Brady Quinn for the backup job or Kyle Orton as the starter but because the team started 1-5 and needed something different. Broncos head coach John Fox simplified the offense, changed the game plan and Tim helped the team get to a .500 record and a win in the playoffs. He didn’t display any superhuman quarterback talents and in fact, in just about every statistical category he was substandard to the average quarterback in the league. But he provided a spark across his team and grabbed the attention of a lot of non-football fans, so much so that every late night talk show and even Saturday Nigh Live featured Tim in some form or fashion.

And the Broncos won games.

But one time through just over half of the schedule doesn’t solidify anybody in the NFL where you constantly have to prove your worth on the field. Tebow does have all of the intangibles you want in any athlete competing at the highest level but, as the Patriots showed in the second round of the NFL playoffs, that doesn’t always mean victory.

Tim would join the roster as the third-string quarterback for the Jaguars behind Blaine Gabbert and newly acquired Chad Henne. Based on Gabbert’s lack of production and Henne’s newness, he’d be given a chance to compete and at the end of training camp let’s say he’s still the 3rd string quarterback. He’s not happy with that and certainly his fans wouldn’t be either. But again, it’s a cold and calculated business.

New Head Coach Mike Mularkey would be in a very tough spot knowing that every incompletion, interception, stalled drive or loss on the scoreboard would bring out the chants of “Tee-Bow” from part of the crowd.

So here’s the solution. Keeping three quarterbacks is no big deal in the NFL. If Gabbert progresses they way they hope, they build the offense around what he and Henne can do. But they have a change of pace 10-15 play offensive package that takes advantage of Tebow’s skills and most importantly, gives the Jaguars the best chance to win.

It’s unconventional, but sometimes that’s the thing that works in the league. Any offense that takes the ball out of Maurice Jones Drew’s hands too often isn’t smart, but adding another dimension with a lot of upside could be a game changer for the Jaguars.

Or it could get everybody fired.

Then what? Start over?

Again?

In the Jaguars locker room today, I talked with Mel Tucker and Mike Mularkey about the whole hiring process and how Mularkey convinced Tucker to stay.

“Actually it wasn’t,” Mike said when I asked him if it was a tough sell to keep Tucker as his Defensive Coordinator. “Mel and I are a lot alike. Sometimes you just need to sit down one-on-one.”

That’s encouraging because Tucker is a very solid coach and perhaps even a better guy. If he’s staying, it’s for the right reasons. If he says Mularkey is a good coach, you can believe that in that fraternity of coaches, Mularkey is well respected. Right now it’s a love fest but Mularkey demonstrated his respect for Tucker by giving him the additional title of Assistant Head Coach.

“I didn’t do that lightly,” he explained. “I’ll consult with Mel on a lot of things. I’ve told him things this morning I wouldn’t have told other assistants.”

Tucker will pick the defensive staff and said Joe Cullen and Mark Duffner have already agreed to stay. Mel stayed because “this is where I’m supposed to be” and added “Mike and I are on the same page.”

“Sometimes when guys don’t have exotic looks on defense and they just lineup and say ‘here we are'” Mularkey explained when asked how an offensive coach picks a defensive coordinator with a certain philosophy. “That can be more troubling for an offensive guy than anything else. Mel’s done that and the players respond to that by playing with a lot of confidence.”

Mularkey said Bob Bratkowski, the new offensive coordinator, is literally driving from Atlanta to Jacksonville today (Friday).

“One of us was going to be the Offensive Coordinator in Pittsburgh and the other was going to be the same in Cincinnati,” Mularkey said when asked about his history with Bratkowski. “I stayed with the Steelers and he had a nice 10-year run with the Bengals. At one point we shared a small office together so I know him well.”

I can see why Mularkey interviews well and why Gene Smith and Shad Khan were impressed. He’s very clear-minded, friendly, and direct. He smiles, is pleasant and is confident all at the same time.

Sometimes the questions asked of the head coach in press conference situations can be pretty pointed and occasionally hostile. So far, Mularkey has an understanding of how to answer those questions, being honest but not revealing information he needs to keep to himself.

He welcomed the Jaguars employees today by hosting a pizza lunch at the stadium. “I just wanted to let everybody know I’m here to help,” the Jaguars new head coach explained. “Tickets, charity, whatever, I want them to know my door is open and they can come talk to me.”

He even joked that he’s trying to learn everybody’s name. “Two a week,” he chuckled. That’s a pretty good departure from Del Rio and even Tom Coughlin. Both had their own style but neither had the “approachability” that Mularkey displays.

“There’s a little extra pep in everybody step here in the building,” one employee told me.

Mularkey hopes to build his staff quickly but said he doesn’t have a timeline. He added it’d be nice to have them together by the Senior Bowl (practice starts January 23 in Mobile) but he said he wouldn’t rush it.

He will hire a quarterbacks coach and mentioned it might be somebody with offensive coordinator experience. He didn’t mention names but he obviously has somebody in mind.

Nobody’s going to rush out and buy tickets or get excited because of a bunch of football coaches but Mel Tucker said it’s pretty satisfying to be on a staff where everybody has the same goal.

“These guys are professionals and good coaches,” he said today. “When everybody has the same goals, you can achieve great things.”

When Shad Khan arrived in Texas Wednesday morning, he was the star attraction. His every move at the NFL owners meeting was documented and then some. There were nearly a dozen photographers catching glimpses of Khan as he moved through the halls of the Four Seasons hotel. The celebrity of being an NFL owner is something new for most of the men who move into that club. I’m not sure Khan was used to having his picture taken as he exited the men’s room.

Wayne Weaver’s arrival signaled the beginning of the final chapter of his ownership of the Jaguars. If he was with mixed emotions about selling the team he had settled that back home. But that doesn’t mean selling the team wasn’t bittersweet. “I’ve used that word a lot this week,” Weaver told me in the hallway outside the banquet room where his fellow owners would soon approve the sale to Shad Khan. “It’s hard to give up the NFL, but it’s time. And I’ve found the right family to continue the Jaguars legacy in Jacksonville.”

