I got a letter in the mail this week thanking me for being a Jaguars season ticket holder.  Included in the letter was a poster that included a list of the teams that the Jaguars would play at home during the 2012 season and it was only seven teams.   A note under that said that preseason teams and AFC North team was to be determined.  There was one major problem with that statement, the AFC North team isn’t to be determined.  If you know how the NFL schedule works every team plays the teams in it’s division twice and then one division in the AFC and one in the NFC.  That makes up 14 games of the 16 game season, the other two games are played againist teams from the other two divsions that finished in the same place.  With that being the case the Jaguars would play the Bengals from the AFC North.

Mr Khan has been very out spoken about his desire for the Jaguars to play in London and to expand their international appeal.  Which I’m all in favor of but not if it cost us a home game.  I understand that it’s one less game that the Jaguars have to worry about selling tickets but the season is already so short.  Just in case they do have a game in London though I’ve already started working on my wife for a London trip.

 Several years ago when the Jaguars changed their jerseys the alternative black jersey went away.  Well now it looks like it is coming back and will the Jaguars new primary color starting in 2013.  This would make the black jersesy the Jaguars home jersey with the teal jersey being the alternative jersey.  In 2012 Nike takes over the NFL jersey contract and all teams will have new Nike jerseys, however it will take a couple of years before all the teams get the “full Nike treatment”, the Jaguars will be the first to get this treatment.  

Nobody’s really sure what the new jerseys will look like but hopefully they will be more like the old jerseys than the current ones.  I always thought it was laughable when Mr Weaver said that they wanted a jersey that people would look at right away and would know it was the Jaguars, only to show off one of the most generic jerseys in the NFL.  The old jerseys had Jaguar logos on the sleeves and looked great but the new jerseys didn’t have the first Jaguars logo on it.  Mr. Khan has promised that we will not be disappointed in the new jerseys.  I’m sure hoping that he is right.

While talking about the coaching search Mr. Khan made a comment about interviewing a big name coach that wanted the Jaguars to enter a “derby” for his services. Mr. Khan never came out and said who that coach was but it’s pretty clear the guy he was talking about was Jeff Fischer.

Khan laid out what the Jaguars wanted in a head coach, two of those things included being able to work with Gene Smith and not having a big ego. It appears that Jeff Fischer met none of those requirements. Fischer played the Rams vs the Dolphins to see how much control he could get. The Rams who didn’t have a GM in place ultimately won out. Mr Khan said the Jaguars were not willing to join that “derby”. Even at the press conference to announce Mike Malarkey as the head coach Mr. Khan made a comment about the coaching search not having any drama.

Like other fans I like the idea that Jeff Fischer may come to coach in Jacksonville. However after seeing everything play out I don’t blame the Jaguars for staying out of this one, plus while I think Fischer is a good coach his numbers aren’t that great. In 17 years as head coach of the Titans they made the playoffs just six times. I think in this case the Jaguars were right to look to someone else to be their man.

When I first heard that the Jaguars hired Mike Mularkey I was disappointed to say the least. I felt like the OC of the Jets and Mularkey both would be bad picks as a head coach. This is of course not knowing anything about him except for what I had read. Like many fans I wanted to at least know that the Jaguars were interviewing some bigger name coaches than what had been released. If those were the choices I felt that Mel Tucker should be the next Jaguars head coach. While I still think Tucker should of been the man, Mike Mularkey has grown on me.

Mularkey has grown on me partly after hearing his press conference and mostly after hearing that Mel Tucker would stay as defensive coordinator. I think it puts Mularkey in a potential weird spot having Tucker, who was the interim head coach, still on the staff and what about Mel Tucker who was passed over for Mularkey. Now not only did he not get the job but he has to step down and go back to his old position as defensive coordinator. I say all of this to say hats off to those two guys for putting what could be uncomfortable situation aside and doing what’s best for the team.

