FOF 2004 Challenge Career - "Seventh Heaven"

[QuikSand]

Seventh Heaven Challenge

With a tip of the cap to Toddzilla, bad-example and others for the suggestion…

Okay, it won’t exactly be an empty cupboard challenge, but it ought to be pretty close. The rule for this challenge will be this:

The only players allowed on the team are those drafted in the seventh round

My assumption is that this will mean I’ll take over some pathetic franchise, deal away all its early picks to rack up seventh rounders, and trade away or cut most of its players. Then, between whatever decent scrubs we can find among the veteran free agents who were former 7ths and what we can draft on our own at the bottom of the draft – that’s what we will work with.

I think I’ll wait until I see some of the “foundation” players available before I make decisions about game plans and so forth.


The year is 2020, I’m starting in the universe vacated following the end (?) of my Savin’ the Ravens (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=48976) career. Therefore, there might be some familiar players from there who show up here – it’s at least possible (though a quick run through that Ravens roster yields very few former 7th rounder who look to be worth a damn, so it’s not like we’ll be porting that team right over to our new home).

I move to take over the Jaguars – a franchise with an overall record 40 games below .500 and no titles. We’ll see if we can get things moving in the right direction here with a bit of effort.

[QuikSand]

Our New Front Office, In the Spirit of the Rules

I think it only fitting that I wait until the last round of staff hiring to bring aboard my new front office staff – and then, we’ll only go for guys with no experience. My new front office ends up:

Scout: Norm Shepard, 44 – Good with YT, RB, WR, PK … weakness is LB (fair)
Head Coach: Cole Pritchett, 39 – VG Disc, InjAv … everything else rated Good
Off Coord: Emmitt Bates, 37 – Good with QB, RB, WR… Average with rest
Def Coord: Ernie Stanton, 45 – VG with LB and DB … Good with rest

Not too bad – but the scout selections were very limited.

[QuikSand]

Roster Building

Well, the initial Jags roster contains a few players whom we can keep on contract:

LB Roman Beeck is a 4th year former 7th round pick who has earned slivers of playing time at the sam slot. He does not look like a future position leader or anything (leadership rating of 9) but we will likely keep him around.

TE Wayne Conley, also a 4th year guy, is signed for four more years, and looks like a solid starter. 650 yards last season is good for a TE, and we expect to see him used heavily. There’s one vote for importing the Ravens 2TE offense to Jacksonville.

DE Nate Cavoretto has barely clung to a slot here, but might make it a while longer now.

Those three are hardly a real foundation, but we’ll do what we can.


Interestingly, as we start off the FA period, I get a trade offer – a 1st round pick plus a former 7th round pick at TE for our star left tackle. Done! We welcome aboard TE Ken Medzihradsky, and silently pray that we can do better than this for our #2 TE slot.

I start mulching through the laborious trade process, picking up draft picks and whatnot for the players on our inherited roster. We’re going to start clean here, for the most part, and we’ll get what we can for these guys – specifically current and future year 7th round picks.

We get to Denver, and find a jackpot – an obvious breakout DT, who also looks like he will be a solid position leader for us. I love him, and I back up the brinks truck to get him – four top picks, and we land DT Darren Griffin, to become the centerpiece of the Jacksonville defense, hopefully for a very long time.


So, I am armed pretty well with a complement of draft picks, and we start looking at the veteran free agents. Without belaboring this too much – I go about this methodically, not wanting to clutter the team with dead weight all over the place.

The first free agent I come across is almost laughable – CB Darryl Campbell has pretty good skills in man to man coverage, but is listed as “out” due to impaired vision, for an unknown duration. A blind cornerback – I love it! He does, however, look like a future position leader for us, so I go ahead and make a multiyear offer, hoping to get him playable at some point, where he would become a real value signing.

My first round of pursuits are for veterans who we believe can become the position leaders for the team. I think to build this team successfully, I’ll at least need to avoid conflicts – so I want to get the leaders installed early. I go after affordable, high-leadership types who ought to be able to hold the leadership role for a long time.


And in the late stages of free agency, we make what has to be the biggest move of our offseason, with the possible exception of acquiring anchor DT Griffin. We work out a contract with QB Irving Warholic, a 6th year veteran from the Giants, who has seen limited duty but looks pretty good to our scouts (45/66). He will certainly step right into our starting job, and ought to be the centerpiece for the Jags’ offense. Warholic’s strongest ratings are in the intangibles – 3rd down passing, timing, and sensing the pass rush. He’s a 30/51 in avoiding interceptions, so he has a weakness – a pretty big one. But overall, this is a pretty skilled QB who ought to keep us from having a truly dreadful first few seasons, I think. He signs a four year deal, and cements the starting job quickly.

WR Dexter Duran is a 12th year player who has bounced around but racked up 5,676 yards receiving in the process. He’s a prototype decent ratings, low route running guy who will never be an impact player. I offer him a one year deal, and we’ll see whether he makes it, or yields to younger talent.


So, I fill in with a lot of pretty marginal players elsewhere – including quite a lot of 3rd year guys on one year contracts (where I’ll have an unimpeded option to extend after this year if I like what I see there). We get to the draft with 39 players signed – and we have some more dealing to go to continue to acquire 7th rounders. I’d like to bring in about 20 rookies to compete for jobs this season.

From the roster we have on hand, our top needs seem to be: DE, OT, RB, WR and MLB. We also need to acquire a punter and kicker as well, but that shouldn’t pose any real problem.


2020 Rookie Draft

Pick Pos Player Name Notes Draft Roster
7.01 QB Andy Hanson Best left, solid skills match 15/52 15/49
7.02 RT Shawn Duran Pass blocker, 7.65 Agil 11/42 11/40
7.03 MLB Conrad Greenham Best left, solid overall 11/44 11/42
7.06 CB Raymond Longworth Most developed guy left, KR/ST 23/40 22/39
7.08 C Geoff Hodges 300lbs, move to G or T? 15/58 *11/53
7.10 K Justin Oldham Solid accuracy, low range 29/71 29/71
7.11 RB Wintson Poppe Receiving skills, switch to WR 19/39 *13/50
7.13 DE Les Simmons Most developed at position 24/31 25/32
7.14 TE Bob Clancy Decent skills all around 22/43 21/42
7.16 FB Wesley Franz Intriguing mix, decent combine 18/43 *24/44
7.17 C Bernie Combs Run blocker potential around 60? 20/57 19/55
7.18 MLB Lawrence Sellers Quickest and fastest LB left, ST 14/40 14/39
7.19 CB Jon Dykstra Well rounded, good Int rating 20/38 19/38
7.20 FS Pat Kelley Good Int rating, 6.96 Agil 19/39 19/38
7.23 P Andre Daylo Best current ratings of any left 33/61 32/60
7.23 RB Pete Fox Good mix of skills rushing and rec 21/38 21/35
7.27 QB Andy Shockley 4.47 forty, few decent skills 11/49 11/51
7.28 QB Bernard Blackburn Best mix of skills and combine left 08/50 08/51
7.29 DE C.J. Manumaleuna Most developed DE available, run D 21/38 22/37
7.32 WR Randall Vince Most developed WR, 6.94 Agil, ST 22/34 22/34


So, we sift through this dirt, and look for what we can find… the results are fairly uninspiring, based on the first ratings adjustment. I think we’ll have a few guys who get some playing time, but I don’t see a lot of breakouts.

It’s interesting to figure out what to do with a QB like Andy Shockley – fast guy who had a bump in his ratings on first look. One thought would be to switch him to RB, where he might be effective and we have nobody of note (and maybe also consider this for QB Andy Hanson). Thing is – does he (Shockley) have a meaningful future at QB? Is there much chance that we’ll really put him on the field to find out? (Sometimes this is the downside of playing not-quite-empty cupboard … it’s tougher to just hand over the mantle to a young guy like this when I have a veteran rated 45 right now who can play)

With QB Andy Hanson, it turns out any position switching is basically a moot point – he’s 244 lbs, and a switch to RB would only go through at 61%, so he’d lose too much anyway. But with Shockley, I decide to give him a look – the new RB Andy Shockley, switched at 68%, is rated 20/50, but has a nice mix of skills. He also looks like he can be a really solid punt and kick returner – so this looks like a good move for us, and we’ll stick with him at RB, probably as our starter. (Didn’t see that one coming)


In late free agency, we sign up veteran tackle Kennedy Tate. He’s a run-blocking specialist, not exactly what I want with my OT generally, but he steps in as the new position leader for us (a benefit) and is a mentor at OT as well. Seems like a solid addition for the former 7th round pick who can play a bit if needed (though he can’t pass block to save his life).

That bumps us to 61 players (including one rookie holdout, RT Shawn Duran) – which is basically our limit. We have on carryover veteran (injured and can’t be cut or traded) whom we expect to deal after training camp.


We head into training camp, and I think my starting gameplan for this team is taking shape. I think on offense, we are going to try to work around Warholic’s strengths – he’s a short passing guy, so we’ll use the 2TE base offense from the Ravens team to start out with. I plan to shuffle the defense though, and make this defense a 3-4 front, with Darren Griffin the monster in the middle. The secondary will play mostly loose man coverage, which seems like the best fit for the talent we have on hand – especially if we ever get CB Darryl Campbell into playing shape (he’s rated 88/100 in MTM).

After training camp, here’s the snapshot of our roster, ready to take on the season:


Jacksonville Jaguars Roster, Scout Overview

Player # Pos Start Exp Current Estimate Future Estimate Cntrct
Warholic, Irving 13 QB 6 42 55 4 yrs
Hanson, Andy 12 QB 1 16 42 3 yrs
Blackburn, Bernard 15 QB 1 10 51 3 yrs
Sweeney, Melvin 19 QB 3 9 38 1 yr.
Franz, Wesley 47 RB 1 24 41 3 yrs
Fox, Pete 41 RB 1 21 31 3 yrs
Shockley, Andy 17 RB 1 20 43 3 yrs
Chelios, Alonzo 21 FB 7 40 43 1 yr.
Maloney, J.B. 29 FB 3 35 41 2 yrs
Conley, Wayne 87 TE 4 71 71 4 yrs
Clancy, Bob 80 TE 1 23 42 3 yrs
Medzihradsky, Ken 83 TE 2 18 40 2 yrs
Armstrong, Nathan 81 FL 3 25 36 1 yr.
Grier, Arnie 84 FL 3 23 34 3 yrs
Poppe, Winston 37 FL 1 14 44 3 yrs
Duran, Dexter 86 SE 12 44 44 1 yr.
Vince, Randall 88 SE 1 24 34 3 yrs
Price, Heath 53 C 8 39 45 2 yrs
Combs, Bernie 58 C 1 21 52 3 yrs
Fox, Nathan 62 LG 3 27 35 3 yrs
Cole, Bryce 75 LG 3 23 36 1 yr.
Hodges, Geoff 52 LG 1 14 47 3 yrs
Sellers, Graham 70 RG 5 36 47 3 yrs
Guarino, Butch 60 RG 3 21 34 1 yr.
Tate, Kennedy 66 LT 8 24 29 3 yrs
Alba, Ralph 72 LT 3 15 41 1 yr.
Bellis, Lamar 61 RT 5 44 44 3 yrs
Collier, Edward 64 RT 2 27 38 2 yrs
Ellis, Harris 69 RT 3 21 40 1 yr.
Duran, Shawn 76 RT 1 13 39 3 yrs
Newhart, Takeo 71 RT 2 9 41 2 yrs
Daylo, Andre 9 P 1 33 54 3 yrs
Oldham, Justin 2 K 1 33 71 3 yrs
O'Neal, Kirk 73 LDE 9 49 49 3 yrs
Simmons, Les 93 LDE 1 27 34 3 yrs
Manumaleuna, C.J. 63 LDE 1 23 34 3 yrs
Finch, George 96 RDE 4 34 39 3 yrs
Cavoretto, Nate 98 RDE 3 26 34 1 yr.
Griffin, Darren 77 NT 6 91 91 3 yrs
Hegamin, J.B. 79 NT 3 29 42 2 yrs
Cote, Donald 90 NT 2 18 36 2 yrs
Sandstrom, Louie 91 NT 3 15 33 1 yr.
Sellers, Lawrence 92 SILB 1 15 39 3 yrs
Greenham, Conrad 57 WILB 1 12 38 3 yrs
McKyer, Sammy 97 SLB 9 45 45 1 yr.
Beeck, Roman 56 SLB 4 34 43 1 yr.
Fullerton, Darryl 50 SLB 3 26 37 1 yr.
Hall, Dexter 55 SLB 3 20 31 1 yr.
Saga, Bucky 99 WLB 7 42 42 3 yrs
**Campbell, Darryl 42 LCB 6 44 49 3 yrs
Foreman, Stanley 44 LCB 4 24 30 1 yr.
Longworth, Raymond 35 LCB 1 23 39 3 yrs
**Lindsay, Jerry 43 RCB 4 73 73 1 yr.
Pinard, James 32 RCB 10 42 42 3 yrs
Heubeck, Bruce 23 RCB 5 38 38 2 yrs
Sanderson, Les 40 RCB 3 25 39 1 yr.
Dykstra, Jon 25 RCB 1 22 38 3 yrs
Lavender, Brenden 36 SS 3 29 49 1 yr.
Nathan, Rich 24 FS 5 51 51 3 yrs
Cote, Reuben 30 FS 13 39 39 1 yr.
Kelley, Pat 48 FS 1 20 38 3 yrs

$$ - player is in starting lineup, ## - player is inactive.

Players Under Contract: 61
Inactive: 0
On Active Roster: 61

Salary Cap: $80,600,000
Cap Room: $14,370,000
Maximum for New Player: $14,630,000
Cap Room Lost (to old contracts): $32,320,000

Cap Room Lost Next Year (to old contracts): $37,390,000
Cap Room Required Next Year: $67,020,000


Ignore CB Jerry Lindsay and his $1.2m contract – he’s still injured and I cent get him off the team yet. Soon, though.


What do we see here? A few semi-ordered thoughts…

-I wish I had a mentor QB for Bernard Blackburn, who has a lot to learn but might turn out to be pretty good

-I was fleetingly excited before camp about our RB situation – now, not so much… it’s just the blue bar mirage striking again, especially with Andy Shockley

-Kennedy Tate might have to start for us at left tackle after all – hope Irving’s a lefty

-We didn’t get anything worth a damn from the two rookie LBs I was counting on to start

-CB Raymond Longworth looks pretty good, but has a void in man coverage… tough call there

[QuikSand]

Season Preview

A wreck. With no cohesion to speak of (of course), and a roster that rates a solid 3 out of 100 (last), we shouldn’t be winning many games here in Jacksonville. This is a building year – we have a number of veterans on one year deals, and will just be finding our way here. It’s hard to imagine much more than a handful of wins, I don’t expect.

I’m going to actually manage the depth chart, since there are some specific things I want to do with this team. We’ll see how long the hands-on approach lasts, though.


2020 Season

The early returns suggest that our defense is ahead of our offense – we hold teams to under 20 points in our first two games, but we can’t score and lose both. We do get a win in week four over Cinti – powered by a late KO return TD from CB Stanley Foreman. But overall, this team really is not competitive at all, as our offense is clearly among the league’s weakest.

At 1-6, we make a few roster shifts, including subbing in rookie QB Bernard Blackburn for the injured Irving Warholic. Clearly, we have little to lose this year. In week 9, we put forth our best offensive effort of the year behind 3 TDs from Blackburn (only to lose to a 2-minute comeback). I decide to leave Blackburn in a while, even after the bye week has healed Warholic okay.

The offense certainly does seem livelier with Blackburn in the saddle, oddly enough. We squeak out a win at Minnesota in week 12, after a game-winning FG drive led by his 3-for-3 passing. Hey, a 3-13 season clearly isn’t anything to shout about, so we’ll take our solace where we can – we might have ourselves a quarterback after all.