As the rest of the owners convened for their regular meeting, the first slot on the agenda was the sale of the Jaguars and approving Khan as the new owner. It didn’t take long.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell introduced Weaver and Khan at a mid-day press conference after Khan’s confirmation. He related that when Khan’s application was presented to the full membership he opened the floor to questions. “And there were none,” the commissioner outlined.

So they voted, 32-0 in favor or the sale.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had nothing but high praise for both Wayne Weaver the Shad Khan. “Anytime would be too soon for me” Jones said when asked about Weaver’s planned departure. “Wayne has been a great partner both as an owner in the room and for the Jaguars. We’ll miss him, for sure.” Having said that, Jones was quick to praise Shad Khan as an owner calling him a “significant owner when you think of his financial strength.”

The interaction between Weaver and Khan shows a mutual respect for each other’s accomplishments and a gratitude to have found each other for this deal: Weaver to exit with his legacy intact, Khan to take over with a commitment to the same values Weaver brought to the table as the Jaguars owner 18 years ago.

“I want the fans in Jacksonville to know I’m here, reporting for duty,” Khan said during his prepared remarks. “Let the fun begin.”

He’s saying the right things and seems to want to make it work in Jacksonville. He’s obviously excited about owning the team and getting started, assuring fans he’s in it for the long haul.

“It should be a virtuous circle,” the new Jaguars owner told me during our interview on the six o’clock news. “We support the fans and the fans support us. Everybody wins.”

Sure sounds great.

On a team with Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry as the coordinators, you might think the head coach would operate in relative obscurity. But Jim Lee Howell was well respected as the Head Coach of the New York Giants, getting them into the NFL Championship game three times in his seven years as head coach.

In the 1990’s, when asked about the defensive prowess of his Gators football team, then Head Coach Steve Spurrier always said, “You’ll have to ask coach Stoops,” referring to Defensive Coordinator Bob Stoops. Current Gators Head Coach Will Muschamp did the same last week when asked about the offense, deferring to Charlie Weis as the offensive coordinator.

So when for a few weeks now Jaguars Head Coach Jack Del Rio has referenced Dirk Koetter, the offensive coordinator when asked offensive questions, I shouldn’t have been surprised. But I still don’t have to like it.

No matter what your specialty, the head coach is just that, as Del Rio has reminded us over the years, a coach of all phases of the game and generally the face and the voice of the franchise. Early in the 2011 season, Del Rio said he’d like to see the offense “mix it up a little bit” yet didn’t do anything about it while the game was going on. He admitted the plays go through him via his headset on the sideline, but he didn’t speak up.

After Sunday’s Jaguars loss to the Texans at home Del Rio gave us some insight as to how things work, or don’t work, in the Jaguars hierarchy.

Down by a touchdown, Luke McCown (who had replaced an ineffective Blaine Gabbert at quarterback) completed a third down pass for 25 yards to Marcedes Lewis brining up a 4th and two with just over a minute to play. With one timeout left, it seemed that would be the logical thing to use at that time. Get everybody together, call your best two-yard play and get the first down. But instead the Jaguars ran to the line of scrimmage and threw a quick slant to Mike Thomas that fell incomplete and the game was over.

More than a minute to play and the clock runs out with the Jaguars holding a timeout in their pocket.

“We had a play we liked and the coverage we expected, we just didn’t execute,” said McCown in a quiet Jaguars locker room. And that’s what you expect the quarterback to say. But when asked about it, Del Rio said, “I asked Dirk if we wanted a time out there and he said no, so we didn’t call it.”

So at the most crucial point of the game, the head coach relinquishes the decision making to one of his assistants? That’s why I was trying to give Jack an out when I asked him if he had made the decision to change quarterbacks in concert with Koetter. “No. I did,” Del Rio quickly answered. Which makes no sense at the most basic “Who’s in charge” level.

The head coach let’s the assistant decide if they’re calling a time out yet unilaterally changes quarterbacks? The head coach has to be the final arbiter of any kind of decision like that and even if he’s not he can’t sluff it off on one of his assistants. You’re on the sidelines; you have to have a feel for what’s going on in the game. There’s not a person in the stadium that wasn’t thinking, “Nice play. OK, call a time out here and get organized to get the first down.”

Maybe they were trying to catch Houston off-guard, maybe there are a thousand reasons not to call time out.

I just wanted to hear one.

A friend of mine was sitting in a sports bar during a recent Jaguars road game with some “real” Jaguars fans. Not just casual observers but guys who have been supporters of the franchise since the beginning. When the opposition took the lead, my friend was at first appalled and then amazed when these fans were rooting for the enemy to win and win big.

Why?

“Because we’ll sacrifice this season to get rid of Jack Del Rio,” was the quick response.

And that’s how it goes in the NFL.

Coaches have a shelf life in the league. Long tenured coaches are a rarity anymore. Don Shula, Chuck Noll, Tom Landry, all legendary coaches who’s stays in Miami, Pittsburgh and Dallas spanned decades are now the products of a bygone era. They won, sure, but they also lost. And that was acceptable by their owners who had confidence that they were “rebuilding” and would make the team competitive in the near future. Again. And they were right. Partially because of the unlimited money that owners could put into their clubs and partially because those guys were actually great coaches. Nobody called for their jobs. Players and fans respected what they could do and owners were sometimes the object of scorn for being “cheap” or “lazy.”

That all changed with the salary cap. It leveled the playing field for just about everybody when it comes to acquiring players (maybe not when it comes to making money) so owners have a shorter attention span and less patience when it comes to winning. They want results and based on how teams are built now, about 5 years is the time frame for a coach to prove whether he can produce a champion or not.

Right about that time in Del Rio’s tenure, the Jaguars looked to be an ascending team. A road playoff win at Pittsburgh and an emerging quarterback looked to be the building blocks for a championship run. Del Rio and David Garrard were rewarded for what seemed to be their potential with new contracts. Which never panned out. Garrard never got any better and the Jaguars free-agent moves backfired. Having gone from good to very good, the team never got to great and started to back up.