Time will tell if this was the right move by the Jaguars. One thing is sure, Mr. Khan has the future of Blaine Gabbert, Mike Mularkey, and Gene Smith all tied up together. Mularkey’s contract expires the same time as Gene Smith’s. If Gabbert does well both of those guys will probably be around, however if he continues to struggle then in three years it could be time to clean house again.

First of all congrats to Maurice Jones Drew for not only winning the NFL rushing title but also setting a Jaguars single season record. This year us Jaguars fans haven’t had much to cheer for but MJD has been solid all year long. In this podcast I talk mainly about the head coaching search. I also take at look at other coaching opening around the NFL and the firing of Paul Vance.

As we close in on the end of Blaine Gabbert’s rookie season many fans think they have seen enough. The fact that if you put on tape from his first start and then watch his last game and you don’t see much difference has fans worried. Also the fact that he is starting to get a rep for not wanting to be hit and worrying more about the pressure than looking down the field. Some of this could be changed but fans are getting impatient and understandably so.

Not that this is fair to Blaine but look at the Jaguars past. In the Jack Del Rio era this team has been average. Also in that time we have had two quarterbacks both who were average. Not since Mark Brunell and Jimmy Smith has this team had a legit quarterback and wide receiver. Because of this fans aren’t willing to give a new QB the benefit of the doubt and I’m not sure Gabbert would deserve it either.

This season our passing game is worst in the NFL and looks terrible. Supporters of Gabbert will point to the lack of receivers or the fact that Blaine didn’t have an offseason. However these are the same receivers we had last year with Garrard and they played much better. As far as the no offseason goes people treat it like Gabbert is the only person that missed the offseason, when the truth is everyone did. Cam Newton, Andy Daulton, Christian Ponder all missed the offseason and all have shown more that Gabbert.

While I may not be willing to label Gabbert a bust like some, I do think this team needs some insurance. The bottom line is the Jaguars will end up with a top five pick with some really good quarterbacks coming out. I believe the Jaguars should draft one with the idea if Gabbert doesn’t pan out in year two you have someone else. However if he does work then trade the other guy. If the Jaguars don’t and Gabbert has another year like this one we could loss three years and that could be devastating to a team trying to gain support in Jacksonville.

For what it’s worth I like Gabbert and hope he works out but I’m not willing to go down the Byron Leftwich road again. If you feel this isn’t the guy then it’s time to move on no matter if he’s a top 10 pick or not. How the Jaguars draft this year will show a lot about how they feel about Blaine Gabbert and the future of Gene Smith.

As a fan you love to see your team on National TV unless you get smoked like the Jaguars did Thursday night. It was so painful that I’m not even going to talk about it but instead I’m going to talk about some comments Joe Thiesmann said about Blaine Gabbert. I also part of an interview I did for a Titans podcast, The Two Tone Crew. Enjoy the Christmas Eve game this week and I wish all of you a Merry Christmas.

The Jaguars have been averaging 12 1/2 points per game, so everyone saw this coming right? This week I talk about the Jaguars vs Bucs game and how Blaine Gabbert looks like he has improved in the last two weeks. Also how he need some receivers in a bad way. Also does Gene Smith really draft best player on the board? All that and more in episode #115 of the Jacksonville Jaguars Podcast.

Last Tuesday the NFL Finance Committee approved the sale of the Jaguars to Mr. Khan. The next step is for the owners to take a vote to pass the sale. The interesting news from this was the comment Mr. Khan made after the meeting in which he said,

They will be very comfortable next week. Hopefully, if the vote goes the way we are expecting, I will be happy to elaborate on it. They will not be disappointed.

The “they” he is talking about is Jacksonville fans, so the question that all of us are asking is what does that mean? What would it take for us to be “comfortable” that the Jaguars are not leaving Jacksonville any time soon. I thought about this awhile and anything Mr. Khan says would not put me at ease. Not that I think that he would be lying necessarily but it’s what he would have to say until the team did move. So after much thought the only thing I could come up with was building a new stadium.