2020 Summary for Jacksonville Jaguars

Record: 3-13
Winning Pct.: .187

Jacksonville Jaguars Team Rank
Rushes 378 31
Rushing Yards 1362 31
Yards Per Carry 3.60 31
Pass Attempts 566 6
Completions 319 16 (T)
Passing Yards 3517 22
Yards Per Attempt 6.21 26
3rd Down Conversions 37.1 29
Points Per Game 15.2 30
Turnovers 29 26 (T)
Turnover Margin -6 25 (T)

Opponents Team Rank
Rushes 506 30
Rushing Yards 2074 29
Yards Per Carry 4.09 13 (T)
Pass Attempts 489 2 (T)
Completions 311 10 (T)
Passing Yards 3451 8
Yards Per Attempt 7.05 27
3rd Down Conversions 40.9 12
Points Per Game 22.1 25
Turnovers 23 13 (T)

Week Team Versus Oppnt
1 7 at HOU 13
2 6 DET 16
3 10 at SDO 23
4 23 CIN 13
5 7 CLE 26
6 17 at IND 27
7 7 at PIT 15
8 14 at BAL 34
9 28 TEN 31
11 24 HOU 29
12 23 at MIN 22
13 13 BUF 21
14 21 CHI 14
15 14 IND 24
16 13 at GBY 23
17 17 at TEN 24

Passing Pos Att Comp Yards Y/Att TD Int
15 Blackburn QB 322 183 2035 6.31 12 8
13 Warholic QB 231 130 1397 6.04 4 11
**Team --- 566 319 3517 6.21 17 20

Rushing Pos Att Yards Y/Att TD
47 Franz RB 219 814 3.71 4
41 Fox RB 60 206 3.43 1
17 Shockley RB 45 153 3.40 0
**Team --- 378 1362 3.60 7

Receiving Pos Targ Catch Yards Y/Ctc YAC TD
87 Conley TE 128 78 754 9.6 116 3
81 Armstrong WR 95 52 631 12.1 123 4
84 Grier WR 99 52 655 12.5 114 4
88 Vince WR 84 46 490 10.6 90 3
86 Duran WR 83 42 574 13.6 66 2
**Team --- 562 319 3517 11.0 593 17

Defense Pos Tack Asst Sack Hurr Ints Defn
77 Griffin DT 104 42 6.5 21 0 1
56 Beeck OLB 81 29 0.0 1 1 2
97 McKyer OLB 78 16 3.0 4 0 1
92 Sellers ILB 69 30 0.0 0 1 1
24 Nathan S 65 19 0.0 0 1 6
36 Lavender S 60 24 0.0 0 0 7
99 Saga OLB 54 23 1.0 0 2 4
30 Cote S 52 17 0.0 0 1 3
96 Finch DE 43 12 7.5 13 0 0
32 Pinard CB 41 11 0.0 0 1 4
23 Heubeck CB 41 16 0.0 0 2 5
73 O'Neal DE 37 17 3.0 21 0 0
35 Longworth CB 28 8 0.0 0 1 2
50 Fullerton OLB 23 6 1.0 2 0 1
**Team --- 884 282 23.0 64 12 42


So, we get an all-world season out of our monster nose tackle Darren griffin, who basically benefited from the perfect storm for tackle totals: crappy team on offense put us on defense a lot, the defense isn’t that good either, nobody around him is that good at tackling, and – voila! I don’t think I have ever had a 100-tackle DT before, but the stage was set for him here. Has to be an all-pro pick, right? Maybe DPOY?

As for the QB position – what’s not to like about the turnaround under the rookie? I honestly was halfway disappointed when I saw Warholic available, as I just assumed he’d be the best we could do (and finding and cultivating my own QB is a fun part of these challenge careers for me) – I’m sort of glad to see the rookie step up and get the job done pretty well, all told.

Other bright spots? C Heath price had a solid year as the best of a very weak OL group… 3rd year S Brenden Lavender played pretty well… and converted FB Wesley Franz carries his weight okay leading the running game.

But let’s not get carried away – this is a terrible team right now, and our prospects for big improvement any time very soon are pretty slim.


In the postseason, the Ravens lose in the divisional round, and the Bears win the title.

DT Darren Griffin does indeed get named as a first team all-pro, but loses out for DPOY to a 122-tackle LB. (Ravens send two, LB Rickey Owens and WR Kirk Fox)

[QuikSand]

2021 offseason

So, one dreadful season in the bag – now we have to make some decisions.

One bit of good news – CB Darryl Campbell is still with us, and he seems to have made a full recovery from his vision problems. If true, that adds a potential impact player for us, and locks us in to the man coverage scheme for a while. Great news!

Our top free agent players are LB Sammy McKyer and Roman Beeck, both of whom were decent starters last season for us. Neither is a star-caliber player, but unless we can land promising youngsters, these are the best we’ll have on hand. We’ll try to re-sign both – and I don’t expect either to generate a ton of interest.


There is one impact free agent in this year’s group, though – WR Norm McNown, a 7th year flanker who rates 61/61 by my scout, and would make a wonderful #1 target in our offense, I’m quite certain. I don’t see much reason not to back up the bank truck to get him, really – but our problem is that eating a lot of dead cap space from last year’s trades and cuts has us in a bit of a pinch this season. So, we’ll have to make a cheap first year and the real money down the line – SOP in the NFL, anyway.

We head into free agency with not a ton of cap space, but I think we can make room if we really need it. We get our deal done with WR McNown right away – he ought to be a serious impact signing – 1,200 yards for sure if he’s healthy. DT Leon Poston also signs up – he’s a great run-stopper, and might get into a platoon role for us at DE. Finally, we land CB Joey Staat (an old friend from the Ravens roster) who comes aboard as an affinity addition and reasonable backup.

LB Sammy McKyer gets an offer from, of all places, Baltimore, and we need to make a call. He’s slated to earn more than $2m this year and nearly $3m per season there – do we want to invest enough to re-sign him? I work out a three year offer, cheap this year, but trouble next year, and hope to keep him around. He’s a starter and a mentor, and worth holding onto with such a narrow pool of players to draw from anyway.

I thought my offer would be god enough – but I was wrong, and he heads to Baltimore. They paid more in bonus than I had offered, but it had to be a tough decision. Alas – we are weakened by the loss. We then surprisingly lose FB Alonzo Chelios to a quick offer from Carolina – I didn’t even see that coming.

So, we head to the draft, with 48 players already signed to a bloated lineup, and a ton of draft picks in round seven once again. We zip ahead to round seven, where we will again invite in a score of guys to have a look. This year, we’re still really looking for help at DE and RB, and probably LB as well.


2021 Rookie Draft

Pick Pos Player Name Notes Draft Roster
7.01 SLB Brandon Brown 273lb pass rusher, switch to DE 11/37 *09/30
7.02 RB Leland Alchesky Solid receiving skills, switch to WR 21/35 *13/39
7.03 RB Zach Brooks Best developed, all around player 24/45 26/41
7.05 FB Nathan Vlasak Blocking FB with low route running 16/41 16/39
7.06 WR Ed Dolliver Highest current ratings, KR 20/34 19/31
7.10 DE Burt Suhocki 31 reps, well developed, upside? 25/34 25/33
7.11 MLB Ted Chapman Solid skills match, good Run D 09/43 09/41
7.12 SS Skip Reese 4.50 forty, solid combine, ST 23/41 22/39
7.13 QB Preston Reed Best arm and test score left 09/37 09/31
7.16 CB Larry Myers 4.42 forty, solid combine, hitter 10/35 12/41
7.17 WR Horace Hutton 4.50, 7.02, good routes, affinity 14/35 14/31
7.29 C Wayne Elliott 52 test is best left any position 07/15 07/15
7.30 TE Myron Meinhart 27 reps, 32 test – best combo left 20/36 20/35
7.31 DE Chris Hines Best potential left at need position 07/41 *08/39
7.32 QB Jared Mason Good apparent potentials, maybe? 07/52 07/45


Looks like a lot of junk to me. The obvious exception being CB Larry Myers, who jumped six points – a great sign. Sky’s the limit there, and his best coverage is man – where we are still trying to focus.

We inch up to 67 players on the roster – so we will have plenty of cutting to do ahead. Here’s the post-camp roster, by my scout:


Jacksonville Jaguars Roster, Scout Overview

Player # Pos Start Exp Current Estimate Future Estimate Cntrct
Warholic, Irving 13 QB 7 49 56 3 yrs
Blackburn, Bernard 15 QB 2 21 52 2 yrs
Hanson, Andy 12 QB 2 17 38 2 yrs
Reed, Preston 18 QB 1 11 29 3 yrs
Mason, Jared 5 QB 1 9 40 3 yrs
Brooks, Zach 34 RB 1 26 37 3 yrs
Franz, Wesley 47 RB 2 24 37 2 yrs
Fox, Pete 41 RB 2 21 29 2 yrs
Shockley, Andy 17 RB 2 20 36 2 yrs
Maloney, J.B. 29 FB 4 37 41 1 yr.
Vlasak, Nathan 27 FB 1 17 37 3 yrs
Conley, Wayne 87 TE 5 69 71 3 yrs
Clancy, Bob 80 TE 2 25 41 2 yrs
Meinhart, Myron 8 TE 1 22 36 3 yrs
Medzihradsky, Ken 83 TE 3 15 31 1 yr.
McNown, Norm 85 FL 7 62 62 5 yrs
Armstrong, Nathan 81 FL 4 28 35 2 yrs
Grier, Arnie 84 FL 4 25 34 2 yrs
Poppe, Winston 37 FL 2 15 40 2 yrs
Hutton, Horace 82 FL 1 15 28 3 yrs
Duran, Dexter 86 SE 13 38 38 2 yrs
Vince, Randall 88 SE 2 26 34 2 yrs
Dolliver, Ed 89 SE 1 21 29 3 yrs
Alchesky, Leland 46 SE 1 14 33 3 yrs
Price, Heath 53 C 9 39 44 1 yr.
Combs, Bernie 58 C 2 25 50 2 yrs
Elliott, Wayne 59 C 1 9 16 3 yrs
Fox, Nathan 62 LG 4 30 35 2 yrs
Hodges, Geoff 52 LG 2 17 42 2 yrs
Sellers, Graham 70 RG 6 36 46 2 yrs
Guarino, Butch 60 RG 4 24 34 2 yrs
Tate, Kennedy 66 LT 9 25 29 2 yrs
Bellis, Lamar 61 RT 6 45 45 2 yrs
Collier, Edward 64 RT 3 33 36 1 yr.
Duran, Shawn 76 RT 2 15 38 2 yrs
Daylo, Andre 9 P 2 34 49 2 yrs
Oldham, Justin 2 K 2 49 72 2 yrs
O'Neal, Kirk 73 LDE 10 46 46 2 yrs
Simmons, Les 93 LDE 2 30 36 2 yrs
Manumaleuna, C.J. 63 LDE 2 23 32 2 yrs
Brown, Brandon 54 LDE 1 10 28 3 yrs
Finch, George 96 RDE 5 37 39 2 yrs
Suhocki, Bert 97 RDE 1 25 33 3 yrs
Poston, Leon 75 RDT 8 55 55 4 yrs
Griffin, Darren 77 NT 7 94 94 2 yrs
Hegamin, J.B. 79 NT 4 33 44 1 yr.
Hines, Cris 78 NT 1 9 35 3 yrs
Sellers, Lawrence 92 SILB 2 22 39 2 yrs
Greenham, Conrad 57 WILB 2 15 36 2 yrs
Chapman, Ted 51 MLB 1 11 39 3 yrs
Fullerton, Darryl 50 SLB 4 31 36 2 yrs
Hall, Dexter 55 SLB 4 24 30 2 yrs
Saga, Bucky 99 WLB 8 42 42 2 yrs
Campbell, Darryl 42 LCB 7 42 42 2 yrs
Longworth, Raymond 35 LCB 2 30 39 2 yrs
Foreman, Stanley 44 LCB 5 26 30 2 yrs
Myers, Larry 21 LCB 1 15 45 3 yrs
Staat, Joey 20 RCB 10 44 44 3 yrs
Pinard, James 32 RCB 11 38 38 2 yrs
Heubeck, Bruce 23 RCB 6 38 38 1 yr.
Sanderson, Les 40 RCB 4 28 40 3 yrs
Lavender, Brenden 36 SS 4 37 49 2 yrs
Nathan, Rich 24 FS 6 51 51 2 yrs
Cote, Reuben 30 FS 14 39 39 2 yrs
Becker, Malcolm 33 FS 3 29 40 1 yr.
Reese, Skip 39 FS 1 24 36 3 yrs
Kelley, Pat 48 FS 2 23 39 2 yrs

$$ - player is in starting lineup, ## - player is inactive.

Players Under Contract: 67
Inactive: 0
On Active Roster: 67

Salary Cap: $80,600,000
Cap Room: $5,350,000
Maximum for New Player: $5,610,000
Cap Room Lost (to old contracts): $37,390,000

Cap Room Lost Next Year (to old contracts): $0
Cap Room Required Next Year: $49,990,000


So, I pare down a bit – and we are ready for the preseason.

[QuikSand]

Season Preview

More of the same, probably not quite as bad. I expect to see pretty big numbers from WR McNown, as he will be our only serious downfield target. On defense, I expect another big season from Darren Griffin, as the tackling skills around him won’t be significantly better. We’ll hope to see a healthy CB Darryl Campbell (heh) but we have options at CB even if he can’t stay around.

Overall, I’d peg us as a 5-11 team, more or less. Next year should be the step forward.


2021 season

We open with a home win over the Colts, after being 9 point dogs. But both TE Conley and WR McNown are hurt – that can’t be good. Things do settle down, though – we lose some close ones, and some not so close, and get to the halfway point at 2-6. The defense is playing pretty well, but we are turning the ball over a lot, and we’re just not good enough to overcome that.

We just continue to lose close games – it’s not like a 7-9 record would matter much, but it still is frustrating. The team basically shuts down in the final weeks, and we have awfully little to show for our two seasons of effort right now.


2021 Summary for Jacksonville Jaguars

Record: 2-14
Winning Pct.: .125

Jacksonville Jaguars Team Rank
Rushes 432 23
Rushing Yards 1661 26
Yards Per Carry 3.84 26
Pass Attempts 566 2
Completions 309 18 (T)
Passing Yards 3519 20
Yards Per Attempt 6.21 30
3rd Down Conversions 46.0 9
Points Per Game 14.9 30 (T)
Turnovers 40 32
Turnover Margin -26 32

Opponents Team Rank
Rushes 473 22
Rushing Yards 1859 17
Yards Per Carry 3.93 11
Pass Attempts 518 18
Completions 299 9
Passing Yards 3407 7
Yards Per Attempt 6.57 8
3rd Down Conversions 45.7 23
Points Per Game 21.6 27 (T)
Turnovers 14 30 (T)

Week Team Versus Oppnt
1 23 IND 17
2 24 STL 27
3 20 at SDO 26
4 13 at NYJ 23
5 26 MIA 20
6 3 at IND 13
7 13 at TEN 15
9 7 at BUF 17
10 21 NED 28
11 17 at HOU 24
12 20 at ARI 23
13 13 CIN 15
14 21 at SEA 24
15 6 TEN 27
16 6 SFO 17
17 6 HOU 30

Passing Pos Att Comp Yards Y/Att TD Int
15 Blackburn QB 526 284 3157 6.00 16 26
13 Warholic QB 39 24 355 9.10 2 2
**Team --- 566 309 3519 6.21 18 28

Rushing Pos Att Yards Y/Att TD
34 Brooks RB 191 766 4.01 2
47 Franz RB 184 645 3.50 2
15 Blackburn QB 33 198 6.00 2
**Team --- 432 1661 3.84 7

Receiving Pos Targ Catch Yards Y/Ctc YAC TD
86 Duran WR 123 66 924 14.0 93 6
85 McNown WR 112 62 848 13.6 158 3
87 Conley TE 92 59 580 9.8 98 3
81 Armstrong WR 82 43 549 12.7 59 1
80 Clancy TE 47 23 189 8.2 21 3
29 Maloney FB 25 18 102 5.6 44 1
**Team --- 564 309 3519 11.3 547 18

Defense Pos Tack Asst Sack Hurr Ints Defn
36 Lavender S 80 34 0.0 0 0 3
57 Greenham ILB 78 26 1.0 1 0 2
50 Fullerton OLB 73 19 0.0 0 2 7
24 Nathan S 70 29 0.0 0 1 8
92 Sellers ILB 68 24 0.0 0 0 4
99 Saga OLB 62 34 0.0 0 1 3
77 Griffin DT 62 13 7.5 26 0 0
42 Campbell CB 51 20 0.0 0 2 21
35 Longworth CB 46 19 0.0 0 1 4
75 Poston DT 38 21 4.0 10 0 0
21 Myers CB 23 8 0.0 0 0 1
51 Chapman ILB 22 6 0.0 0 1 0
73 O'Neal DE 21 8 1.0 15 0 0
93 Simmons DE 18 6 5.0 2 0 0
55 Hall OLB 16 2 0.0 0 0 1
**Team --- 836 292 21.0 68 11 58


A turnover margin of –26… I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed that before. Ouch.