“A coach rarely survives a quarterback change (Leftwich) or a retooling of the roster once let alone twice,” Del Rio admitted before the 2011 season. But in fact, Jack had done just that. “We’re going to be a good team,” he declared more than once in the preseason and into the regular season, saying it with such confidence that it was hard not to believe that he really believed it. Little things, most self inflicted, kept the Jaguars from being somewhere near .500 early in the season and as the team’s won-loss record became more lopsided, the calls for Del Rio’s job got louder.

In the end, it’s Wayne Weaver’s call regarding Del Rio’s future. While Weaver can be emotional, he’s very measured before making any kind of major personnel move. He’s actually concerned about the people working for him. Contrary to some opinions, Weaver is not cheap. And he wants to win. He also wants to put people in the stands and generate some excitement for his team.

Del Rio isn’t doing any of that. It’s a results oriented league. And if he’s not winning, “potential” doesn’t keep any head coach on the sidelines in the NFL.

After 6 weeks of camp and exhibition games, practices and meetings it was pretty clear that Luke McCown had played his way into the mix as the best quarterback on the Jaguars roster. McCown had produced when he was on the field in games, he was sharp in practices and the guys on the team liked his football acumen. “Ball out” is his nickname for how he makes quick decisions and is willing to throw into tight spots.

That left the Jaguars management and coaching staff with a dilemma: What to do with Luke McCown?

It didn’t make sense to sit him on the bench and with the heir apparent in the wings and just waiting to play. He was worth a draft pick if they wanted to trade him but the dilemma was complicated by the poor play of the incumbent starter, David Garrard.

Head Coach Jack Del Rio told us going into the third exhibition game that “now would be a good time” for the quarterback and the offense to start showing some production. Del Rio had met with Garrard earlier to encourage him to pick up the tempo and “get it going” since David had struggled from the beginning of camp.

But that never happened.

So faced with that decision, and knowing that Blaine Gabbert was going to be your starter at some point either sooner or later, Garrard became the expendable player. They knew the upside on Garrard. He had reached the pinnacle of his ability and what that produced was average results in the NFL.

It’s hard to say why he plateaued out so quickly after signing a new contract following the 2007 season but for a guy who was talked about in the next breath after Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, he never elevated his game again. Maybe he was satisfied after he “got his money” or maybe he started to believe he was better just because everybody said he was next in line. But whatever it was, the Jaguars couldn’t count on him getting any better;

With a $9 million price tag the Jaguars couldn’t sit him on the bench, so they cut him. It wasn’t about money, or they’d have never let Garrard take the field in the pre-season. They had the perfect excuse when he strained his back in practice and missed the opener. If he had gotten hurt playing in an exhibition, they’d been on the hook for $9 million and out a quarterback.

So McCown earns the starting spot and plays well enough to beat the Tennessee Titans in game one of the regular season. “He’s not ready,” is the response given when asked about Gabbert’s debut in the NFL.

One thing’s for sure again in 2011 on offense for the Jaguars: they’re not going to the playoffs through the quarterback position. The QB wasn’t going to get them into the post-season but he could keep them from getting there. They’re a run-first; stop the run team that wants Maurice Jones Drew to handle the ball about 25 times a game among their 35 or so rushes.

In a battle for the starting QB job in Tampa Bay, Luke McCown lost out to Byron Leftwich. That made him expendable in Tampa and the Jaguars acquired him for a 7th round pick. The rap on McCown was that he was skittish and inconsistent. He didn’t show any of that in his time in Jacksonville: until Sunday against the Jets. When things starting going downhill, they snowballed and got worse. McCown reverted to the player they thought he was in Tampa when they got rid of him.

Which brings us to the dawning to a new era in Jaguars history: The Gabbert era.

If you’re going to run the offense the Jaguars run, handing it off and throwing safe bubble screens and slants, then let the rookie do it. The Jaguars believed Gabbert was the best player in the draft last year. They just happened to get him with the 10th pick. It was evident when he went in the game last Sunday against the Jets, albeit a bit late, that he can play. He has quick feet, a quick release, makes fast decisions and can fire it. He didn’t like getting hit in the backfield but who does?

So put Gabbert in the game.

If he gets overwhelmed, sit him down for a couple of weeks. But put him in the game and see what he can do. It’ll create an ancillary excitement about a season that’s already been written off as average at best.

He’s a first round pick. Let him play like one.

It’s about the quarterback.

Always will be.

It’s the most important position in sports.

The only other one in the discussion is starting pitcher and they only get the ball every four or five days. The QB touches the ball on every offensive play, is the leader and the manager and has to be among the best players, and athletes on his own team to be effective.

My friend Matt Robinson, a starter at Georgia and in the NFL with New York and Denver and the USFL here in Jacksonville marveled at the power of the quarterback when he stepped into his first NFL huddle.

“I’d always just played the game and played my position. But in the NFL, I stepped into the huddle and guys who were 10, 15 years older than me were just waiting for instructions. It didn’t matter who I was. I was the quarterback!”

Watch Tom Brady on the sidelines or go back a few years and watch Troy Aikman interact with his teammates. Both are part cheerleader, part psychologist, part teammate, part coach, all leader and confident in their skill.

“If you’ve every played quarterback at any level, you’re a brother of mine,” Aikman recently said on ESPN’s “Year of the Quarterback.” “There’s something about that position that calls for all kinds of skills. If you’ve played it, you know. If not, you might not get it.”

Where else in football is there room for somebody with “touch.” How can somebody who is expected to stand in the pocket and take the most violent hit also be expected to console a teammate when he’s at his lowest? You might not think Joe Kapp and Peyton Manning have anything in common but as quarterbacks, they had to have many of the same skills.

I laugh every time I hear somebody suggest Tim Tebow should switch to H-back in the NFL. Tim’s a quarterback. He was that in high school and before. Out of position as a freshman, Tebow transferred to Nease as a quarterback, nothing else.