If he spent the money to build a new stadium, I wouldn’t be worried at all about the team moving. I’ve been to several stadiums and Everbank is one of the worst designs. The stadium itself isn’t in bad shape but it’s just not designed very well for a NFL stadium. Do I think this will happen, well in a word no.

If I was him there would be no way that I would build a new stadium plus there are all kinds of problems that go along with trying to do so. So what is he going to do? If he’s not going to build a stadium then maybe spend money fixing up the one we have now. Better audio, a video board, and WiFi throughout the stadium would be nice. Everbank is terrible for using your cell phone, forget about Tweeting anything from the game. There are also some small things that could be done like making the club section of the stadium smaller. These seats are the hardest to sell because of the price but on the bright side they don’t count for a blackout.

These are things that I could see happening. However would it make fans comfortable that the team wouldn’t leave? Well it would help. Then fellow Jaguars fan Casey Ayers made a guess that makes a lot of sense. Here’s what he said via Twitter,

Yup. Wouldn’t be surprised to see a Flex-N-Gate plant announcement with 400-500 jobs, either. Given Toyota’s proximity could be cost-saving or at worst a wash, & being 100% company owner makes it easy.

This would change one of the biggest worries most fans have about Mr. Khan and that’s he does not have any ties to Jacksonville. This would put his company and him in the community and stir good will by creating jobs as well.

I guess we will have to wait until Mr Khan tells us what he had in mind. I for one am very excited about the future of the Jaguars in Jacksonville.

One reason I started doing this podcast five years ago was there wasn’t anything Jaguars related where I live. This would make sense if I lived a good distance from Jacksonville but I live in Savannah, which is about two hours away. For years I have complained that if you take five steps out of Jacksonville their marketing is nothing. In Savannah I never see an ad on TV promoting the upcoming game or hear something on the radio. The Jaguars don’t come here to promote the team in the offseason. They use to go to Hilton Head every year but that is a totally different market and they stopped doing that at least ten years ago.

The Jaguars here don’t get much love and the organization doesn’t seem to care. Games haven’t been on the radio for several years and this Monday Night Football game showed up on the last page of the sports section with a small column. If a game doesn’t sell out though Savannah gets blacked out but why is that? According to a NFL.com article on the Bucs problems it says

According to NFL rules, home games must be sold out 72 hours before kickoff to avoid a TV blackout within a 75-mile radius of the local market. Teams can ask the league for a 24-hour extension if the game is close to selling out.

Savannah is 139 miles from Jacksonville. Almost double the distance that would be included in their local market.

Back to the radio for a moment, how hard is it to find a radio station that would carry the game? That is something that has stunned me for years. They are on the radio in Jesup and I believe Hinesville but you can not pick those up in Savannah. Of course you can listen to them over the internet. This usually isn’t a deal for me cause I have season tickets and go to the game. I have friends that had season tickets for several years and then canceled them. You know how many calls they have gotten to come back? Zero, none nada. I bought Atlanta Thrashers tickets once about six years ago and I got called at least once a year every year.

I know Jacksonville is a small market and the fan relations department of the team is pretty small. So the Jaguars need to work smarter. I tip my hat to them for the Champions Club and using fans that want to help the team. I did that one year and it was a lot of work but I enjoyed it. However even with that our “Champions Team” was made up of people from Georgia and we got basically no support. Teams from Jacksonville would get Jaxon or members of the Roar to show up at their events to sell tickets, we got a signed helmet by a third string linebacker that nobody knew.

I love the Jaguars and want not only to see them stay in Jacksonville but for it to be hard to get tickets to a game. I want to see them do extremely well. Nobody talks about Green Bay being a small market and hopefully that’s what we will end up with here. It’s going to take time, a whole lot of work and some changes in how the team markets to the Savannah’s and Orlando’s outside of the city limits of Jacksonville.

Link to quote about blackouts