QB Blackburn suddenly looked down and discovered he’s just a low-skills youngster, and a la Wile E Coyote, plummeted to earth in a puffy cloud. Great. The offense was among the least productive both running and passing, so we’re balanced at least.

Both of our top targets in the passing game missed some time, and managed to fall short of our hopes. McNown with 848 yards is okay, and he did play much of the season while listed as “probable,” but we’d still prefer a bigger return there. Duran ended up being the most stable guy, and his re-signing was basically an afterthought.

On defense, DT Griffin also got hurt, and missed a few games – nothing too serious, though. CB Daryl Campbell played nearly all season, and was solid for us – though nobody on this defense seems to make any big plays. Larry Myers got some spot duty, and will work back in next year, I suspect.


We get no mention at all on the league awards list. DE Reggie Fletcher of Cleveland is named first team all pro, with 18.5 sacks.

[QuikSand]

2022 offseason

So, we come into this season with renewed concern at QB, a roster full of similar concerns, and no really easy path toward vast improvement. We hold the pick at 1.1 in the draft, which will go for naught anyway.

There is one very strong DE in the free agent class this year, whom we will clearly have to pursue. Peter Hartman has been playing for Green Bay, and my scout rates him at 75/75 in his 7th year. He posted double digit sacks each of the last three seasons, and will become an immediate impact player for us, I expect. He wants big money, but where else are we going to spend our cap space, really? We’ll get him.

We also pursue QB Norm Borders, who might compete for playing time, and TE Rickey Foley, who could end up being a nice target in a 2 TE system.

LB Roman Beeck, a guy we let get away last season, is available now – and we grab him. We are fairly weak at LB, and he’s a solid addition – never should have let him walk anyway. We also sign WLB Rufus Graham, who may be a solid fit for us as a potential starter or utility reserve.

WR Adrian Howe has bounced around the league a while – never posting a 1,000-yards season, but has been good enough to stay afloat for 12 seasons. We ink him, and will give him a shot probably in our slot role.

S John Gray is a decent skills guy, typical veteran reserve, not an impact player, but a decent fit for out man coverage system.


So – a pretty active free agency stretch for us, and we will have to make quite a number of cuts to get under our roster limits this year – we are up to 61 players signed before the draft even starts.


In the draft – we once again have a number of 7th round picks, and will take our usual chances with them.


2022 Rookie Draft

Pick Pos Player Name Notes Draft Roster
7.01 FB Marshall Bates Developed, 97 vol, solid combine 22/44 22/41
7.02 WR Cary Sankey Good combine, 90 vol, upside? 12/23 12/23
7.03 C Louie Ransom Best speed and agil of any C left 25/39 26/40
7.05 T Neal Maynard Great pass bl potential, 7.61 agil 06/45 06/42
7.06 DE Corey Monroe Most developed DE available 27/35 27/32
7.09 DT Stan Hill Run D pot, 4.96 forty, 7.37 agil 13/35 14/39
7.11 CB Arnie Twisp 4.47 forty, 24 reps, upside? 17/33 17/34
7.13 FS J.T. Griffin 38 test, 20 reps, solid coverages 13/41 13/40
7.14 RB Vince Schultz Highly developed, high elusiveness 28/29 28/30
7.15 WR Jon Raymond Highly developed, big play skills 23/33 23/34
7.16 DT A.J. Bates Good pass rushing potential 22/35 22/34
7.17 DT Dana Daniels Good pass rushing potential 22/35 22/34
7.19 DT Luther McCarthy Run stopper skills, 89 vol 21/38 21/37
7.22 MLB Howie Fishman 4.78 forty, 7.38 agil, good run D 11/37 11/36
7.23 CB Jesse Detmer 4.44 forty, 7.08 agil, good MTM pot 16/43 16/41


So, on first glance, I’m giessing we have a couple guys who will get incrementally better – C Ransom, WR Raymond, CB Twisp. We mighthave one guy with some real potential in DT Stan Hill, who moves seamlessly over to the NT position we’d need. Plenty of guys here who will just draw cap space until they get mercilessly cut, as usual.

Here’s the post-camp roster – lots of paring down ahead:


Player # Pos Start Exp Current Estimate Future Estimate Cntrct
Warholic, Irving 13 QB 8 53 56 2 yrs
Borders, Norm 17 QB 5 43 58 3 yrs
Blackburn, Bernard 15 QB 3 36 52 1 yr.
Hanson, Andy 12 QB 3 19 34 1 yr.
Schultz, Vince 22 RB 1 30 34 3 yrs
Brooks, Zach 34 RB 2 27 33 2 yrs
Franz, Wesley 47 RB 3 24 35 1 yr.
Fox, Pete 41 RB 3 22 27 1 yr.
Maloney, J.B. 29 FB 5 36 41 3 yrs
Bates, Marshall 26 FB 1 23 39 3 yrs
Conley, Wayne 87 TE 6 69 71 2 yrs
Foley, Ricky 3 TE 12 45 50 2 yrs
Clancy, Bob 80 TE 3 31 40 1 yr.
Meinhart, Myron 8 TE 2 24 36 2 yrs
McNown, Norm 85 FL 8 59 59 4 yrs
Howe, Adrian 83 FL 12 44 44 2 yrs
Armstrong, Nathan 81 FL 5 30 34 1 yr.
Raymond, Jon 7 FL 1 27 40 3 yrs
Grier, Arnie 84 FL 5 19 25 1 yr.
Poppe, Winston 37 FL 3 16 34 1 yr.
Hutton, Horace 82 FL 2 16 27 2 yrs
Duran, Dexter 86 SE 14 38 38 1 yr.
Vince, Randall 88 SE 3 29 34 1 yr.
Dolliver, Ed 89 SE 2 21 28 2 yrs
Sankey, Cary 11 SE 1 13 23 3 yrs
Price, Heath 53 C 10 35 40 3 yrs
Combs, Bernie 58 C 3 30 49 1 yr.
Ransom, Louie 59 C 1 29 44 3 yrs
Fox, Nathan 62 LG 5 30 34 1 yr.
Hodges, Geoff 52 LG 3 12 31 1 yr.
Sellers, Graham 70 RG 7 35 46 1 yr.
Guarino, Butch 60 RG 5 25 33 1 yr.
Tate, Kennedy 66 LT 10 26 29 1 yr.
Maynard, Neal 67 LT 1 9 42 3 yrs
Bellis, Lamar 61 RT 7 45 45 1 yr.
Collier, Edward 64 RT 4 39 39 2 yrs
Duran, Shawn 76 RT 3 16 36 1 yr.
Daylo, Andre 9 P 3 34 45 1 yr.
Oldham, Justin 2 K 3 62 70 1 yr.
O'Neal, Kirk 73 LDE 11 45 45 1 yr.
Simmons, Les 93 LDE 3 34 36 1 yr.
Manumaleuna, C.J. 63 LDE 3 23 30 1 yr.
Brown, Brandon 54 LDE 2 11 24 2 yrs
Hartman, Peter 78 RDE 7 75 75 6 yrs
Finch, George 96 RDE 6 37 39 1 yr.
Monroe, Corey 98 RDE 1 28 31 3 yrs
Suhocki, Bert 97 RDE 2 25 32 2 yrs
Daniels, Dana 74 LDT 1 23 33 3 yrs
McCarthy, Luther 95 LDT 1 21 36 3 yrs
Poston, Leon 75 RDT 9 55 55 3 yrs
Bates, A.J. 94 RDT 1 24 33 3 yrs
Griffin, Darren 77 NT 8 93 93 1 yr.
Hegamin, J.B. 79 NT 5 37 44 3 yrs
Hill, Stan 72 NT 1 16 42 3 yrs
Sellers, Lawrence 92 SILB 3 29 35 1 yr.
Chapman, Ted 51 SILB 2 13 37 2 yrs
Greenham, Conrad 57 WILB 3 22 34 1 yr.
Fishman, Howie 56 MLB 1 12 35 3 yrs
Beeck, Roman 91 SLB 6 44 50 3 yrs
Fullerton, Darryl 50 SLB 5 34 37 1 yr.
Hall, Dexter 55 SLB 5 28 30 1 yr.
Graham, Rufus 90 WLB 6 45 48 3 yrs
Saga, Bucky 99 WLB 9 40 42 1 yr.
Campbell, Darryl 42 LCB 8 43 43 1 yr.
Longworth, Raymond 35 LCB 3 35 39 1 yr.
Foreman, Stanley 44 LCB 6 27 29 1 yr.
Myers, Larry 21 LCB 2 22 48 2 yrs
Twisp, Arnie 30 LCB 1 19 34 3 yrs
Detmer, Jesse 46 LCB 1 18 37 3 yrs
Pinard, James 32 RCB 12 33 33 1 yr.
Staat, Joey 20 RCB 11 21 21 2 yrs
Lavender, Brenden 36 SS 5 42 49 1 yr.
Nathan, Rich 24 FS 7 52 52 1 yr.
Gray, John 49 FS 5 42 42 3 yrs
Becker, Malcolm 33 FS 4 32 40 3 yrs
Kelley, Pat 48 FS 3 25 39 1 yr.
Reese, Skip 39 FS 2 25 33 2 yrs
Griffin, J.T. 40 FS 1 16 40 3 yrs


The paring-down process is pretty tedious, but we manage to get things organized fairly well. I move CB Larry Myers to the right side, where I think he will become our starter – he’s a guy with some promise, and I want to clear the way for him. I can’t get a starting role for C Louie Ransom, but will try to get him in as an OL super-sub this year, and hope he develops.

[QuikSand]

Season Preview

I don’t think this team will be very good, but we did make one major addition in DE Peter Hartman, so our pass rush ought to escape its anemic levels of the past. I’m hopeful that our corps of LB will be improved, but I don’t forecast great things overall from this defense.

Offensively, we expect to go with young Bernard Blackburn at QB again, and hope to see him take a step forward after a bad season last year. Our running game shouldn’t be much, but we have adequate player in the passing game to make something happen.

I’m hoping for 6 wins, and a good step forward in the composite stats – maybe we can be above average in yards allowed per carry, and around average in yards per attempt on offense.

- - -

2022 Season

We get two close losses in our 0-3 start, followed by (finally) a close win. With a mis-season rush, we actually get to 5-5 on the year, and are looking like a whole different team. We slide down from .500, but we do manage to tally seven wins on the year and accomplish our main objective for season three – a move toward respectability.


2022 Summary for Jacksonville Jaguars

Record: 7-9
Winning Pct.: .437

Jacksonville Jaguars Team Rank
Rushes 443 22 (T)
Rushing Yards 1576 30
Yards Per Carry 3.55 32
Pass Attempts 561 3
Completions 320 10
Passing Yards 3260 26
Yards Per Attempt 5.81 28
3rd Down Conversions 44.0 14
Points Per Game 16.6 28
Turnovers 27 24 (T)
Turnover Margin -4 24

Opponents Team Rank
Rushes 470 20 (T)
Rushing Yards 1772 8
Yards Per Carry 3.77 4
Pass Attempts 541 27
Completions 294 11 (T)
Passing Yards 3492 13
Yards Per Attempt 6.45 6
3rd Down Conversions 41.0 13
Points Per Game 19.4 12
Turnovers 23 15 (T)

Week Team Versus Oppnt
1 3 TEN 23
2 17 at PHI 20
3 23 at CIN 26
4 23 OAK 20
6 20 IND 28
7 10 at TEN 23
8 14 at KCY 12
9 24 DEN 13
10 26 at SDO 23
11 24 at HOU 21
12 14 DAL 19
13 17 MIA 20
14 9 at WAS 30
15 20 HOU 10
16 13 NYG 10
17 10 at IND 13

Passing Pos Att Comp Yards Y/Att TD Int
15 Blackburn QB 558 318 3243 5.81 17 17
**Team --- 561 320 3260 5.81 17 18

Rushing Pos Att Yards Y/Att TD
22 Schultz RB 166 620 3.73 5
47 Franz RB 127 391 3.07 2
34 Brooks RB 111 387 3.48 1
15 Blackburn QB 37 182 4.91 2
**Team --- 443 1576 3.55 10

Receiving Pos Targ Catch Yards Y/Ctc YAC TD
87 Conley TE 160 100 969 9.6 160 7
83 Howe WR 94 54 646 11.9 65 3
85 McNown WR 98 50 563 11.2 56 0
86 Duran WR 74 37 430 11.6 46 1
7 Raymond WR 52 32 386 12.0 116 3
3 Foley TE 33 18 113 6.2 15 2
34 Brooks RB 24 16 63 3.9 33 1
**Team --- 561 320 3260 10.1 534 17

Defense Pos Tack Asst Sack Hurr Ints Defn
36 Lavender S 85 22 0.0 0 2 4
90 Graham OLB 73 23 0.0 0 2 6
92 Sellers ILB 70 26 1.0 0 2 8
91 Beeck OLB 62 18 0.0 1 2 5
78 Hartman DE 58 35 12.5 39 0 0
42 Campbell CB 55 19 0.0 0 2 25
49 Gray S 51 18 0.0 0 1 6
77 Griffin DT 50 17 13.0 10 0 0
21 Myers CB 48 18 0.0 0 2 9
75 Poston DT 31 8 1.5 5 0 1
24 Nathan S 30 11 0.0 0 2 5
33 Becker S 26 9 0.0 0 1 1
46 Detmer CB 24 7 0.0 1 2 1
56 Fishman ILB 23 10 0.0 0 0 1
96 Finch DE 22 17 8.0 19 0 0
99 Saga OLB 17 10 0.0 0 0 1
**Team --- 843 289 36.0 79 18 75


So, by the numbers – we can’t run, we can’t pass, but we have one huckuva defense. Wow. And our best defensive player, NT Griffin, missed about six games to injuries, even.

Blackburn returned to respectability this year, and managed to stay even with his TD/Int ratio. Something to build on, as he is now pretty well cemented as our starter, I think. TE Wayne Conley had a huge year (that we had been waiting for) nearly topping the 1,000 yard mark. Young WR Jon Raymond is likely to take over the starting role at split end next year, and ought to be a nice big play guy for us, I think.

Defensively, I switched to something of a “gadget” setup, and I like the results. We basically didn’t blitz at all this year – evidenced by the paltry sack/hurry numbers of our linebackers. Our front three did almost all the damage – reasonable number of sacks and hurries, and our pass coverage seemed better, I think. CB Darryl Campbell had an outstanding 25 passes defensed – this isn’t a big pay secondary, but I like the results this year, at least.


In the season awards, DE Peter Hartman is named to the first team, and TE Wayne Conley has to settle for second team (TE Dominic Mitchell from Baltimore posted 877 yards and 4 TDs and gets first team on the strength of his blocking record– WTF?).