Hard to say if there’s a quarterback competition in Jacksonville or what the Jaguars timetable is for Blaine Gabbert to become the starter. But I can tell you this: When he walks into a room, there’s no question he’s a quarterback. You can tell when an athlete walks into the room, and Gabbert is certainly that. But he has a quarterback’s presence, an air of confidence.

I asked him about it when the Jaguars first drafted him in April. “I really like playing football,” he said, “But I LOVE being a quarterback. Absolutely.”

That’s obvious.

It was awkward at first.

Wayne Weaver walked into the room filled with reporters to give his year-end assessment as well as his plan going forward for the Jaguars. (BTW, he showed up a couple of minutes early. We were planning on showing the entire press conference live but he walked in during a commercial break.) Weaver had papers in his hands, statistics, rosters, rankings, all kinds of stuff to support his decision to keep Jack Del Rio as the head coach of the Jaguars.

And that was the awkward part.

Wayne wanted to back his decision up with facts, pointing out that David Garrard was the 11th ranked quarterback in the league and that he had the second best passer rating in the 4th quarter. That’s all well and good but the owner of the team should feel like he has to back up his decision on who the coach should be. But once he got past the hard numbers, Wayne looked more comfortable talking about his decision-making from a qualitative instead of a quantitative point of view. “It’s only rational to see that we are an ascending football team over the last two years,” Weaver said. “You can’t look at the whole body of work. We’ve made progress since we dismantled the roster after 2008.”

Wayne’s a passionate yet measured businessman, capable of great passion as well as dispassionate decision-making. “I think we’re stronger by keeping this group of coaches together. It would be a step back to change at this point.”

Weaver discounted the first six years of Del Rio’s tenure, attributing the overall problems to bad drafting and poor personnel decisions. “I should have recognized the problems in our personnel department and made some changes earlier,” he noted adding that both Del Rio and Gene Smith had a hand in some of those decisions.

As far as his expectations, the Jaguars owner wants off-season action and in-season results. Weaver has challenged the coaching staff to find out what the elite teams are doing and add that to the Jaguars repertoire. He wants Del Rio to step back on game day and be more of a traditional head coach. Not be so involved with the defense.

“I believe with every fiber in my body that we’re an ascending team,” he said when asked how he’s measuring progress. “We’ll be in the playoffs next year. If not, there won’t be a lot of people around here. Including me.”

While that was a bit of poetic license and bravado, clearly Wayne expects the post-season to be part of the 2011 season. It’s a laudable goal, but there’s a different schedule to face next year, one that’s tougher than it’s been in a while by virtue of the Jaguars second place finish in the division. Add the NFC South and the AFC North as the regular teams in the division rotation and they’ll find out pretty early what their playoff chances are in 2011.

Either way they’re on notice. It’s a production business. Win or we’ll find somebody.

It was a pretty upbeat and loose locker room after the Jaguars beat Oakland 38-31 Sunday. I was trying to interview Don Carey and Derrick Cox kept interrupting. In a fun way. Rashad Jennings has his locker cordoned off and Montel Owens was giving him grief for being messy.

That kind of stuff doesn’t happen in a losing locker room.

It doesn’t happen in most locker rooms in professional sports unless the team has a certain bond and a team goal. All along, head coach Jack Del Rio has said his team has “put the work in and knows what we can do,” but when you’re hovering around .500 nobody gets excited about how much work you’re doing and what you “might” be.

But at 8-5, people are starting to take notice.

And it’s not just an 8-5 record but how they got there. They beat the Colts on a record setting kick with no time on the clock. The Texans went down on a literal “Hail Mary.” The Titans succumbed to a strong running game and Oakland followed suit. Save for the second half against the Giants, the Jaguars have done nothing but get better in the second half of the season.

Right now they’re the “team that came out of nowhere.” Indy’s injuries have helped. Tennessee’s implosion has helped. Houston’s ineptness in crucial situations has helped. But the bottom line is when they’ve had their chances; they’ve taken advantage of them.

There were a few games earlier in the year where David Garrard was nearly perfect and helped the Jaguars to victory. But as the season wore on, it became apparent that this was a running football team, and the coaches bought into that. That’s why for three consecutive games, the Jaguars have run for more than 200 yards.

Against Oakland both Jennings and Maurice Jones Drew had more than 100. It’s what winning football teams do in December: run the ball and get first downs. Score touchdowns and don’t settle for field goals. And don’t give up big plays.

Ah yes, that was a problem against Oakland. “There were some real ugly plays there,” Del Rio admitted in his post-game press conference. “But we’ll get it fixed and move on. It’s a lot easier to fix things with a smile on your face.”

That’s probably the best explanation Jack has ever given for the difference between a practice after a win or after a loss.

And that’s why winning breeds winning. These guys now believe they’re going to win, even when they’re down by 10 at halftime. MJD stood up and told his teammates, “We’ve given them everything they’ve gotten. They haven’t earned it. Let’s go out and play our kind of game and we’ll win.” Jones Drew is not a big rah-rah guy and in fact, he’s not much of a talker. So when he said something at halftime, his teammates paid attention and he didn’t have to raise his voice.

No panic. Do your job and we’ll be OK.

MJD certainly has enough gravitas among his teammates to pull that off and it’s good to hear that he’s willing to exert some of that authority when it’s necessary. He and Jennings will be key ingredients this week against Indianapolis.

The only formula for beating the Colts is run the ball; stop the run and pressure Peyton Manning up the middle. Get around his legs and make him make that “happy feet” move. If he has time, he always picks apart the Jaguars pass “D” and it’ll be worse this week based on their recent performances and their league ranking.

Having said that, the Jaguars know how to beat the Colts and don’t go up there with any trepidation.

Just respect.

And trying to earn some.

There’s a lot you can say about the Jaguars draft. You can complain they don’t know what they’re doing. You can say it’s not “sexy.” But you can’t say they didn’t follow exactly what they said they were going to do.

New General Manager Gene Smith told us all along that he was going to trust his research, trust his scouts and trust “the process” when it came time to make his picks, including his first one.

“We believe there will be value at the eight spot,” Smith said last Tuesday.

