Even if the Steelers lose Ben Roethlisberger is still a champion

http://deadspin.com/sports/nfl/its-good-to-be-big-ben-151809.php

Its great to be a champion haha.

and in cased you missed Matt Leinart's night on the town

My draft picks rookie seasons

Every year I watch the NFL Draft and pick players as if I were the Jags GM. Now that the season is over, I can look back and see how my picks did. As it turns out, this is most likely my best draft class ever. 7 of my 8 selections made NFL rosters which is almost unheard of while the 8th member made a practice squad. And 5 of my 8 selections actually started in some games for their respective teams!

After my debacle for the 2004 draft where I read too many experts and worried about where players should be selected, I went with my gut and took whomever I thought was a good player. In the 2004 draft, I really wanted one of the Miami LBs, Vilma or Williams, but since the Jags were selecting 9th and I kept reading that was too high for Vilma or Williams, I went with Kenechi Udeze because he was "supposed" to go around the 9th pick. As it turned out Udeze ended up being drafted below Vilma and Williams and has been quite the disappointing pick so far. So this past year I took Channing Crowder in the 2nd round when he was "supposed" to go a round later. Looking back no one will remember where he went, just that he ended up being a good player.

Anyways, on to my draft picks.

1st round pick Mark Clayton, who made some starts for the Ravens, ended up leading all rookies in receptions and finished 2nd in yards. He finished with 44 receptions, 471 yards, 2 TDs, as well as a rushing TD. 2nd round pick Channing Crowder, who made some starts for the Dolphins, finished 2nd on the team in tackles and led rookies in fumbles recovered. 3rd round pick Ciatrick Fason, who was mostly used as a short yardage back for the Vikings, led the team with 4 rushing TDs. He finished the season with 32 carries for 62 yards. 4th round pick Fred Gibson was the only member of my draft class not to make an NFL roster. Was drafted by the Steelers but was let go and later made it on the Dolphins practice squad. 5th round pick Gerald Sensabaugh, who made some starts for the Jaguars, was a special teams standout and came on at the end of the year replacing Donovin Darius at SS. He finished with 18 tackles and one pass knocked down. His stats really dont do his play justice. Of course it helps I watched all the Jags game and saw the impact he made, especially on special teams. 6th round pick Jovan Haye made it on the Panthers 53 man roster by was inactive most weeks. Did not record a tackle on the year. 6th round pick Rob Petitti I believe started all 16 games at RT for the Cowboys replacing an injured starter. 7th round pick Adam Bergen made some starts for the Cardinals and finished the year with 28 receptions, 270 yards, and 1 TD.

Overall, was a pretty good draft by me.

What should the Jags do with David Garrard?

According to the NFL radio network on Sirius, three teams are interested in trading for Garrard. Cardinals, Dolphins, and Ravens. Should the Jags trade him? Is this the highest his stock has ever been? Is Quinn Gray good enough to be elevated from #3 on the depth chart to Byron's backup? Can the Jags get a 2nd rounder for him?

I believe the answer to all of those questions is yes.

The Jags should trade him. Keeping him will just fuel this controversy over who should start. According to local Times Union writer Mike Freeman, the debate has has even reached into the Jaguars lockeroom. Not only that, Garrard probably deserves the chance to start. He is good enough. And has patiently waited his turn. Given the opportunity I think he could make a solid starter in this league.

Yes, this is the highest his stock has ever been. Granted it was against weak competition, but Garrard went 5-1 playing in place of Leftwich at the end of the year. He completed close to 60% of passes, threw 4 TDs with only 1 pick. He is relatively young, has a cheap contract, and has the dual threat that people seem to live in a QB. His stock will never be higher as a Jaguar than it is right now.

I believe Quinn Gray is good enough to be the backup. If you listened to the last Jaguars game on TV, the announcer Gus Johnson might have gotten carried away when he called Gray the best QB on the roster. But nonetheless, it gives you an idea of how good Gray really is. Throws a nice ball and has a big arm.