[QuikSand]

2023 offseason

Now there’s at least some reason to think we have this thing pointed in the right direction, at least. A 7-9 season and a defense that is actually playing well. If we can just get the offense up to average, we’ll be somewhere.

This year, we start off with news that WR Dexter Duran has retired. We’ll be fine – Jon Raymond has the starting SE job sewn up anyway.


We have a lot of players to re-sign this year – several of our most important players are up for new contracts, including DT Darren Griffin and QB Bernard Blackburn. Plus, most of our first draft class selections are out of contract and restricted free agents in their 4th season now. At least Blackburn is restricted, so we can wait him out.

We get a deal done with DT Griffin, to pay him $40m over four years. We also lock up several cheap veterans, and maintain some stability there as well.


QB Floyd Garrett – yet another mediocre signal caller, might have more upside as he’s only a 3rd year guy with a season starting under his belt (albeit a dreadful one).

FB Alonzo Chelios is a guy who got away a couple seasons ago, but he’s better than our current FB options, and signs a three year deal with us, likely to step in and start.

RG Arnold King is a 3rd year player (another guy we missed in our own draft picks) who looks okay, and might get a shot at LG for us.

WR Amos Hyatt, a 4th year guy, is another one we must have missed, but might stick with us as a reserve.


We lose RG Butch Guarino in free agency – I just waited and he grabbed a deal from Seattle. Decent reserve guy, not a great loss, but I should have kept him around.

DE Kirk O’Neal is a guy I didn’t really pursue for the $2m he was seeking – we’re fairly deep at DE, and we’ll do okay with younger players.


We move to the draft, and will have a solid number of picks once again – we’d love to land another player or two to try out at RB, and maybe even a linebacker who has some future.


2023 Rookie Draft

Pick Pos Player Name Notes Draft Roster
7.01 QB Marco Seelig Top rated QB left, 7.30 agil 18/59 18/56
7.03 RB Wally Creamer 25 reps, highly developed 26/35 25/35
7.05 C Adam Carr 5.05 forty, top rated C left 10/44 *10/43
7.08 DE Ed McGillicuddy 7.37 agil, good current ratings 21/32 20/32
7.12 ILB Mike Rollins Well developed, solid combine 23/39 22/38
7.13 WLB David Southwell Solid combine, 99 vol 18/30 17/29
7.14 CB Randal Rose Punt returner, SpTm 13/35 13/35
7.17 FS Donnell McNeil Punt returner, SpTm, MTM skills 17/38 30/46
7.23 RB Timothy Simmons HoleRec/Elus skills, developed 28/41 27/39
7.26 RB Mack Stargell KickRet, receiving skills, to WR? 24/39 23/39



Well, DB Donnell McNeil looks like he’ll be a pleasant surprise – I grabbed him for his incidentals, but if he’s on the improve (and the first look says he really is) then we have something there after all. I move him to LCB, where he converts at 93% (to 28/53), and looks to still be nearly topped-out in man coverage, interceptions, punt returning, and special teams. This guy could be very, very valuable.

I move DE McGillicuddy to ILB (9/33) and move RB Mack Stargell to split end (15/48). Both guys have some shot to make the team – Stargell especially, as we are trying to add some return specialists and he’s a great special teamer too, it appears.


In late free agency, we lose DE George Finch – unexpected. That thins out our ranks a good deal along the DL, but we will be okay, I think.

We have 63 players heading into training camp – and we’ll be letting both RB Wesley Franz and WR Arnie Grier walk – neither is doing much as a position leader, and we need the roster slots, candidly.

After training camp – here’s the snapshot:


Jacksonville Jaguars Roster, Scout Overview

Player # Pos Start Exp Current Estimate Future Estimate Cntrct
Warholic, Irving 13 QB 9 55 58 1 yr.
Blackburn, Bernard 15 QB 4 53 53 3 yrs
Borders, Norm 17 QB 6 41 51 2 yrs
Garrett, Floyd 11 QB 3 30 47 1 yr.
Seelig, Marco 12 QB 1 21 49 3 yrs
Schultz, Vince 22 RB 2 38 40 2 yrs
Brooks, Zach 34 RB 3 27 30 1 yr.
Simmons, Timothy 27 RB 1 27 36 3 yrs
Creamer, Wally 48 RB 1 26 35 3 yrs
Chelios, Alonzo 23 FB 10 37 40 3 yrs
Maloney, J.B. 29 FB 6 29 33 2 yrs
Bates, Marshall 26 FB 2 27 38 2 yrs
Conley, Wayne 87 TE 7 68 70 1 yr.
Foley, Ricky 3 TE 13 44 49 1 yr.
Clancy, Bob 80 TE 4 29 34 1 yr.
McNown, Norm 85 FL 9 57 57 3 yrs
Howe, Adrian 83 FL 13 43 43 1 yr.
Hyatt, Amos 89 FL 4 25 34 3 yrs
Hutton, Horace 82 FL 3 17 27 1 yr.
Raymond, Jon 7 SE 2 32 44 2 yrs
Stargell, Mack 28 SE 1 18 48 3 yrs
Combs, Bernie 58 C 4 36 48 1 yr.
Ransom, Louie 59 C 2 35 46 2 yrs
Price, Heath 53 C 11 34 39 2 yrs
Fox, Nathan 62 LG 6 30 34 3 yrs
Carr, Adam 51 LG 1 12 43 3 yrs
Hodges, Geoff 52 LG 4 10 23 1 yr.
Sellers, Graham 70 RG 8 35 45 3 yrs
King, Arnold 74 RG 3 30 44 1 yr.
Bellis, Lamar 61 LT 8 41 41 1 yr.
Maynard, Neal 67 LT 2 16 40 2 yrs
Collier, Edward 64 RT 5 39 39 1 yr.
Daylo, Andre 9 P 4 33 49 2 yrs
Oldham, Justin 2 K 4 71 71 5 yrs
Manumaleuna, C.J. 63 LDE 4 24 30 1 yr.
Hartman, Peter 78 RDE 8 74 74 5 yrs
Poston, Leon 75 RDT 10 54 54 2 yrs
Griffin, Darren 77 NT 9 89 89 4 yrs
Hegamin, J.B. 79 NT 6 31 35 2 yrs
Hill, Stan 72 NT 2 21 45 2 yrs
Sellers, Lawrence 92 SILB 4 35 35 3 yrs
McGillicuddy, Edward 76 SILB 1 10 34 3 yrs
Greenham, Conrad 57 WILB 4 25 33 2 yrs
Fishman, Howie 56 WILB 2 13 35 2 yrs
Beeck, Roman 91 SLB 7 47 51 2 yrs
Fullerton, Darryl 50 SLB 6 35 37 3 yrs
Rollins, Mike 55 SLB 1 24 38 3 yrs
Graham, Rufus 90 WLB 7 51 51 2 yrs
Saga, Bucky 99 WLB 10 41 43 3 yrs
Southwell, David 54 WLB 1 20 29 3 yrs
Campbell, Darryl 42 LCB 9 43 43 4 yrs
McNeil, Donnell 35 LCB 1 31 51 3 yrs
Twisp, Arnie 30 LCB 2 26 35 2 yrs
Detmer, Jesse 46 LCB 2 25 34 2 yrs
Myers, Larry 21 RCB 3 31 50 1 yr.
Staat, Joey 20 RCB 12 16 16 1 yr.
Rose, Randal 37 RCB 1 14 30 3 yrs
Lavender, Brenden 36 SS 6 45 50 1 yr.
Griffin, J.T. 40 SS 2 17 39 2 yrs
Nathan, Rich 24 FS 8 51 51 3 yrs
Gray, John 49 FS 6 43 43 2 yrs
Becker, Malcolm 33 FS 5 37 40 2 yrs
Reese, Skip 39 FS 3 25 31 1 yr.

[QuikSand]

2023 season preview

I don’t see enough talent on this team to really take a big step forward (our roster rating is a 36, second lowest in the league ahead of only Chicago, who are in putrid shape) – but I suspect that we might be a shade better on offense than last year. If the defense can hold its ground, we could improve… but I don’t expect much more than 6-7 wins, really. I would like to see some semblance of a legitimate running game, and we’ll shuffle RBs in an effort to find something along those lines.

One strategic change – with the losses at DE, I am moving NT Griffin out to play at DE this year – we’ll see how that works out. We’ll put run-stopping DT Postin in the nose slot, and Griffin outside, where his well-rounded skills might lead to more pressure.


2023 season

In our opener, we win, but lose TE Wayne Conley for most of the season. Week two’s win costs us Peter Hartman, but only for a few weeks. We like the wins, but not the cost so far.

In week four, we get to 3-1 by beating Cincinnati – who are already starting QB Marco Seelig, a post-camp casualty from our roster. He’s off to a blazing start for them, but we manage to get the win regardless.

We get DE Hartman back, only to see him go down to another injury – this bodes poorly, I fear. We slide mid season to 4-6, after getting off to such a fast start, it’s disappointing. RB Vince Schultz is up over 4 yards a carry, though, which is refreshing. DE Hartman plays a couple of games, and is out again – three month-long injuries in one season spells trouble, in my book. Our DE problems are far worse than I had imagined – I have reserve LB Darryl Fullerton out there at DE, but he’s a poor player, candidly.

It’s hard to believe that we started out 4-1, and had to rally just to get back to 6-10 on the season, following a terrible 9-game losing streak.


2023 Summary for Jacksonville Jaguars

Record: 6-10
Winning Pct.: .375

Jacksonville Jaguars Team Rank
Rushes 421 28
Rushing Yards 1806 24
Yards Per Carry 4.28 12
Pass Attempts 535 11 (T)
Completions 290 27
Passing Yards 3574 14
Yards Per Attempt 6.68 16 (T)
3rd Down Conversions 40.0 27
Points Per Game 18.4 23
Turnovers 28 27
Turnover Margin -1 20

Opponents Team Rank
Rushes 504 32
Rushing Yards 1959 19
Yards Per Carry 3.88 3
Pass Attempts 534 22
Completions 296 6 (T)
Passing Yards 3408 11
Yards Per Attempt 6.38 6
3rd Down Conversions 44.8 20
Points Per Game 19.2 14 (T)
Turnovers 27 8

Week Team Versus Oppnt
1 27 HOU 7
2 14 at TBY 0
3 3 OAK 31
4 24 CIN 17
5 19 CLE 10
6 3 IND 14
7 20 at PIT 24
8 20 at BAL 23
9 24 TEN 31
11 14 at HOU 19
12 14 CAR 27
13 10 at NYJ 12
14 28 ATL 29
15 13 at IND 27
16 24 at NOS 18
17 38 at TEN 19

Passing Pos Att Comp Yards Y/Att TD Int
15 Blackburn QB 467 252 3097 6.63 21 13
13 Warholic QB 67 37 471 7.02 6 7
**Team --- 535 290 3574 6.68 27 20

Rushing Pos Att Yards Y/Att TD
22 Schultz RB 197 898 4.55 4
48 Creamer RB 124 512 4.12 0
15 Blackburn QB 35 165 4.71 0
**Team --- 421 1806 4.28 4

Receiving Pos Targ Catch Yards Y/Ctc YAC TD
3 Foley TE 151 94 943 10.0 198 7
85 McNown WR 97 47 788 16.7 152 7
83 Howe WR 91 44 605 13.7 97 2
7 Raymond WR 86 37 585 15.8 94 2
28 Stargell WR 42 23 369 16.0 76 3
**Team --- 534 290 3574 12.3 708 27

Defense Pos Tack Asst Sack Hurr Ints Defn
90 Graham OLB 99 34 1.0 0 2 1
91 Beeck OLB 77 21 0.0 0 6 5
92 Sellers ILB 73 24 0.0 0 1 5
21 Myers CB 64 11 0.0 0 2 13
75 Poston DT 59 34 5.0 11 0 0
99 Saga OLB 59 13 0.0 0 2 2
77 Griffin DT 58 21 9.0 37 0 1
42 Campbell CB 51 19 0.0 0 1 24
24 Nathan S 46 18 0.0 0 1 8
33 Becker S 45 23 0.0 0 0 2
36 Lavender S 39 14 0.0 0 1 1
35 McNeil CB 24 13 0.0 0 1 3
49 Gray S 19 7 0.0 0 2 3
**Team --- 864 284 26.0 69 20 72


Well, DE Peter Hartman, one of our most talented players, is suddenly Glass Joe and obviously can’t be trusted. We will need to add some help at DE right away. This was our worst season by far for injuries – they really hurt us badly.

Our offense was incrementally better – Schultz seems like a credible starter, and Creamer was far better than Simmons in the reserve role. TE Foley stepped into the starting role and caught a lot of passes (in this offense, no shock) and we got production from our wideouts in the usual degrees. Bernard Blackburn had his first solid, professional season for us – a passer rating of 78 is progress, but still reflects the underneath-passing focus of this offense. I think next year, we’ll let him turn it loose a bit, and just open up the offense and see what they can do.

Defensively, DT Griffin remains a standout – his numbers ought to earn him a slot on the all-pro roster again. CB Darryl Campbell isn’t letting hotshot Donnell McNeil take his job without a fight – he posts 24 passes defenses this year to again rank among the league leaders. LB Rufus graham, playing out of position at WILB, has become our main tackler and best run defender – he and LB Roman Beeck are essential to our defensive front being successful.

By the numbers – this team isn’t bad. Defensively still strong both ways, and as we had hoped, we’re average on defense. This isn’t really a 6-10 team, I don’t think. Don’t know if we’ll be getting much better any time soon, but there are signs that this year was an aberration.

[QuikSand]

2024 offseason

Okay, we’re getting into crunch time here. The backbone players on this team – guys like DT Griffin – are getting up there in years, and we can’t count on them forever. We need to start winning some games before they are gone. It looks like we’ve all but lost DE Peter Hartman anyway – injury may take some before retirement.

WR Adrian Howe is our retirement victim this year – solid slot receiver for us the last couple seasons, he had a productive career as a complete job-jumper. Never 1,000 yards in any season, but he ends up with 8,200+ for his 13-year career – pretty much a solid role player throughout, it seems. He also never played more than two seasons for any club. This leaves us a bit thin at WR, now – where 10th year man Norm McNown remains our top target, and developing Jon Raymond is now entrenched at SE.


In free agency, we have a few key guys up for contracts – most notably LT Lamar Bellis, TE Wayne Conley, and RFA CB Larry Myers. I expect to re-sign all three – even though Bellis doesn’t get along well with QB Blackburn – we just don’t have many options there.

Looking at the open FA market, I am disappointed – nobody really worth pursuing too hotly, it seems. I think that’s just how it’s going to be – we will have to make improvements from within, though the draft.

5th year C Jim Straight is a solid starting-caliber player, and we lock him up to a contract, probably to use him as a super-sub or maybe as a guard.

I’ll watch DE Kirk O’Neal – he’s a 13th year guy in decline, but when we (foolishly?) let him go last year it sent us into an injury-plagued mess at DE, and having a decent guy like him around would be helpful. He at least stays healthy, generally – but he is asking or a pretty fat contract, for his scouted skill level.


How long should we tie up QB Irving Warholic as our presumed backup QB? He’s up for a new deal, and I see him as our second best option. I figure we will once again lock him up to a multi-year deal, to give us the security of having a solid reserve – especially since we haven’t really picked up a young guy with a particularly bright future recently (except for Marco Seelig, who has inexplicably burst onto the scene as the starter in Cinti, and whom we let walk away for nothing last year after a fairly unimpressive training camp).


We do sign DE O’Neal and QB Warholic, as expected, to round out our notable FA forays.


Into the draft – we hold a slightly lesser batch of 7th round picks, but will take our usual stabs at grabbing helpful young players.