When it came time to make their selection, Smith and the Jaguars didn’t hesitate. “It was a no-brainer,” Smith admitted. Eugene Monroe was there at #8 and he was by far, the highest rated player on there board so they took him. “We’ll take the best player available,” Smith said all along and he was true to his word.

Monroe was expected to be gone in the top five but when he was there at eight , the Jaguars jumped on him. They passed on Michael Crabtree and a bunch of other flashy, skill players to take an offensive tackle. It’s pretty clear they weren’t making that pick to sell tickets and get people to buy jerseys. It’s about building the team for the long haul.

Again, you can disagree all you want but we really don’t know how this draft will work out until a few years go buy.

Tra Thomas and Tony Pashos? They’re just like any other player in the league, penciled in on the depth chart and trying to keep their jobs. Could Pashos be moved to guard? Is he a backup? Who knows? They now have at least seven offensive linemen who could be considered starters in the league, not a bad scenario to create.

Perhaps you consider drafting tackles not good enough when it comes to addressing need. The Jaguars are far enough away from being an elite contender that starting anywhere is a good spot. Wide Receiver? Unless you think there’s a star available, (and I don’t think Michael Crabtree will be a huge star) then there’s no difference between drafting a receiver in the 2nd round or the 5th.

It doesn’t matter. They all have the potential to be stars or busts.

It’s not about what guy on television said he thought about the picks. And it’s not about the stats at the combine. It’s about who will become “football players.” That’s what teams are looking for.

The Jaguars aren’t done dealing either. I’m sure they’re going to be looking during training camp to see who’s being released, particularly among defensive lineman, tackles to be specific. They’ll also keep their eye on receivers as well.

But when it comes to this draft, we’ll check again in 2011.

The Jaguars released Matt Jones on Monday, March 16 after 4 years with the team.

Jones was the 21st overall pick in the 2005 draft but never reached the potential the Jaguars had expected out of him catching 166 passes and 14 touchdowns in four seasons. Last year was his best with five TD catches and 65 receptions as David Garrard’s favorite receiver. Jones accounted for half of the Jaguars yardage from wide receiver for the year.

His release was about “character” according to both Owner Wayne Weaver and General Manager Gene Smith.

“I hope Matt gets his life in order,” Weaver said outside the stadium. “But we have standards and when you step over the line, you have to pay the price.”

Only three players, Troy Williamson, Dennis Northcutt and Mike Walker remain on the roster as wide receivers who have caught a pass in the NFL.

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(Ed. Note: Original 3-11-09 posting)

“Why would he be so stupid?”

That’s what most people were saying when they heard Matt Jones had been put in jail for violating his probation.

The other prevailing comment was “Figures.”

Either is not good.

Giving up drinking might be hard for some people and impossible for others (I gave up drinking for Lent once but thought it was too easy. Or course I’m working most of the evening so my drinking isn’t all night long). But anyway, giving it up is one thing: not drinking because a judge told you not to is something completely different. And Jones falls into the latter category.

“I made a bad decision,” he pleaded to the judge in Arkansas after he failed a random drug test on February 27th. Jones admitted he drank some beers with friends while playing golf. No big deal right? Wrong. He knew it was a violation of his probation but did it anyway.

Knowingly.

Where does that thinking come from?

I can only suppose that it’s how he’s always acted. In the locker room, Jones is aloof, at least with the media. He doesn’t have a “carefree” attitude; he has an “I don’t care” attitude.

Big difference.

Perhaps it’s because he’s never been held accountable for anything he’s done. His athletic talent has always carried him. Since he was in Junior High, Matt Jones was able to do whatever he pleased. Throw his clothes on the floor in the locker room? Sure, somebody would pick it up and clean it. Stay out late? No problem, just score some baskets tomorrow night and everything will be all right.

After while, you kind of get used to being treated special and think if you do it, it must be right. Why? Because I did it! Nothing matters but your athletic talent. Go to college on a scholarship. Get whatever you want in High School. Many times local law enforcement looks the other way at your transgressions.

Then all of the sudden you’re rich beyond your wildest dreams and an adult. And now without the safety net of high school, college and your hometown, people are starting to expect you to live up to that money, and the status you have wherever you’re plying your trade. “But wait, I can do anything I want,” is what you’re mind is screaming but all of the sudden, you’re an adult and the rules change.

Problem is, nobody told you.

So somewhere in this kind of twisted logic, Matt Jones’ problems are actually our problems and his parents. (Although everybody told me that back in Arkansas to serve his probation they were sure things would go well because Jones’ father would “beat his butt” if he got out of line.) The consequences of his actions just haven’t sunk in for the Jaguars wide receiver. He still thinks the rules don’t apply to him. Even the judge in Arkansas said she didn’t think he was a bad person and he’s probably not. But when it comes to personal responsibility, he has none.

And that’s where we come in.

Athletes are just that: Athletes. Guys with tremendous athletic gifts. Different from the rest of us when it comes to the things they can physically do. But it doesn’t make them different when it comes to the accountability of who they are. And only we can hold them accountable.

We shouldn’t accept bad or irresponsible behavior from our athletes, starting at a young age. If they’re out of line in junior high, they should be made to understand that as an elite athlete not only can they not step out of line, but also they’re actually held to a higher standard. Make them be a role model. Just don’t let other kids model themselves after them. Encourage them to explore who they are, to test their limits, to be the best they can be.

Perhaps if we had asked that of Matt Jones and others, he wouldn’t be sitting in jail today.

Somebody had to pay for the Jaguars dismal season in 2008 and apparently when he looked around, owner Wayne Weaver decided James “Shack” Harris would be sacrificed.

You knew somebody would be asked to fall on their sword and you knew it wouldn’t be head coach Jack Del Rio after he signed a big-money extension last year. Gene Smith has been around since the inception of the franchise so he’s an insider and Weaver couldn’t fire himself so Harris got the boot.

They said all the right things and they called it a “resignation” but clearly Shack is the scapegoat for a bunch of flawed decision-making that runs through all four men at the top of the brain trust with the Jaguars: Weaver, Harris, Del Rio and Smith.

