The hottest issue facing the Jacksonville Jaguars leading up to their season opener against the Tennessee Titans on September 11 is who will be under center when the offense takes the field for the first time in 2011.
There has been speculation that Jaguars rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert is starting to make a push to become the starting quarterback after just three weeks of practice. Unfortunately after all of the speculation last week, Gabbert had a lackluster performance in the Jaguars second preseason game against the Atlanta Falcons. The performance showed that despite all the buzz surrounding the Jaguars new signal caller, he still has a lot to learn before he is ready to lead an NFL franchise to the playoffs.
A few weeks of good practice is no reason to throw veteran quarterback David Garrard off to the side however. Ever since the Jaguars drafted Gabbert back in April the coaching staff has consistently said that the plan was to let him learn by playing behind Garrard.
Despite the excitement circling Gabbert, Garrard remains the Jaguars best option if they have plans on winning the AFC South in 2011. Fans are quick to forget that the Jaguars offense was not terrible last season under Garrard, as most of the teams issues were due to their inability to prevent the other team from scoring. Despite what most experts believe is a below average wide receiver unit, Garrard set the Jaguars franchise record for passing touchdowns in 2010.
The bottom line is that even though Garrard is not considered an elite level quarterback in the NFL, he has proven in his four years as the Jaguars starting quarterback that he can be a winning quarterback. Starting the season with Gabbert playing quarterback would send the message to the team and the fans that the Jaguars are resigned to the 2011 season as being another rebuilding season as they allow their rookie quarterback to develop in live games instead of on the practice field.
As long as he is healthy and as long as the Jaguars are still in contention for the AFC South title, they need to have Garrard and his experience leading the Jaguars offense.
The Jaguars have said several times this off season that they believe the rebuilding project started by general manager Gene Smith after the 2008 season is over and that this team is ready to compete for a playoff spot. Starting a rookie quarterback to start off this season would contradict that message.
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if garrard is playing poorly and gabbert is playing well, they should start gabbert. not playing him just because hes a rookie does not help them win this season, playing the top performer does
If Garrard plays poorly and the Jaguars are out of the AFC South race Gabbert will get his chance to start. However after watching the Falcons game a couple of times it was clear to me that Gabbert is not ready to help this team win games.