2024 Rookie Draft

Pick Pos Player Name Notes Draft Roster
7.01 QB Bernie Wells Good combine numbers, 19 reps 15/45 15/47
7.02 FB Sammy Murray 26 reps, best current rating of FBs 22/37 23/34
7.03 WR Omar Foley Most developed, 4.47 forty, 23 reps 20/32 20/26
7.07 MLB Clifton Parella Combine top page in every area 22/30 23/31
7.15 P Derrick Grieg Standout player, projects as star 55/76 53/73
7.17 WLB Dexter Cardona 22 reps, 7.21 agil, Run D skills 18/38 18/39
7.19 FS Mark Browning Top rated S left, 7.16 agil 19/45 19/43
7.26 RDE Steven Powell 31 test, 30 reps, 7.42 agil 24/35 24/36
7.32 FS Ted Bratsch MTM and Bump coverage, 19 reps 17/37 32/60*


Well, this might be our best rookie class yet!

FS Ted Bratsch looks great, and after a 97% switch to CB, he bumps up even more to 32/60… but he was a +11 boom after the draft ended. We might have future growth from all three guys from the defensive front, right where we really need the help. And we won’t let Bernie Wells walk away, either – not after a +2 jump on closer inspection.

LB Cardona slides to the WILB slot, and jumps a bit in ratings to 18/41, a good sign as well. He looks like he might end up being a productive run stopper for us, and we need one or two young guys to fill that role inside. Parella, after switching to SILB, now rates as a 26/36 player. Those two could end up playing side by side for us down the road.


TE Rickey Foley announces a holdout – following his season as a starter, he feel underpaid. I need to keep him around, as Wayne Conley might be an injury risk, and Foley’s demands are not absurd – so we give in and offer his requested extension.

After our training camp, we are a little less boated than usual, but still will have to make a number of cuts.


Jacksonville Jaguars Roster, Scout Overview

Player # Pos Start Exp Current Estimate Future Estimate Cntrct
Warholic, Irving 13 QB 10 58 58 4 yrs
Blackburn, Bernard 15 QB 5 57 57 2 yrs
Borders, Norm 17 QB 7 38 43 1 yr.
Wells, Bernie 14 QB 1 19 50 3 yrs
Schultz, Vince 22 RB 3 44 44 1 yr.
Simmons, Timothy 27 RB 2 27 34 2 yrs
Creamer, Wally 48 RB 2 27 35 2 yrs
Chelios, Alonzo 23 FB 11 34 34 2 yrs
Bates, Marshall 26 FB 3 29 37 1 yr.
Murray, Sammy 20 FB 1 24 32 3 yrs
Conley, Wayne 87 TE 8 60 66 2 yrs
Foley, Ricky 3 TE 14 40 46 3 yrs
Clancy, Bob 80 TE 5 29 34 3 yrs
McNown, Norm 85 FL 10 56 56 3 yrs
Hyatt, Amos 89 FL 5 26 34 2 yrs
Stargell, Mack 28 FL 2 19 48 2 yrs
Raymond, Jon 7 SE 3 42 47 1 yr.
Foley, Omar 83 SE 1 21 25 3 yrs
Straight, Jim 73 C 5 52 57 3 yrs
Ransom, Louie 59 C 3 49 49 1 yr.
Combs, Bernie 58 C 5 34 44 3 yrs
Price, Heath 53 C 12 32 38 1 yr.
Fox, Nathan 62 LG 7 30 34 2 yrs
King, Arnold 74 LG 4 22 42 3 yrs
Carr, Adam 51 LG 2 15 43 2 yrs
Sellers, Graham 70 RG 9 34 45 2 yrs
Bellis, Lamar 61 LT 9 43 43 1 yr.
Maynard, Neal 67 LT 3 20 39 1 yr.
Collier, Edward 64 RT 6 38 38 3 yrs
Grieg, Derrick 6 P 1 54 66 3 yrs
Oldham, Justin 2 K 5 69 69 4 yrs
O'Neal, Kirk 97 LDE 13 41 41 2 yrs
Manumaleuna, C.J. 63 LDE 5 28 29 2 yrs
Powell, Steven 98 LDE 1 26 39 3 yrs
Hartman, Peter 78 RDE 9 73 73 4 yrs
Poston, Leon 75 RDT 11 52 53 3 yrs
Griffin, Darren 77 NT 10 84 86 3 yrs
Hegamin, J.B. 79 NT 7 33 35 1 yr.
**Hill, Stan 72 NT 3 25 47 1 yr.
Sellers, Lawrence 92 SILB 5 35 35 2 yrs
Parrella, Clifton 94 SILB 1 28 39 3 yrs
Greenham, Conrad 57 WILB 5 29 33 1 yr.
Cardona, Dexter 95 WILB 1 20 41 3 yrs
Fishman, Howie 56 WILB 3 17 41 1 yr.
Beeck, Roman 91 SLB 8 46 51 1 yr.
Fullerton, Darryl 50 SLB 7 35 37 2 yrs
Rollins, Mike 55 SLB 2 28 38 2 yrs
Graham, Rufus 90 WLB 8 51 51 1 yr.
Saga, Bucky 99 WLB 11 41 43 2 yrs
Southwell, David 54 WLB 2 22 30 2 yrs
McNeil, Donnell 35 LCB 2 52 53 2 yrs
Campbell, Darryl 42 LCB 10 40 43 3 yrs
Bratsch, Ted 45 LCB 1 36 59 3 yrs
Detmer, Jesse 46 LCB 3 32 32 1 yr.
Twisp, Arnie 30 LCB 3 29 36 1 yr.
Myers, Larry 21 RCB 4 48 52 5 yrs
**Lavender, Brenden 36 SS 7 43 49 2 yrs
Griffin, J.T. 40 SS 3 21 40 1 yr.
Browning, Mark 43 SS 1 21 40 3 yrs
Nathan, Rich 24 FS 9 52 52 2 yrs
Gray, John 49 FS 7 44 44 1 yr.
Becker, Malcolm 33 FS 6 40 41 1 yr.


On the rookie watch: QB Wells +3, DE Powell +3, LB Parrella +3, Cardona +0, CB Bratsch –1. So, we get three bumps out of five players we thought might give them – not too bad, really. All five guys will make the team, surely.

[QuikSand]

Season Preview

This team just might be ready to make a move. Our QB is putting things together, and our running game took shape last year. We have gotten good results from our defense thus far, and have at least one new player who ought to help right away in CB Bratsch. Last year we finished 6-10, but had stats to support a better result – with roughly the same effort and a little better luck, this team could be an 8 or 9 win team. If we improve on our effort – and maybe get Peter Hartman and Wayne Conley back into the fold for a healthy season– we might even be better than that.

Our goal is to make the playoffs this year. I don’t think it’s a sure thing at all, but I think it is possible.


Strategically, only one change – I’m going to a more comventional setup of formations. We won’t be depending on the 2TE setup as much as before, and we expect to see our Wrs get a little more love from the change. We’ll also let the downfield passing game rise in our priorities more than in the past. Don’t know how big a deal this will be. The defensive gameplan (which I don’t change week to week either) will remain the same as last year – 3-4 front, man coverage, low blitzing.


2024 Season

We start off with a solid road win over Indy, but they were picking 1(1) this year, so no need to get too enthused about that. And of course, we lose Peter Hartman right away, for 6 weeks with an elbow. We’ll just need to be prepared to never see him be productive again, I’m increasingly convinced.

I decide to go with the rookie Powell as our second starter at DE, and hope to see him develop with the playing time. We don’t have great options otherwise, really. Veteran Kirk O’Neal will split time with DT Poston at the other DE slot.

In week two, we beat Detroit, and Bernard Blackburn pulls off an unlikely 80-yard RUN for a TD. Wow. Two more wins, and we stand at 4-0 for the season… we had a fast start last year, too, so we need to contain our enthusiasm here. But our defense is playing just lights-out football right now.


We get to 7-0, and I’ll post the snapshot team summary here:


Front Office Football 2004
2024 Summary for Jacksonville Jaguars

Record: 7-0
Winning Pct.: 1.000

Jacksonville Jaguars Team Rank
Rushes 208 3 (T)
Rushing Yards 980 2
Yards Per Carry 4.71 3
Pass Attempts 233 9
Completions 148 6 (T)
Passing Yards 1613 10
Yards Per Attempt 6.92 17
3rd Down Conversions 45.8 12
Points Per Game 23.8 9
Turnovers 6 7 (T)
Turnover Margin +7 3

Opponents Team Rank
Rushes 157 5
Rushing Yards 544 4
Yards Per Carry 3.46 2
Pass Attempts 276 32
Completions 140 25
Passing Yards 1773 31
Yards Per Attempt 6.42 5
3rd Down Conversions 38.8 7
Points Per Game 14.2 1 (T)
Turnovers 13 2 (T)

Passing Pos Att Comp Yards Y/Att TD Int
15 Blackburn QB 229 146 1586 6.92 10 3
**Team --- 233 148 1613 6.92 10 3


I post the summary now, because QB Blackburn (93 passer rating) is injured with a torn ankle ligament, and lost for the remainder of the season. So, we’ll presumably go with Warholic from here, and we’ll see if the team can maintain its mighty roll.

Warholic is 18 of 22 in his re-debut, and I’m awfully glad we re-upped with him, but our offense sputtered a bit against Buffalo to a 21-20 win. TE Wayne Conley goes down next, suggesting that we might have two star players on the outs with serious injury problems.

We get another 1-popint victory, with our game MVP being none other than… Peter Hartman, with 3 sacks! He’s back – but for how long this time?

Irving Warholic keeps racking up 4th quarter heroics, as we need them to continue our win streak to 11-0. Three of his four starts have been by late scores to win by two points or less. The run continues…

Until week 15 – we lose at home to Tennessee, and slip to 13-1. Wow. Warholic got hurt, so rookie Bernie Wells came in, and was just awful. And there goes the perfect season, which was so improbably within reach. We summarily drop our last two games with Wells in at QB, and head to the preseason looking like dead weight without a legitimate QB to accompany this otherwise juggernaut of a team. But it appears that the bye week will give Warholic enough time to resume the starting duties – so we might be a tough out after all.


2024 Summary for Jacksonville Jaguars

Record: 13-3
Winning Pct.: .812

Jacksonville Jaguars Team Rank
Rushes 472 10
Rushing Yards 2040 14
Yards Per Carry 4.32 14
Pass Attempts 552 5
Completions 338 8 (T)
Passing Yards 3715 13
Yards Per Attempt 6.73 22
3rd Down Conversions 45.6 13
Points Per Game 21.6 13
Turnovers 27 29
Turnover Margin -4 23 (T)

Opponents Team Rank
Rushes 401 5
Rushing Yards 1445 2 (T)
Yards Per Carry 3.60 2
Pass Attempts 582 31 (T)
Completions 312 10
Passing Yards 3878 23
Yards Per Attempt 6.66 7
3rd Down Conversions 38.7 3
Points Per Game 17.3 6 (T)
Turnovers 23 9 (T)

Week Team Versus Oppnt
1 20 at IND 10
2 16 at DET 13
3 27 at CLE 10
4 24 NYJ 9
5 27 MIA 24
6 19 IND 13
7 34 at TEN 21
9 21 at BUF 20
10 17 at NED 16
11 31 HOU 20
12 24 MIN 22
13 28 OAK 10
14 17 at CHI 3
15 16 TEN 24
16 20 GBY 34
17 6 at HOU 28

Passing Pos Att Comp Yards Y/Att TD Int
15 Blackburn QB 229 146 1586 6.92 10 3
13 Warholic QB 197 126 1503 7.62 11 8
14 Wells QB 95 49 495 5.21 1 5
**Team --- 552 338 3715 6.73 24 17

Rushing Pos Att Yards Y/Att TD
22 Schultz RB 291 1271 4.36 9
48 Creamer RB 89 329 3.69 0
26 Bates FB 50 213 4.26 0
**Team --- 472 2040 4.32 11

Receiving Pos Targ Catch Yards Y/Ctc YAC TD
85 McNown WR 122 67 828 12.3 170 6
7 Raymond WR 116 67 955 14.2 185 7
3 Foley TE 84 54 517 9.5 110 3
87 Conley TE 64 48 452 9.4 136 2
28 Stargell WR 53 29 350 12.0 43 2
89 Hyatt WR 38 23 241 10.4 26 2
22 Schultz RB 27 21 130 6.1 72 2
**Team --- 552 338 3715 10.9 852 24

Defense Pos Tack Asst Sack Hurr Ints Defn
33 Becker S 73 26 0.0 0 0 16
77 Griffin DT 72 30 11.5 22 0 0
90 Graham OLB 71 33 0.0 0 1 9
24 Nathan S 67 23 0.0 0 2 13
91 Beeck OLB 64 25 1.0 1 4 3
92 Sellers ILB 59 18 0.0 0 0 6
21 Myers CB 55 16 0.0 0 5 21
99 Saga OLB 46 18 0.0 0 0 1
42 Campbell CB 43 19 0.0 0 1 18
94 Parrella ILB 36 13 0.0 0 1 3
78 Hartman DE 31 6 10.0 15 0 1
35 McNeil CB 24 7 0.0 0 3 6
75 Poston DT 22 15 3.5 6 0 1
97 O'Neal DE 18 4 5.0 15 0 1
45 Bratsch CB 16 5 0.0 0 0 0
**Team --- 796 265 32.0 66 17 101


Well, what an unbelievable season. A 13-0 run, after going 6-10 the previous season. I thought we’d improve, but I didn’t see this coming at all.

Blackburn was heading for a career year, and Warholic filled in adequately and kept things moving. RB Schultz has entrenched himself as a workhorse starter at RB, and had a very nice season for us – he’s not flashy, just a straight-ahead runner, but effective. WR Jon Raymond ends up topping our receiving list for his first time, perhaps due to the injury to TE Conley (who led us up until his injury). Great season for the OL – all six qualifying players were over 30% on KRBs and under 1.0% on sacks allowed. Nice work.

Defensively, the numbers held up – and Peter Hartman actually played in 10 games, after we had all but written him off for good. DT Griffin has to get an all-pro nod once again, with big numbers from the middle for us. We had some shuffling on the D7, but all told they held up beautifully. The secondary played well, too – having four CBs we like is a nice situation to be in.


Postseason Summary

Divisional Playoff: Buffalo (9-8) at Jacksonville (13-3) – We beat them by one in the regular season, now we are ready to beat them again. QB Warholic and TE Conley are back, and we’ll try to get a good playoff debut. This is a wild one – Warholic leads us for two 4th quarter TDs to even things up, but Buffalo scored in OT to win it 30-24.

So, we are one and done in the playoffs – disappointing after the red hot start, but understandable.

Baltimore goes on to win the title over Green Bay. Oddly, the Superbowl MVP is QB Quentin Bernard, a guy I drafted when at Baltimore back in 2015, but dealt away (I think). The Ravens signed him off the FA scrap heap, and he started 12 games and won the big one for them.

DT Darren Griffin, first team, is our only all-pro honoree.

[Izulde]

Nice season, there, but I think so far this is turning out to be one of your more difficult challenges.

[QuikSand]

True - this is difficult. And from the looks of things, it won't be getting too much easier -- as I'm having trouble keeping my few quality veterans healthy.

However, one thing I'm noticing is that with the few options available to me, my roster is very stable -- so if I kept at this for another five seasons or so, what I lose from quality player injuries would probably be made up for by crazy cohesion. In a few years, this team's cohesion will likely be towering well over the rest of the league's. Not an unusual result in a career frought with many roster restrictions - I usually see the same thing with an IMT career, for instance.

[QuikSand]

2025 offseason

Well, it seems we have arrived. With a fairly healthy team, we were nearly unstoppable last year, even though we did win a number of games by razor-thin margins. But we were pretty dominant statistically, too – telling me that this team is at least partially for real.

But if three of our best players remain injury risks (we’ll see how QB Blackburn looks this year) then we’ll be walking a thin line, I think, as we don’t have great overall talent.