It was a strange management model from the beginning, six years ago. Weaver admitted when he bought the team that he wasn’t a “football guy” and pretty much let Tom Coughlin run the show when it came to picking players and coaching them on the field. But when he replaced Coughlin with Del Rio, Weaver was convinced that the job had grown too big for one person to be the General Manager and the Head Coach all at the same time and told me as much during his search for Coughlin’s replacement.

But Del Rio must have impressed Weaver in some way to allow him to have massive input into choosing the players because when Weaver hired Del Rio, and then Harris (after being turned down by Phil Savage who ended up with the Browns) publicly, he was pretty cagey when it came to defining their roles on draft day and in free-agency.

“I’ll break the tie,” Weaver joked at the announcement of Harris’ signing when asked what would happen if Shack and Jack disagreed on a player.

He also promoted Gene Smith at the time, (and promoted him again today, giving him Shack’s job) giving him a bigger role in the scouting and since he owned the team and was a smart guy and wasn’t a football neophyte any longer, Weaver became part of the process. So starting in 2003 those four began to rebuild the team.

Byron Leftwich, Reggie Williams, Matt Jones, Marcedes Lewis, Reggie Nelson and Derrick Harvey were their first round picks since then, none having established themselves among the elite at their positions in the league. In fact, you could say a couple of offensive linemen and Maurice Jones Drew are the best draft picks since this brain trust took over the decision-making.

And as we know, anytime you get more than two people making decisions, one emerges or at least has a little more influence than the others. Was that Harris early on? Maybe so, but since Del Rio fired Leftwich, he clearly ascended to the top of that food chain since Byron was Shack’s project.

“Tell me Harris is a slow talker and not a slow thinker,” one pretty well connected season ticket holder asked me in the last couple of years. I’ve always liked Shack and have picked his brain over the years regarding who was on the Hall of Fame Ballot. Listening to him talk about the pros and cons of each player gave me some insight into what he was looking for each year in the draft and free agency. It helped show me what he valued in a player. He’s big on production and isn’t tied to the stats as closely as other talent “evaluators.”

I don’t know if he had some other agendas when it came to picking certain players. Everybody figured that he liked Byron because he was a black quarterback, and reminded Harris of himself during his playing days. I don’t know if that’s true but it wouldn’t be the first time that happened and it wouldn’t be the first time somebody accused a decision-maker of having a different agenda only to be way out in left field.

The three guys left making the decisions need to take a long, hard look at themselves and how they come to the conclusions that they have.

The Jaguars don’t have a Pro Bowl player on their roster and really haven’t had a player who is lock, solid perennial guy who gets consideration for the Pro Bowl since Tony Boselli and maybe Jimmy Smith.

In their 14 years of existence is there a potential Hall of Famer somewhere on the Jaguars all-time roster?

Not right now.

They’ve passed on players like Ben Roethlisberger and Brady Quinn in the draft. They’ve won one playoff game in six years. They’ve had more assistant coaching changes under Del Rio than any franchise in the league, and that trend is likely to continue starting next Monday. And they proved to be pretty fragile when they added $23 million in free agents to an 11 win team, only to see things go south in a hurry.

Weaver has seen the Dolphins turn it around from a one-win team to a playoff contender. Del Rio and Smith don’t have any honeymoon time if they expect to last into the next decade.

As Jack says, “I’m going to re-evaluate everything we’re doing from top to bottom, including myself.”

Which is a good place to start.

It was jarring and somewhat shocking when the official announcement was made Monday about Jaguars offensive lineman Richard Collier’s condition.

Collier’s family, his doctors and his agent revealed that he had been shot 14 times on September 2nd in Riverside.

The shooting left Collier paralyzed below the waist and after suffering an infection and pneumonia doctors had to amputate his left leg to save his life.

It’s an unbelievably tragic life and while Collier is still alive, he’s only here because of his physical condition, a result of being a professional athlete.

There’s not much information being handed out by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office regarding the investigation. I suppose that means they have a lot of information but are trying to make sure they have a solid case. Maybe the gun is missing. Either way, Collier’s life is forever changed and hopefully he can find a productive venue for his energies.

He’s a vibrant smart guy and the Jaguars would do very well to hire him in some capacity. The disturbing thing is what it says about our culture. Obviously there was some kind of dispute and the shooter decided the best way to fix it was to get a gun and shoot Collier. Somebody knows who did this, and I don’t know if it’s the “anti-snitch” culture or the reward isn’t big enough but it’s wrong that whomever did this is still walking the streets.

There’s not enough of an outcry from the churches and community leaders in town regarding this shooting. Maybe it’s because it happens all too often and this time it just happened to be somebody we all know. But either way, fixing this “culture” should be one of our top priorities. Some of it is through education; some of it has to be through peer pressure.

David Kossak, a local businessman, called me the other night saying he was willing to double the reward money being offered. I had gotten a bunch of calls and emails from people disappointed that the Jaguars players hadn’t put up more money. Of the total, players apparently contribute about $277 each. Of course, that’s not enough, especially when the lowest salary on the roster is over $250,000.

Collier was perhaps the most popular player on the team. A free-agent signee from Valdosta State, he had pushed Khalif Barnes for the starting left tackle spot and observers thought that he might take the starting job eventually. He was the biggest guy on the team, and as part of our story on the makeup of the team, Collier shared a laugh with Sean Woodland after practice during training camp. Sean asked him about being big and Richard just said, “I’ve always been big, biggest guy on every team.”

“Dennis Northcutt is the smallest guy on the team,” Sean continued. “If you were really hungry do you think you could eat him?”

Collier followed right in the spirit of the story and had a laugh saying, “Maybe a leg.”

Tragic.

But all too common.

When I first heard of Fred Taylor, he was a prized recruit coming out of South Florida to the University of Florida. He really was just a kid. Raised by his grandmother in a house with dirt floors in a tough neighborhood, he was about as wide-eyed and impressionable as any freshman in college history. Not college football history, college history.