A first round pick is asking too much but a second rounder is possible. Id be surprised if they could get that but its definitely possible. Teams value draft picks as if they were first born it seems like so a bottom half of the 2nd round pick is much more likely than one in the top half. But given how valuable Garrard has been, the Jags shouldnt ask for anything less than a 2nd.

Id trade him!

Jaguars season comes to an end

Well the Jaguars finished the season 12-4 making the playoffs for the first time since 1999. Playoffs were shortlived however losing to New England in the first round. Overall a pretty good year to be a Jags fan.

Lets break the season down into positives and negatives. and ill finish it off with the best moments of the year.

Positives:
-Winning 12 games
-Making the playoffs
-The offense and Byron Leftwich, for the first time since Del Rio became the coach, really started to click before Byron went down with injury.
-Paul Spicer returning from a leg injury with a vengeance along with the great production from Rob Meier.
-The emergence of three good, with the potential to be even better, receivers in Ernest Wilford, Matt Jones, and Reggie Williams.
-Getting Khalif Barnes in the 2nd round and then seeing him play well as he replaced an injured Pearson and worthless Ephraim Salaam at LT(ill admit i was hammering the idea of Barnes during last years draft. i didnt want us taking him with the 1st pick!).
-Developing some solid depth at RB with Greg Jones, Alvin Pearman, and at times LaBrandon Toefield.
-Bringing in Reggie Hayward. Provided good pressure and signed a contract that wont hurt the Jags in the future.
-John Henderson and Mike Peterson playing like Pro Bowlers on defense.
-Getting great play from 2nd day draft pick Gerald Sensabaugh.

Negatives:
-Laying an egg in the playoffs
-John Henderson and Mike Peterson not making the Pro Bowl
-Dropped passes by the receivers
-Lousy play from the tight end position
-Finishing in the bottom third of the league in FG percentage
-Down year for Maurice Williams at RT although we learned recently he played the season with a previously unknown injury.
-According to footballoutsiders, the Jags finished dead last in the league running to the right side of the line.


Best moments of the year:
-Putting an absolute beatdown on the Titans in the last home game of the year.
-Rashean's interception to beat the Steelers.
-The entire Ravens game(Both Matt and Greg Jones going over 100 yards receiving and rushing respectively).
-David Garrards run on 3rd down to ice the game against the Browns.
-Bobby McCray knocking the ball out of Carson Palmer's hand to finish off the Bengals.
-Leftwich's audible on third down in overtime to throw it long to Jimmy who scored the winning TD.
-The flyover against the Colts.

Florida wins CaliFlorida Bowl 20-0

In the allstar game matching the best high school seniors from Florida vs the best high school seniors from California, Florida wins again to take a 5-2 series lead even though 6 of the games have been played in Cali. California used to do this with Texas but Cali dominated them so thoroughly that the game was cancelled.

Numerous Gator commits were there. Tim Tebow, Jacques Rickerson, Jim Barrie, Dustin Doe, Jarred Fayson, etc... Marcus Gilbert of St Thomas Aquinas committed to UF at the game.

Didnt get a chance to see it but heard it was a rain soaked mud pit.

Expected Wins after week 17

Here it is. The final rankings for expected wins. 11 of the past 16 years, the team that finished first won the super bowl, and in 4 of the remaining 5 years, the team that finished second won it all. So who finished first this season? pretty easy guess....

1)Ind - 12.7
2)Sea - 12.3
3)Den - 11.7
4)Car - 11.6
5)Pit - 11.6

7)Jax - 10.7

Well the Jags finished up well ranked 7th in the league. It was pretty obvious early on though that they just dont have the offensive fire power to be a serious threat for the Super Bowl.

So if you want to believe in history, place your bets on Indy or Seattle. No real shocker this season however since these two teams are clearly the best two in each conference.