Incidentally, I got an intriguing message from the Team Owner at the outset of this season:



The owner of your franchise is absolutely livid about the overall value of the franchise.

If you're not able to put together a much more successful season this coming year, you will definitely be out of a job this time next year.


Franchise value, eh? He has a point, we are third-last there, but what am I to do? Raise ticket prices, I guess… we keep the front office intact (why not?) and move ahead.

Interestingly enough, it seems that our big problem is not with ticket prices being too low – but rather too high. We only had attendance of 9,800 per game last year, somehow – so I’ll drop prices to try to get people to show up again. We’ll see if that fixes the problem.


DE Kirk O’Neal ha retired – no real surprise there. Opens the door even wider for young DE Steven Powell to continue to grow into the role, in the absence of a formidable presence to prevent him from getting playing time.

Well, QB Bernard Blackburn looks all right, so we will hope that he is ready to step back into the starting job. Plus, we had a chemistry shift at OL, and he likes the new leader there, G Nathan Fox.


The best free agent out there is LT Dale Durham, and he would upset our OL chemistry, which is suddenly pretty good. He’s solid but old – I decide to stay away, and try to bring along my younger guys instead.

Another interesting guy in free agency is QB Marco Seelig, who must have been cut by Cincinnati (how can that make any sense at all?) after two seasons as their starter. I decide to sit back, but if his demands drop a bit, we may try to pick him back up again – he’s a little wild, but has more playing experience than most guys his age.

DE Irving Dupuis is a solid pickup for us – a veteran affinity DE who can stop the run a bit. 3rd year TE Erik Keading is a decent receiver with some blocking skills – might be an improvement for us in the 3rd TE spot, and a guy who could help us later on. Finally, DE George Finch was a guy we let walk away – but now I’m keeping an eye out for this pass-rush specialist who could help us a bit in a platoon.


We get through early free agency without any real hitches. We have to outbid Pittsburgh for LB Conrad Greenham, but it’s not a serious offer we’re up against. DT J.B. Hegamin signs with Philly – we can live without him, as he has been buried on our depth chart a while anyway, and DE Dupuis fills much the same need.



2025 Rookie Draft

Pick Pos Player Name Notes Draft Roster
7.01 WR Bernie Gomez 4.49 forty, 23 reps, 7.06 agil 15/38 16/39
7.03 LT Pat Terrell Top current skills, 7.53 agil 16/41 17/70
7.05 DE Jamal Bush 4.85 forty, 7.30 agil, top current 25/36 46/66
7.14 RB Marlon Boone Good receiving skills – to WR? 22/38 22/36
7.15 CB Conrad Schultz MTM def, good Int, 6.88 agil 16/31 17/31
7.18 RB Allen Kramer PR and KR, receiving skills, to WR? 18/32 18/28
7.21 RB Bennie Ackerman 25 reps, 4.64 forty, power inside 24/34 24/35
7.23 QB Tyrone Land 41 test, fairly developed, 13 form 19/45 19/42
7.29 WR Patrick Sims 4.44 forty, 7.08 agil, developed 19/36 23/38
7.30 TE Antonio Eidsmore 32 test, 28 reps, 69 vol 19/41 20/43
7.32 RB Harvey Benson Punt ret, good receiving skills 20/35 14/25


Welcome to the team, Jamal Bush! A huge breakout here, +30, and he suddenly looks like an impact player for us, right where we needed it most, at DE. Potentially a huge find for us right there.


We have bad news on the other side of the coin, though – WR Norm McNown has taken a sudden hit to his ratings (no injury, just age, I guess) and is suddenly not worth a damn – my scout now sees him as a 19/19 player. So, we’re going to need some of these young receivers sooner than I had imagined – I was hoping to replace McNown after a couple of years – now, he might be a pre-season cut. Bernie Gomez and Patrick Sims both look like they have promise – at least one of them is probably in line for serious playing time this season, like it or not.


After training camp, here is our roster of 63 players:


Jacksonville Jaguars Roster, Scout Overview

Player # Pos Start Exp Current Estimate Future Estimate Cntrct
Warholic, Irving 13 QB 11 69 72 3 yrs
Blackburn, Bernard 15 QB 6 58 58 1 yr.
Wells, Bernie 14 QB 2 24 52 2 yrs
Land, Tyrone 10 QB 1 22 36 3 yrs
Schultz, Vince 22 RB 4 51 51 6 yrs
Creamer, Wally 48 RB 3 28 35 1 yr.
Ackerman, Bennie 31 RB 1 26 40 3 yrs
Kramer, Allen 25 RB 1 18 24 3 yrs
Benson, Harvey 37 RB 1 15 22 3 yrs
Bates, Marshall 26 FB 4 32 37 3 yrs
Murray, Sammy 20 FB 2 26 31 2 yrs
Conley, Wayne 87 TE 9 60 66 1 yr.
Foley, Ricky 3 TE 15 34 39 2 yrs
Kaeding, Erik 81 TE 3 30 38 3 yrs
Clancy, Bob 80 TE 6 29 34 2 yrs
Eidsmore, Antonio 88 TE 1 22 43 3 yrs
Hyatt, Amos 89 FL 6 30 34 1 yr.
Stargell, Mack 28 FL 3 23 48 1 yr.
Sims, Patrick 82 FL 1 23 37 3 yrs
McNown, Norm 85 FL 11 19 19 2 yrs
Gomez, Bernie 84 FL 1 17 41 3 yrs
Boone, Marlon 27 FL 1 14 39 3 yrs
Raymond, Jon 7 SE 4 53 53 4 yrs
Foley, Omar 83 SE 2 21 24 2 yrs
Straight, Jim 73 C 6 61 61 2 yrs
Ransom, Louie 59 C 4 58 58 5 yrs
Combs, Bernie 58 C 6 37 44 2 yrs
Fox, Nathan 62 LG 8 29 33 1 yr.
King, Arnold 74 LG 5 26 42 2 yrs
Carr, Adam 51 LG 3 16 40 1 yr.
Sellers, Graham 70 RG 10 34 45 1 yr.
Bellis, Lamar 61 LT 10 41 41 4 yrs
Terrell, Pat 66 LT 1 20 40 3 yrs
Collier, Edward 64 RT 7 37 37 2 yrs
Grieg, Derrick 6 P 2 60 63 2 yrs
Oldham, Justin 2 K 6 66 66 3 yrs
Powell, Steven 98 LDE 2 32 41 2 yrs
Manumaleuna, C.J. 63 LDE 6 20 21 1 yr.
Hartman, Peter 78 RDE 10 69 69 3 yrs
Bush, Jamal 97 RDE 1 50 71 3 yrs
Dupuis, Irving 96 RDE 7 41 44 3 yrs
Poston, Leon 75 RDT 12 52 52 2 yrs
Griffin, Darren 77 NT 11 86 86 2 yrs
**Hill, Stan 72 NT 4 23 43 3 yrs
Parrella, Clifton 94 SILB 2 37 41 2 yrs
Sellers, Lawrence 92 SILB 6 35 39 1 yr.
Greenham, Conrad 57 WILB 6 31 33 3 yrs
Cardona, Dexter 95 WILB 2 23 42 2 yrs
Beeck, Roman 91 SLB 9 47 51 3 yrs
Fullerton, Darryl 50 SLB 8 35 37 1 yr.
Rollins, Mike 55 SLB 3 30 39 1 yr.
Graham, Rufus 90 WLB 9 50 50 3 yrs
Saga, Bucky 99 WLB 12 36 39 1 yr.
McNeil, Donnell 35 LCB 3 55 55 1 yr.
Bratsch, Ted 45 LCB 2 47 58 2 yrs
Campbell, Darryl 42 LCB 11 40 42 2 yrs
Twisp, Arnie 30 LCB 4 39 41 3 yrs
Myers, Larry 21 RCB 5 54 54 4 yrs
Nathan, Rich 24 SS 10 52 52 1 yr.
Browning, Mark 43 SS 2 23 37 2 yrs
Becker, Malcolm 33 FS 7 40 41 4 yrs
Gray, John 49 FS 8 37 37 2 yrs
Schultz, Conrad 41 FS 1 23 38 3 yrs


I had to double check, but indeed – QB Irving Warholic got a veteran “boom” this year, and now has even better ratings. I don’t know if that’s a response to his sudden playing time last season after being bench-bound for a while, but that does give us some more QB flexibility, especially if Blackburn is going to be injury-prone.

WR Norm McNown is a regrettable cut – whatever happened to him happened very quickly, and he’s no longer good enough to even take the field. I’ve seen age-related deterioration, but that is unusual – he does have 91 volatility, though, for those keeping track of such things. Jon Raymond will now be the clear class of our WR corps, and we will throw “a couple of guys: out there at the flanker and slot receiver positions, it seems. Two rookie receivers showed a bump prior to camp, but only Bernie Gomez also bumped up in training camp – so he probably gets the starting WR job right out of the box. I have to think this will harm our passing game, though it might mean better numbers for Raymond – perhaps we will finally have our first 1,000-yards receiver this year?

I’m very excited about DE Jamal Bush, who jumped 5 more points in camp and looks like a very solid starting-caliber player for us right away. I’ll probably use him across from Hartman when both are healthy, despite both being officially slotted for the right side.

We are pretty thin at the safety position – all of our talented CBs are pretty weak in run stopping, so there’s no easy way to slide someone over to play FS, for instance. I’ll probably go with Nathan and Becker as our two safety starters again this year, but neither is exactly a standout.

[QuikSand]

Season Preview

As I thought the 6-10 team was better than its record, I have to concede that the 13-3 team from last year was really not quite as good as its record, either. The truth lies somewhere in the middle, I suspect. Our roster rating has elevated into the league’s upper tier – we’re rated 9th overall, at 63, but tops in our division. Our cohesion is rising – now we’re up to 68-100(98)-90-62.

We lose our most talented overall receiver, and have remaining questions with the health of several key veterans. But our secondary is looking good, and we add a solid young player on the DL, which should help in our scheme. My guess is we’re roughly back where we were last year – probably a playoff team, probably not a threat to the ’72 Dolphins, though.

Incidentally, it’s pretty hard not to put Warholic into the starting job, but Blackburn was playing very well when he was hurt last year. Good to have depth, but if we sputter, we might have a QB controversy on our hands.

We’ll shoot for a division crown and a playoff win… and hopefully a couple more, too.

2026 season

We win our opener with a 4Q comeback, and another squeaker in the second week – the two road wins, though, are solid in the standings. We open the throttle and crush Buffalo (revenge) in week three, and seem to be on track.

We lose at home to Tennessee, but still look okay for the year, despite nagging injuries to NT Darren Griffin, our last remaining star who had been reliably on the field of late. With Warholic in for a dinged-up Blackburn, we lose to KC also, and become a bit worried about a slide. We lose another game to winless Denver, and I am genuinely worried – our defense is just not playing up to par at all.


Record: 5-3
Winning Pct.: .625

Jacksonville Jaguars Team Rank
Rushes 195 29
Rushing Yards 837 26
Yards Per Carry 4.29 12 (T)
Pass Attempts 300 4 (T)
Completions 178 5 (T)
Passing Yards 2038 10
Yards Per Attempt 6.79 19
3rd Down Conversions 42.4 19
Points Per Game 22.0 13 (T)
Turnovers 13 19 (T)
Turnover Margin -1 20 (T)

Opponents Team Rank
Rushes 227 13 (T)
Rushing Yards 944 15
Yards Per Carry 4.15 18
Pass Attempts 303 29
Completions 163 18
Passing Yards 1940 19
Yards Per Attempt 6.40 7
3rd Down Conversions 40.8 8
Points Per Game 19.0 13
Turnovers 12 17 (T)


Nothing awful here, but these are the stats of an average team – we are used to being substantially better than that on defense, at least. Griffin missing a lot of time is hurting our run defense, for certain, but we need to see more production everywhere.

We got 3-1 in the next few games, including a big won over 9-2 Baltimore, and looks to be getting our act together a bit. But Peter Hartman suffers his usual injury, and we drop two of our next three games without him. At 9-6, we have the division sewn up, and have no real shot at a bye week, so we’ll settle in as the likely #3-4 seed.


2025 Summary for Jacksonville Jaguars

Record: 10-6
Winning Pct.: .625

Jacksonville Jaguars Team Rank
Rushes 431 22 (T)
Rushing Yards 1881 14
Yards Per Carry 4.36 6
Pass Attempts 576 5
Completions 349 2 (T)
Passing Yards 4034 5
Yards Per Attempt 7.00 16
3rd Down Conversions 42.0 22
Points Per Game 21.9 13
Turnovers 22 17 (T)
Turnover Margin +1 17 (T)

Opponents Team Rank
Rushes 426 10
Rushing Yards 1725 11
Yards Per Carry 4.04 12
Pass Attempts 556 26 (T)
Completions 290 2
Passing Yards 3321 3
Yards Per Attempt 5.97 1
3rd Down Conversions 36.6 3 (T)
Points Per Game 17.5 5 (T)
Turnovers 23 13 (T)

Week Team Versus Oppnt
1 23 at TEN 17
2 27 at STL 26
3 34 at BUF 16
4 19 OAK 7
6 20 at IND 17
7 20 TEN 24
8 17 at KCY 28
9 16 DEN 17
10 27 at SDO 24
11 34 HOU 6
12 20 ARI 21
13 31 BAL 21
14 13 at SEA 20
15 16 at HOU 10
16 10 SFO 17
17 24 IND 10
$$WC SDO

Passing Pos Att Comp Yards Y/Att TD Int
15 Blackburn QB 428 265 3081 7.19 17 10
13 Warholic QB 147 84 953 6.48 5 3
**Team --- 576 349 4034 7.00 22 13

Rushing Pos Att Yards Y/Att TD
22 Schultz RB 239 1067 4.46 8
48 Creamer RB 156 599 3.83 2
**Team --- 431 1881 4.36 10

Receiving Pos Targ Catch Yards Y/Ctc YAC TD
87 Conley TE 152 102 1061 10.4 308 6
7 Raymond WR 119 68 999 14.6 239 2
28 Stargell WR 87 48 581 12.1 49 4
89 Hyatt WR 72 38 443 11.6 61 3
84 Gomez WR 55 31 454 14.6 79 3
48 Creamer RB 43 29 208 7.1 90 0
22 Schultz RB 20 16 169 10.5 69 1
**Team --- 576 349 4034 11.5 965 22

Defense Pos Tack Asst Sack Hurr Ints Defn
90 Graham OLB 93 35 0.0 0 1 1
24 Nathan S 70 31 0.0 0 1 9
33 Becker S 61 31 0.0 2 0 6
91 Beeck OLB 60 22 1.0 1 2 5
92 Sellers ILB 54 15 0.0 0 1 7
97 Bush DE 51 19 8.5 20 0 0
42 Campbell CB 48 8 0.0 0 2 21
77 Griffin DT 46 13 6.0 22 0 0
35 McNeil CB 44 9 0.0 1 1 8
21 Myers CB 42 12 0.0 0 3 11
94 Parrella ILB 37 14 0.0 0 1 3
78 Hartman DE 26 14 7.0 25 0 1
30 Twisp CB 23 3 0.0 0 0 0
75 Poston DT 18 9 0.5 5 0 0
45 Bratsch CB 17 13 0.0 0 3 9
99 Saga OLB 16 5 0.0 0 0 2
**Team --- 802 267 26.0 86 18 86


So, we righted the ship a bit, improving down the stretch with our run offense and pass defense, but I’m a bit worried that we failed to really nail down the Run D problem very well. My teams don’t often allow over 4 yards a carry, much less almost 4.4.

We did indeed post our first 1,000-yard receiver – and almost our second, just one yard short! TE Conley was the guy who lead the way, while Jon Raymond did dominate the WR corps and post a career year as well. Stargell, Hyatt, and Gomez spread things around on the other WR slots – Gomez might have a real future with us, I think. RB Schultz had a productive year again, getting close to the 4.5 mark (to me, a solid indicator of real effectiveness).