“I couldn’t breathe,” Fred told me after his first game at Florida Field. “Running out of that tunnel, I couldn’t believe how many people were there. I couldn’t catch my breath. I’ve never seen that many people in my whole life.”

We have a good laugh about that occasionally. Fred’s able to laugh at some of those things now. That wasn’t always the case. While at Florida he got himself into trouble a couple of times. Nothing really major, if I remember correctly. But I do remember that Steve Spurrier looked him in the eye one day and said, “You’ll be out of here the next time,” and Fred paid attention and straightened up.

He was a hot commodity coming out of college. A strong and fast tailback who had moves and power. At over six feet and 230lbs. many teams coveted Taylor. Tom Coughlin originally wanted Curtis Ennis out of Penn State but when he traded Rob Johnson to Buffalo for their first pick, the ninth overall, Taylor was the obvious selection.

“Hey Sam,” Fred said at his initial press conference as a rookie, flashing a smile that revealed several gold teeth. We did several interviews that year that I sent to other stations in the state and to a couple of the networks. He was a hot topic. But his grandmother didn’t like the way he looked with those gold teeth. I saw him in training camp the following year without the teeth and mentioned how he looked good. “My grandmother didn’t like those teeth,” Taylor admitted somewhat embarrassingly. “So I changed them out. No big deal.”

I didn’t think anything of it at the time but I should have known that a pattern was developing. Off the field, Fred was getting a reputation as a very “sociable” player part of a group of young players not afraid to have a good time. He made news when his agent, Tank Black, made off with $5 million of Fred’s signing bonus and Taylor admitted he wasn’t paying much attention. Reportedly, Jaguars Owner Wayne Weaver made it right and gave Fred a little fatherly advice.

When Taylor stepped out of line off the field, Head Coach Tom Coughlin also gave him some advice. “Keep this up,” Coughlin told Fred, “and you’ll be out of the league soon.”

“I admit I wasn’t taking care of myself. My nutrition, not getting enough rest and just wasn’t acting right. But I’ve changed that and I’m on the right path.” That was Fred just a few days ago, admitting that he’s had several revelations in his career.

“I also got married, had kids and that really changed my life.” He’s right about that. Taylor is close to his family and closer to his faith. “God is a good God,” Taylor said during the End Zone on Monday night. “He didn’t lose faith in me and neither did my teammates.”

You might have noticed that Taylor now wears a captains “C” on his jersey in games. “That’s an honor I bestowed on him a couple of weeks ago,” Head Coach Jack Del Rio said explaining his change in philosophy. “He’s earned it. He’s done things here on the field and in the organization that has shown he’s a leader.” Del Rio usually likes to name his captains game to game, but Taylor is an exception.

“I’m doing the same things as before. I’m not a rah-rah guy but I’m willing to show my teammates how to do things right,” he said when I asked him about the “C” after the win over San Diego. That’s a statement I never thought I’d hear from Fred.

“I didn’t think I’d still be in the league,” Taylor told me when I asked him if he thought he’d gain 10,000 yards in his career.

Taylor’s gone from a mumbler in interviews to an eloquent spokesman for himself and his teammates. He’s unbelievably popular, a testament to his likeability that seems to come through. I was disappointed when he didn’t stick around for 10 minutes to sign autographs but other than that he’s turned into quite a solid guy.

I’ve seen enough guys go the other way, from easy-going to unlikable. It’s nice to see somebody go in the other direction. Especially somebody who’s as easy to like as Fred.

I keep hearing stories about Byron Leftwich and whether it was the right thing to do to cut him and go with David Garrard. “Is Leftwich happy?” is the over riding theme. The answer is: “Who cares?”

I don’t have any beef with Byron and I didn’t have a huge opinion about whether he or Garrard should have been the starter all along. (But I did write in this column the week before the draft that the Jaguars shouldn’t take Leftwich. It’s in the archives.)

But he’s gone and somehow, his talent and ability to move the team, let alone stay on the field and avoid injury, is blown way out of proportion. “Now that he’s with the Falcons, he’ll be a star,” is how one fan put it to me while I was waiting in line last week at a restaurant.

Really? So he’s automatically changed? He’s more nimble? He has better mechanics?

He’s in the next phase of his career in a different city and a different conference. Bob Petrino is a big passing game guy so maybe the system in Atlanta will suit him. But if they think Joey Harrington isn’t mobile enough, Leftwich is a statue in comparison.

No question he didn’t like Jacksonville and he didn’t get along well with Jack Del Rio but did those things hold him back from being a superstar? I don’t think so. I always thought he was OK. “Stop telling me he’s Namath,” was my standard line. “There’s probably 10 guys in the league I’d rather have than him and I’d probably rather have him than 10 other guys in the league. He’s OK.”

But stop thinking about Leftwich and whether it was the right thing for the Jaguars or not. He’s gone and he’s not coming back. In fact, Jack Del Rio staked his career as the Jaguars head Coach on cutting Leftwich and putting Garrard in the game. If the Jaguars aren’t a playoff contender this year, Wayne Weaver will be scanning the lists of potential head coaches for 2008.

And James Harris will be gone as well.

I’ve often wondered how different Garrard would be if he was given the same opportunities as Leftwich, a first round pick. Would he have tried so hard last year that he couldn’t get out of his own way? I’m not sure but given a little rope, we’re going to find out. In the first two games, David’s played well but hasn’t been spectacular. That might or might not happen, but for now, the quarterback situation isn’t the issue.

There’s an undercurrent that also drifts through the fans attitude toward cutting Byron and keeping Garrard: David’s not black enough. I’ve heard a lot of ridiculous things but that’s about the most spectacularly ignorant thought process I can even conjure up.

Both Leftwich and Garrard were popular teammates, perhaps David a little more popular because he was the backup, which is pretty normal. Leftwich is a kid from D.C. and hasn’t changed. He’s a bit lazy with his speech and it cost him in endorsements. That and some unreasonable demands when he first came to town, looking for money that nobody had when he was first shopping himself around. It’s rumored that the Jaguars asked him to take some speech lessons, which he refused to do.

One teammate told me, “He’s a weird dude.” “How so,” I asked. “Who do you know wears sunglasses in the locker room at 7AM?” Ok, a little idiosyncratic, but I wouldn’t call that weird. Maybe it was a bit of a rough night. I’ve been told that Leftwich had a few of those on his resume as well. But of course, all of us have at one time or another.

So how can Garrard win the fans support, even those who thought he should be gone and the team should have stuck with Byron. Or even Quinn Gray.

Easy.

Win.

That fixes everything.

Mark Brunell has iconic status in Jacksonville but he was somewhere in the middle of the quarterback pack even in his heyday. But in ’96 and ’99 the team won and #8 was at the helm.

I’ve heard it all when it comes to quarterbacks. He’s too short, his feet are too small, he’s not Christian enough, he’s too religious, he throws too hard and he’s scared and doesn’t want to get hit anymore. No matter what it is, everybody’s got an opinion. I’m sure it was the same in Miami when Marino was playing. Somebody had a beef with what he was doing. I know they moaned in Denver about Elway before he won two Super Bowls and even with his four titles all we ever heard about Terry Bradshaw was that he was stupid.

As for Garrard, let’s let him play. Let’s see what he is before we pass judgment. As Del Rio said when he made the change, “It’s a matter of style.” And Jack got it right. Let’s see what kind of style David brings to the table.

Looking at Rashean Mathis’ short NFL career, it seems that, as he has said, he was destined to be here. Being elected to the Pro Bowl for the first time in 2006, Mathis joins another Jacksonville area athlete, Champ Bailey, as the starting corners for the AFC in this year’s game in Hawaii.

Mathis is tied for the league lead in interceptions with 7, has 17 official passes defended and played well on the big stage of the two Monday Night games against both Pittsburgh and New York. But it might be his consistency and his continued improvement that impressed the voters and the fans.

“My teammates are responsible for this,” Rashean told me on the phone shortly after his election was revealed. “No cornerback makes the Pro Bowl on his own. The guys up front have to do their job, they have to pressure the quarterback, the safeties have to be in position and I just have to make some plays.”

I covered Rashean in High School, but he dropped off my radar in college when he attended Bethune Cookman. Even though he led the nation in interceptions as a 4-year starter in Daytona, he was considered a “lower class” player by most observers.

Except those who scout for the NFL.

They seemed to see the things in Rashean that have put him in the Pro Bowl when he was in college. That’s why the Jaguars made him their second round pick bringing a resounding “who?” from their fans. But he has speed, skill and desire. That’s why as he improved, the Jaguars gave him more and more responsibility. He kept improving and went from safety to corner.

“I was just an athlete playing corner that first year,” Mathis is fond of saying. “I’ve started to learn how to play this position now.”

Rashean knew early on he could compete at the highest level. “At the Senior Bowl, I looked around and noticed that I could play with those guys and I figure these were the guys going into the NFL and said ‘yeah, I can play with them.”

Rashean is an unassuming guy, close to his mother and grandmother and pleasant to be around. Florida State fans will lament that his scholarship offer during his senior year was rescinded because of a broken leg. “Come over to Tallahassee and we’ll see how your leg responds,” is how his recruiter put it.

“Oh no,” Rashean’s Mom told him. “You’re going somewhere where they’re going to take care of you.” That’s how he ended up at B-CC with Alvin Wyatt.

Rashean is an unassuming guy, close to his mother and grandmother and pleasant to be around. His demeanor convinced me that he would be the perfect host for our weekly “End Zone” show on Monday nights. He’s turned out to be as good a guy as he is a player.

Part of my job is to fine-tune the on-air performance of the players who have hosted the show and Rashean has come as far as anybody has. He works on his language skills. He’s accepting of criticism and advice. Like what the coaches saw at every level he’s played football, I’m seeing him improve and continue to try and get better.

And that’s all anybody can ask.

Work at it, play as hard as you can, and see how you’re doing when it’s over. That might just get you to the Pro Bowl.

We’re now three weeks into training camp, four weeks for a couple of teams and we’ve now got at least one “preseason” game behind us. Hard to believe that it’ll be three more weeks of games and practices before anything happens that really counts in the standings.

Already, things have happened that matter though. Clinton Portis has a separated shoulder and is out for the rest of the exhibition season and might miss the Redskins’ opener. Rookie linebacker Chad Greenway injured his knee in his first action ever in a Vikings uniform Monday night and won’t play again until next year.

Every team will have some kind of injury in these glorified practices that will impact their season, one way or another. Some players getting injured give other players a chance to play; other player’s injuries dash the hopes of an entire season.

True, LeCharles Bentley’s injury happened on the first day of training camp in a non-contact drill, so injuries are a part of training camp. But even the players will tell you, the intensity picks up a little bit when you’re playing against guys in different uniforms and bad things can happen when you don’t expect it, especially in an exhibition game. (The NFL wants to call them preseason in order to give some gravity to the games instead of calling them exhibition games or what they actually are, a glorified practice.)

There is talk each year of changing it to three or two games before the real ones start, but the problem is money. You might have heard John Madden say the other night that he coached in the era of twelve regular season games and six preseason games. “You’d be in camp for two months,” Madden noted.

That only came to an end with the rise of the Players Union.

You might not know that NFL players only get paid during the regular season. They get one/seventeenth of their salary spread out over 17 weeks of the regular season. Before that they get a stipend, not much, to carry them through camp. In camp, they’re housed and fed, but not paid.

So the question is, can you eliminate two preseason games outright? The answer is, of course, no.

The teams in the NFL include the preseason games in the season ticket package, charging full price, and it’s a big moneymaker. How about dropping the number of preseason games to two and just adding two regular season games? You could do that, but then you’d have to figure out how to increase the players’ salaries by 1/8th (the equivalent of adding two games that count.)

Would the owners be willing to do that? Probably not.

So until the Players Union and the league can work out something that makes money or doesn’t cost money for both sides, We’ll have 16 regular season games and 4 “preseason” games. All with the possibility that a team and a town’s hopes, could be finished before any snap that counts.