The OL played pretty well again this year, despite some injuries:


Blocking Statistics

Player Pos Team GP GS KRB KRO BPct SkA PPly SPct RPly OPct
Ransom, Louie C JAX 16 16 33 98 33.6 4 589 0.6 390 25.1
Sellers, Graham G JAX 16 16 29 76 38.1 10 605 1.6 416 18.2
Straight, Jim C JAX 16 16 21 64 32.8 7 591 1.1 413 15.4
Bellis, Lamar T JAX 11 9 13 34 38.2 7 360 1.9 244 13.9
Collier, Edward T JAX 16 16 9 34 26.4 8 507 1.5 378 8.9
King, Arnold G JAX 16 7 7 35 20.0 4 286 1.3 220 15.9


We let through a lot more sacks than usual, which probably helps to explain some of the problems we faced on offense. C Jim Straight played at left guard and left tackle, while everyone else basically played in position.

Defensively, I’m disappointed with the run-stopping ability, but hope that it’s injury-driven more than anything else. I don’t like to see our safeties both near the top of the tackle listings, really.

Good season from rookie DE Bush – 8.5 sacks and 20 hurries is nice. Staying healthy for 16 games even more so. We have high hopes – DE is a tough position to pull from the 7th round, to be sure.

CB Darryl Campbell might be a key player for us – I dropped him to the nickelback slot to start the year, and we had real trouble against the pass. He got back in as a starter later in the season, and we got better. He always posts good numbers of PD – over 20 again this year even in somewhat limited action – and he’s again over 20 in PDPct, despite having only 2 interceptions (as usual). He’s a solid shut-down corner, and probably has earned the right to keep starting as long as he wishes to. An 11th year player – I hope that’s at least for a few more seasons.


Postseason Summary

We’re without Peter Hartman, but generally healthy elsewhere. Ready for a win in the playoffs this year.

Wild Card Round: San Diego (10-6) at Jacksonville (10-6) – A wild, wild game – Don Coryell III’s all-pass Chargers get a late three-minute drive to take the lead at 1:30 left, but they leave us too much time, and we drive to set up the game-winning FG from Justin Oldham to win it, 36-34. Thriller!

Divisional Playoff: Jacksonville (11-6) at Kansas City (11-5) – We patch up okay against the Chiefs, and will try to pound it inside against their front four. Schultz bangs out 105 yards on the ground, and Blackburn goes to the air for 316 and 3 TD, and we get a solid 37-10 won on the road to advance.

Conference Championship: Jacksonville (12-6) at Pittsburgh (15-2) – The mighty Stillers are 7 point favorites at home, and look very balanced and tough (with, of course, a one-year bargain bin QB). It’s a low-scoring slugfest – we lead 10-6 at the half, but the Stillers put together a great drive in the fourth quarter, and come away with a nice 15-13 win to send them to the Superbowl.


A solid season for us, obviously – we are a solid team and a meaningful title contender, but not quite an elite team. We lost to the eventual champs, as Pittsburgh beat San Fran 12-7 in another closely-played game.


For the season, we are represented by first team all-pro TE Wayne Conley (finally) as our only selection for Hawai’i. No disappointment, but we just don’t get much respect even when our team plays well.

[QuikSand]

2026 offseason

I guess there is some suspense as to whether there will even BE a 2026 season for me. After all, we only had 9,000 people at our games in 2025. I confess I didn’t pay any attention to the attendance this year, but I hope someone came out to see this improving team.

Looks like we had 20-30K at every game – not very good, but better, I reckon. Maybe it’s time for the Jags to get relocated elsewhere, eh? If I stick around, I’ll put in for a huge new stadium, which sill be rejected, and we’ll look for greener pastures elsewhere. That might be fun.


Ahem…


So, I got fired. I wonder if I ought to stick with this team (override the firing) or go off to try something else….

[tanglewood]

2026 offseason

I guess there is some suspense as to whether there will even BE a 2026 season for me. After all, we only had 9,000 people at our games in 2025. I confess I didn’t pay any attention to the attendance this year, but I hope someone came out to see this improving team.

Looks like we had 20-30K at every game – not very good, but better, I reckon. Maybe it’s time for the Jags to get relocated elsewhere, eh? If I stick around, I’ll put in for a huge new stadium, which sill be rejected, and we’ll look for greener pastures elsewhere. That might be fun.



So, I got fired. I wonder if I ought to stick with this team (override the firing) or go off to try something else….

Stick with the team and move them somewhere. This seems to be the most interesting of all the challenges you have tried recently.

[QuikSand]

Stick with the team and move them somewhere. This seems to be the most interesting of all the challenges you have tried recently.

This has been pretty chalenging, but I do confess to having that "empty" feeling that the team is more luck than skill. I got lucky with a horshot DE, and that's nice -- but it's not like I realy did anything terribly unusual to land him, I just picked the best looking guys like I do every season, and just got lucky. To me, that's less rewarding than when I make a conscious decision to sign/draft/trade for/retain a certain player, especially when it's tough to do so, and then things work out.

[QuikSand]

2026 offseason

I guess there is some suspense as to whether there will even BE a 2026 season for me. After all, we only had 9,000 people at our games in 2025. I confess I didn’t pay any attention to the attendance this year, but I hope someone came out to see this improving team.

Looks like we had 20-30K at every game – not very good, but better, I reckon. Maybe it’s time for the Jags to get relocated elsewhere, eh? If I stick around, I’ll put in for a huge new stadium, which sill be rejected, and we’ll look for greener pastures elsewhere. That might be fun.


Ahem…


So, I got fired. I wonder if I ought to stick with this team (override the firing) or go off to try something else….


I decide to stick around, and continue here in Jacksonville. I’m enjoying this team a bit now, and why not?

(I do go ahead and submit a plan to relocate the team, though)

One retirements – TE Ricky Foley. Foley had a couple big years for us, but was strictly a pass-catcher – we have a few guys to round out the position for us this year, I think.


Free agency – no big names up this year, really – just role players that I don’t expect to garner much attention on the market. I do my usual dealing away of draft picks, and clear our space under the cap – though we won’t be needing it, I suspect.

At this stage, I expect that pretty much any decent player out there as a free agent formerly drafted in round seven is either on my team or a guy we have passed over. Indeed, the top-rated free agent is S Rich Nathan, our own 11th year starter.

I do pursue 4th year DE Rickey Underwood, who has a little bit of skill as a pass rusher. He might be about the caliber of player that I had been hoping to see DE Steven Powell develop into – not a bad addition at a constant need area.

DE Jamal bush continues to explode, and is starting to look like not just a solid young player, but an emerging star level player. Great land for us, finally.


RG Graham Sellers, our reasonably productive long-time starter at RG, get an offer from Tampa Bay, so we overpay to keep him. Why not – he’s a stabilizing influence, and he can clear out some ground for our backs up the gut.

LB Lawrence Sellers is a long time starter for us, and we get in a bit to keep him away from Tampa as well. I wonder if they are making their offers by using the phone book?


Into the draft, with out usual assortment of picks:


2026 Rookie Draft

Pick Pos Player Name Notes Draft Roster
7.03 FB Gabe Stone 34 reps, low route running, blocker 24/42 23/38
7.05 RB Lamont Cuthbert Well developed, 29 reps, nice skills 23/30 23/30
7.06 WR Derrick Conley 4.46 forty, 14 reps, some KR skills 24/34 25/36
7.07 C Artie Thomason Huge Run D pot, 326 lbs, 5.10 forty 15/51 12/47
7.11 WLB Marty Shields Run D, MTM coverage, ST, 7.31 agil 10/41 10/38
7.12 CB Johnny Blumer MTM cov, Int, Punt Ret, 4.44 forty 16/44 16/41
7.14 WR Chris Moln 4.44 forty, developed, 7.00 agil 27/33 28/36
7.16 G Jared Shepard 40 reps, strongest player left 22/33 22/34
7.19 RB Bruce Peterson Good skills, rushing and receiving 24/37 24/34
7.21 DT Josh Hines Run D potential, 5.00 forty 10/44 10/42


Doesn’t look like we have any big breakouts, but we’ll watch the two rookie receivers for some potential. CB Blumer might make the team as a versatile player, and can help with our kick returning, a need area as well.


NT Darren Griffin is the latest player to suffer the effects of the grim reaper – our best player has been slashed overnight into a solid run stopper, with really no other skills. We’ll survive, but that’s a big loss for us. Last season he rated 86/86 overall – now, he’s posted at 56/56. Solid – but no longer our best player by any stretch.


Somehow, along the way, I just flat-out missed that S Rich Nathan was signed away – must have been a one-and-done FA offer that I just missed. Nathan isn’t a true star-caliber player or anything, but we are pretty thin at safety, and missing him actually puts us in a real bind. I’ll almost certainly have to play a CB in the FS role this year, and we’ll lose a lot in run support, I suspect. Both Ted Bratsch and Donnell McNeil have exactly zero rating in run defense, and neither is a “punishing hitter” either – so at safety, either one would basically just be an extra cover corner out there.


After training camp, we have 64 players on hand:


Jacksonville Jaguars Roster, Scout Overview

Player # Pos Start Exp Current Estimate Future Estimate Cntrct
Warholic, Irving 13 QB 12 69 73 2 yrs
Blackburn, Bernard 15 QB 7 59 59 4 yrs
Wells, Bernie 14 QB 3 30 54 1 yr.
Schultz, Vince 22 RB 5 52 52 5 yrs
Creamer, Wally 48 RB 4 30 35 3 yrs
Ackerman, Bennie 31 RB 2 29 43 2 yrs
Cuthbert, Lamont 29 RB 1 25 30 3 yrs
Peterson, Bruce 36 RB 1 24 31 3 yrs
Bates, Marshall 26 FB 5 32 36 2 yrs
Murray, Sammy 20 FB 3 27 31 1 yr.
Stone, Gabe 40 FB 1 24 35 3 yrs
Conley, Wayne 87 TE 10 60 66 3 yrs
Kaeding, Erik 81 TE 4 37 37 2 yrs
Eidsmore, Antonio 88 TE 2 33 44 2 yrs
Stargell, Mack 28 FL 4 29 48 3 yrs
Hyatt, Amos 89 FL 7 28 34 2 yrs
Conley, Derek 80 FL 1 28 42 3 yrs
Sims, Patrick 82 FL 2 26 38 2 yrs
Gomez, Bernie 84 FL 2 23 42 2 yrs
Boone, Marlon 27 FL 2 15 36 2 yrs
Raymond, Jon 7 SE 5 53 53 3 yrs
Moln, Cris 83 SE 1 32 42 3 yrs
Straight, Jim 73 C 7 62 62 1 yr.
Ransom, Louie 59 C 5 58 58 4 yrs
Combs, Bernie 58 C 7 29 36 1 yr.
King, Arnold 74 LG 6 32 43 1 yr.
Fox, Nathan 62 LG 9 30 34 2 yrs
Shepherd, Jared 76 LG 1 24 35 3 yrs
Sellers, Graham 70 RG 11 34 44 3 yrs
Thomason, Artie 54 RG 1 15 44 3 yrs
Bellis, Lamar 61 LT 11 42 42 3 yrs
Terrell, Pat 66 LT 2 23 39 2 yrs
Collier, Edward 64 RT 8 36 36 1 yr.
Grieg, Derrick 6 P 3 56 59 1 yr.
Oldham, Justin 2 K 7 66 66 2 yrs
Powell, Steven 98 LDE 3 37 43 1 yr.
Mitchell, Jared 93 LDE 1 21 50 3 yrs
Bush, Jamal 97 RDE 2 66 75 2 yrs
Hartman, Peter 78 RDE 11 63 63 2 yrs
Dupuis, Irving 96 RDE 8 41 44 2 yrs
Underwood, Ricky 79 RDE 4 33 51 3 yrs
Griffin, Darren 77 NT 12 56 56 1 yr.
Poston, Leon 75 NT 13 49 50 1 yr.
Hill, Stan 72 NT 5 23 39 2 yrs
Hines, Josh 71 NT 1 12 38 3 yrs
Parrella, Clifton 94 SILB 3 43 43 1 yr.
Sellers, Lawrence 92 SILB 7 35 39 3 yrs
Cardona, Dexter 95 WILB 3 27 43 1 yr.
Greenham, Conrad 57 WILB 7 22 24 2 yrs
Beeck, Roman 91 SLB 10 47 51 2 yrs
Fullerton, Darryl 50 SLB 9 33 35 2 yrs
Rollins, Mike 55 SLB 4 27 33 3 yrs
Graham, Rufus 90 WLB 10 49 49 2 yrs
Saga, Bucky 99 WLB 13 31 33 3 yrs
Shields, Marty 52 WLB 1 11 33 3 yrs
Bratsch, Ted 45 LCB 3 59 59 1 yr.
McNeil, Donnell 35 LCB 4 55 55 3 yrs
Twisp, Arnie 30 LCB 5 42 42 2 yrs
Campbell, Darryl 42 LCB 12 39 41 1 yr.
Myers, Larry 21 RCB 6 55 55 3 yrs
Blumer, Johnnie 37 RCB 1 17 37 3 yrs
Browning, Mark 43 SS 3 26 36 1 yr.
Becker, Malcolm 33 FS 8 40 41 3 yrs
Schultz, Conrad 41 FS 2 29 40 2 yrs

[QuikSand]

2026 Season Preview

No real changes in strategy – we’re in for another round of the same as last year, basically. We still are looking for a WR to step up and take the starting job alongside Jon Raymond, and expect to see the TE remain a big part of the air attack in any event. Defensively, our older players are eroding, but we expect pretty big things from young Jamal Bush as he is assuming the mantle of being our best defensive player.

I think we are a winning team – tough to say if we are a title contender. Might depend on injuries, as is so often true.

2026 Season

In preseason, we lost S Malcolm Becker, our only solid natural safety – so we are perilously thin at the position. We slot CB Ted Bratsch as a starter at strong safety, and have Conrad Schultz as our other starter – it’s the biggest weakness on this team, I think.

We win our first two games with late drives, and then blow out Buffalo to get our stats looking better. In week 5, we beat Cleveland in a big early matchup of unbeaten teams, and extend to 5-0 on the year. We reach the halfway point still unblemished – here is the capsule:


2026 Summary for Jacksonville Jaguars

Record: 8-0
Winning Pct.: 1.000

Jacksonville Jaguars Team Rank
Rushes 240 5 (T)
Rushing Yards 1067 5
Yards Per Carry 4.44 10
Pass Attempts 258 8
Completions 170 5
Passing Yards 1950 3
Yards Per Attempt 7.55 12
3rd Down Conversions 51.4 3
Points Per Game 29.5 1
Turnovers 7 5 (T)
Turnover Margin +9 1

Opponents Team Rank
Rushes 196 7 (T)
Rushing Yards 873 17
Yards Per Carry 4.45 26 (T)
Pass Attempts 294 31 (T)
Completions 152 20
Passing Yards 1628 10
Yards Per Attempt 5.53 1
3rd Down Conversions 39.6 5
Points Per Game 12.5 2
Turnovers 16 1 (T)

Passing Pos Att Comp Yards Y/Att TD Int
15 Blackburn QB 248 164 1860 7.50 18 5

Rushing Pos Att Yards Y/Att TD
22 Schultz RB 132 622 4.71 6

Receiving Pos Targ Catch Yards Y/Ctc YAC TD
87 Conley TE 66 47 471 10.0 110 5
7 Raymond WR 46 30 537 17.9 182 3

Defense Pos Tack Asst Sack Hurr Ints Defn
97 Bush DE 24 7 6.0 25 0 0
**Team --- 395 121 15.0 60 11 29


Well – we are showing an odd weakness in stopping the run, which is usually a strong suit of ours. But our offense is playing efficiently, and we are winning the turnover battle handily, both good signs. In points for and points against, we’re atop the league – not bad, that.

We reach 10-0, amidst a swelling list of injuries, but we can hardly complain about that. We finally fall at Kansas City, 23-20, and the perfect season slips away. But we finish 13-3 and in a comfortable place as the conference #1 seed, and a bye week -- which is all you can really ask for.


2026 Summary for Jacksonville Jaguars

Record: 13-3
Winning Pct.: .812

Jacksonville Jaguars Team Rank
Rushes 476 11 (T)
Rushing Yards 2195 6
Yards Per Carry 4.61 4
Pass Attempts 544 10
Completions 348 3 (T)
Passing Yards 3988 8
Yards Per Attempt 7.33 13 (T)
3rd Down Conversions 50.4 3
Points Per Game 28.0 1
Turnovers 21 12 (T)
Turnover Margin +9 5 (T)

Opponents Team Rank
Rushes 419 6
Rushing Yards 1873 15
Yards Per Carry 4.47 26
Pass Attempts 570 30
Completions 291 5
Passing Yards 3506 7
Yards Per Attempt 6.15 2
3rd Down Conversions 37.4 1
Points Per Game 14.5 2
Turnovers 30 6 (T)

Week Team Versus Oppnt
1 27 at HOU 20
2 31 PHI 24
3 42 BUF 3
4 24 CIN 12
5 20 CLE 14
6 29 at IND 7
7 21 at PIT 14
8 42 at BAL 6
9 27 TEN 24
11 31 HOU 17
12 38 at DAL 13
13 20 at KCY 23
14 38 WAS 10
15 14 IND 15
16 31 at NYG 14
17 13 at TEN 16

Passing Pos Att Comp Yards Y/Att TD Int
15 Blackburn QB 454 291 3338 7.35 31 13
13 Warholic QB 89 57 650 7.30 7 4
**Team --- 544 348 3988 7.33 38 17

Rushing Pos Att Yards Y/Att TD
22 Schultz RB 254 1214 4.77 9
48 Creamer RB 123 602 4.89 6
31 Ackerman RB 54 211 3.90 2
15 Blackburn QB 32 117 3.65 0
**Team --- 476 2195 4.61 17

Receiving Pos Targ Catch Yards Y/Ctc YAC TD
87 Conley TE 121 85 814 9.5 191 9
80 Conley WR 80 48 661 13.7 134 4
7 Raymond WR 88 45 743 16.5 202 4
48 Creamer RB 56 41 323 7.8 110 3
28 Stargell WR 59 33 523 15.8 79 5
83 Moln WR 50 28 297 10.6 41 4
88 Eidsmore TE 34 24 269 11.2 29 3
31 Ackerman RB 20 16 89 5.5 39 4
**Team --- 544 348 3988 11.4 914 38

Defense Pos Tack Asst Sack Hurr Ints Defn
92 Sellers ILB 83 26 0.0 1 1 7
21 Myers CB 70 13 0.0 0 2 15
90 Graham ILB 65 29 0.0 0 3 3
91 Beeck OLB 59 17 0.0 0 0 2
97 Bush DE 59 21 13.5 52 0 0
77 Griffin DT 57 31 4.0 16 0 0
45 Bratsch CB 51 18 0.0 0 1 9
78 Hartman DE 46 20 12.5 45 0 0
41 Schultz S 41 10 0.0 0 8 3
30 Twisp CB 35 9 0.0 0 0 3
99 Saga OLB 34 17 0.0 0 0 0
42 Campbell CB 30 13 0.0 0 1 20
57 Greenham ILB 26 18 0.0 0 0 1
34 Kimsey S 22 5 0.0 0 0 2
95 Cardona ILB 18 6 0.0 0 0 1
**Team --- 812 267 35.0 118 20 68


So, our stats for the year are basically where we were at the midpoint – strong everywhere except for run defense. Schultz had a solid season as our main duty RB, and Creamer was pretty effective as his backup – so our running game was very effective. We got a very good season from rookie WR Derek Conley, who only started about half the games but ended up with the top numbers of our receiving corps. TE Wayne Conley is hurt for the playoffs (like half the team) but had another very good season (playing in only 13 games).

Defensively, I’m guessing that the big dropoff from DT Griffin is the main culprit in our losing so much run defense – even though that’s the one skill he most retained. Regardless, seeing a star fall like that has to hurt. Bush and Hartman were both monsters from the DE slots, though – a function of picking up stuff that would have been shared with Griffin in years past, I’m guessing. 26 sacks and 97 hurries from two guys? Wow. CB Larry Myers had his best season yet, I think, and helped anchor a secondary wrought with injuries all year – 4th year CB Donnell McNeil might be done after his severe injuries this season.


Postseason Summary

Divisional Playoff – Kansas City (9-8) at Jacksonville (13-3) – We face our old nemeses again, and will try to patch together a roster full of questionable and probable players, plus a few scrap heap free agents. We’re 12-point favorites, but manage to just squeak this one out, 14-13. Blackburn goes down and Warholic leads us, but Bernard will return next week. DE Bush has 2 sacks and 8 hurries on the day.

Conference Championship – Cleveland (14-3) at Jacksonville (14-3) – By virtue of our head to head win earlier, we get this game at home, and the edge that provides. The matchup preview shows the Browns with an edge in nearly every category, but we are favored by 6 points at home. The Browns exact their revenge here, and beat us 27-14 in a rather close game – they just outplayed us on third downs and capitalized on their chances – and they move on.

Tampa Bay shellacs Cleveland in the Superbowl, 31-9.


TE Wayne Conley makes another first team appearance, and our two starting defensive ends Bush and Hartman are both there as well (a first for me, I think).


Good season – we certainly have arrived as a league power, now we need to break through and cash in one postseason. Injuries are a mounting concern, but overall we seem to be solid on the field.

[MalcPow]

Defensively, I’m guessing that the big dropoff from DT Griffin is the main culprit in our losing so much run defense – even though that’s the one skill he most retained. Regardless, seeing a star fall like that has to hurt. Bush and Hartman were both monsters from the DE slots, though – a function of picking up stuff that would have been shared with Griffin in years past, I’m guessing. 26 sacks and 97 hurries from two guys? Wow. CB Larry Myers had his best season yet, I think, and helped anchor a secondary wrought with injuries all year – 4th year CB Donnell McNeil might be done after his severe injuries this season.

Those are absurd stats from your DE's, especially the hurries. Are they just that good? It looks like you're still using very low blitz numbers, but I'm wondering if you had any ideas about how you're getting such great production from those two guys. And in a 3-4 no less.

[QuikSand]

There's a school of though (supported by what I see from this team) that adjusting the style of defensive aggression (blitzing a lot, or not) only serves to make modest overall changes in your pass rush's effectiveness. So, by not blitzing very much, as I am with this team, you still end up with a reasonably effective pass rush (realistic or not) but the stats get more consilidated among the defensive linemen. Especially now that my DT Griffin is a non-factor in the pass rush, I'm guessing that the two defensive ends, when healthy, just rack up crazy numbers as a result.

Both guys are good - Bush is getting *really* good* - but the stats are at least in part a weird outcome of a stilted gameplan, I expect.

[MalcPow]

That makes sense, or fits with my own experience at least. But it is a little frustrating when you peek behind the curtain a little bit and realize that some of the decisions you're making don't really affect game results all that much. FOF gets it better than any other sim out there, but what's fun about the game is making decisions, and I wish it felt like some of them mattered more. Congrats on Bush, that's a great breakout.

[QuikSand]

2027 offseason

So, on we go into a new year. The team has clearly established itself as a title contender, and now we’d like to cash in while some of our veteran players are still assets to the team.

The retirement list lessens that list of quality veterans, as DL Leon Poston has departed. He gave us six good seasons, mostly as a backup of platoon player at either DT or DE – a good, solid run stopper.


I forgot to watch my email last season, but it appears that my stadium improvement was somehow accepted, so we will remain in Jacksonville, I guess. At least I didn’t get fired this year, even though our attendance remained at league-low levels (though increasing to just over 30,000).


I don’t expect anything major in free agency – we have cap space to retain our own players, and I don’t expect any veteran free agents to look all that appealing.


Anyway – as expected, no real shake-ups in this offseason. On to the draft:


2027 Rookie Draft

Pick Pos Player Name Notes Draft Roster
7.04 SS Harvey Conley 99 vol, Run D, MTM, Int, 4.48 forty 18/43 18/42
7.06 CB Leonard Gilmore 4.48 forty, MTM, Int, Punt returns 14/44 14/41
7.07 MLB Clifton Book Run D, 4.76 forty, 7.41 agil 10/38 11/37
7.10 DE Jorge Cunningham 4.82 forty, 7.34 agil, developed 21/28 22/30
7.13 WR Renaldo Vang 28 test, 21 reps, developed 11/18 24/44
7.14 TE Brandon Norton Best at position, 24 reps, developed 20/45 20/42
7.15 FB Jimmy Lynch Best FB left, 7.24 agil, 33 test 14/45 14/41
7.18 C Dan Young Pass blocker, 31 reps, 7.88 agil 23/45 23/44
7.20 DT Bart Cook Developed, pass rusher, 33 reps 25/35 26/36
7.28 RB Rob Sanderson PR and KR skills, 4.64 forty 23/33 22/33
7.31 DE Tyrell McElroy Developed, PR Str, 31 reps 24/30 24/30
7.32 WR Bryce Simmons 4.43 forty, 7.03 agil 12/24 12/26


I’m immediately looking for help at DB, in hopes of landing someone who can play some safety for us long term. SS Harvey Conley is a good skills fit, but probably not a breakout type of guy.

Looks like the real find of this draft is another young receiver, Renaldo Vang. He had a notable combine number in there, and broke out pretty nicely – he now projects as a pretty serious threat to take a staring job for us, and definitely to contribute both on offense and special teams.

DE Jorge Cunningham is also a guy I think has a pretty high ceiling. We’ll try to work some playing time in for him, too.

I move C Dan Young to left tackle, where we really need the help. It’s not a great switch for him – but at 13/35, he will still be an asset there, I hope.


We work out a new deal for S Conrad Schultz, who was holding out after his solid season last year. He now projects as a long term starter for us, so I don’t mind paying him fairly.

After training camp – here’s our 64 player roster:


Jacksonville Jaguars Roster, Scout Overview

Player # Pos Start Exp Current Estimate Future Estimate Cntrct
Warholic, Irving 13 QB 13 64 67 1 yr.
Blackburn, Bernard 15 QB 8 58 58 3 yrs
Wells, Bernie 14 QB 4 34 54 3 yrs
Schultz, Vince 22 RB 6 49 49 4 yrs
Ackerman, Bennie 31 RB 3 37 45 1 yr.
Creamer, Wally 48 RB 5 29 32 2 yrs
Sanderson, Rob 39 RB 1 22 32 3 yrs
Bates, Marshall 26 FB 6 32 36 1 yr.
Lynch, Jimmy 25 FB 1 16 38 3 yrs
Conley, Wayne 87 TE 11 56 63 2 yrs
Eidsmore, Antonio 88 TE 3 46 46 1 yr.
Kaeding, Erik 81 TE 5 36 37 1 yr.
Norton, Brandon 85 TE 1 22 38 3 yrs
Conley, Derek 80 FL 2 38 46 2 yrs
Stargell, Mack 28 FL 5 35 48 2 yrs
Gomez, Bernie 84 FL 3 27 43 1 yr.
Sims, Patrick 82 FL 3 26 37 1 yr.
Vang, Renaldo 86 FL 1 26 45 3 yrs
Simmons, Bryce 89 FL 1 14 28 3 yrs
Raymond, Jon 7 SE 6 54 54 2 yrs
Moln, Cris 83 SE 2 41 46 2 yrs
Straight, Jim 73 C 8 61 61 4 yrs
Ransom, Louie 59 C 6 60 60 3 yrs
King, Arnold 74 LG 7 38 42 3 yrs
Fox, Nathan 62 LG 10 29 34 1 yr.
Sellers, Graham 70 RG 12 32 42 2 yrs
Thomason, Artie 54 RG 2 18 41 2 yrs
Bellis, Lamar 61 LT 12 38 38 2 yrs
Terrell, Pat 66 LT 3 28 39 1 yr.
Young, Dan 56 LT 1 15 35 3 yrs
Collier, Edward 64 RT 9 35 35 3 yrs
Grieg, Derrick 6 P 4 54 59 3 yrs
Oldham, Justin 2 K 8 66 66 1 yr.
Powell, Steven 98 LDE 4 41 44 3 yrs
Cunningham, Jorge 75 LDE 1 25 33 3 yrs
Mitchell, Jared 93 LDE 2 24 51 2 yrs
Bush, Jamal 97 RDE 3 79 79 1 yr.
Hartman, Peter 78 RDE 12 57 57 1 yr.
Dupuis, Irving 96 RDE 9 31 34 1 yr.
Underwood, Ricky 79 RDE 5 31 44 2 yrs
McElroy, Tyrell 71 RDE 1 25 30 3 yrs
Cook, Bart 76 RDE 1 24 34 3 yrs
Griffin, Darren 77 NT 13 49 49 3 yrs
Hill, Stan 72 NT 6 22 34 1 yr.
Parrella, Clifton 94 SILB 4 37 37 3 yrs
Sellers, Lawrence 92 SILB 8 36 40 2 yrs
Graham, Rufus 90 WILB 11 39 48 1 yr.
Cardona, Dexter 95 WILB 4 31 43 3 yrs
Greenham, Conrad 57 WILB 8 22 25 1 yr.
Book, Clifton 53 MLB 1 12 36 3 yrs
Fullerton, Darryl 50 SLB 10 33 36 1 yr.
Rollins, Mike 55 SLB 5 30 32 2 yrs
Beeck, Roman 91 WLB 11 48 48 1 yr.
Saga, Bucky 99 WLB 14 26 27 2 yrs
Bratsch, Ted 45 LCB 4 58 58 3 yrs
McNeil, Donnell 35 LCB 5 54 54 2 yrs
Twisp, Arnie 30 LCB 6 44 44 1 yr.
Campbell, Darryl 42 LCB 13 39 41 2 yrs
Myers, Larry 21 RCB 7 55 55 2 yrs
Blumer, Johnnie 37 RCB 2 23 34 2 yrs
Gilmore, Leonard 49 RCB 1 15 37 3 yrs
Kimsey, Charlie 34 SS 4 32 43 3 yrs
Browning, Mark 43 SS 4 28 35 3 yrs
Conley, Harvey 40 SS 1 20 38 3 yrs
Schultz, Conrad 41 FS 3 36 41 3 yrs
Becker, Malcolm 33 FS 9 32 35 2 yrs



So, WR Renaldo Vang jumps directly into the mix at the WR position, and there are indications that he may have continued upside. I guess we have to get him involved, despite the promising performance from Derek Conley in his rookie season last year. Not a bad conundrum to face, understandably.

[QuikSand]

Season Preview

Well, we are pretty clearly a playoff team, and are showing signs of being a top contender. With some injury luck and a few good bounces, we ought to be a bye team and a solid title threat this year.


2027 Season

We get to 4-0, but have OL injuries that are very troubling, with two starters listed as out for our game against undefeated Miami. They nip us, 21-20, and we fall from the ranks of the unbeaten.

We are 6-2 at our halfway point, and beset by a lot of injuries. Here’s the snapshot halfway home:


Front Office Football 2004
2027 Summary for Jacksonville Jaguars

Record: 6-2
Winning Pct.: .750

Jacksonville Jaguars Team Rank
Rushes 228 18
Rushing Yards 967 14
Yards Per Carry 4.24 8 (T)
Pass Attempts 283 13
Completions 175 7 (T)
Passing Yards 2023 11
Yards Per Attempt 7.14 14
3rd Down Conversions 44.8 15 (T)
Points Per Game 24.3 9
Turnovers 17 26
Turnover Margin -3 23 (T)

Opponents Team Rank
Rushes 219 10
Rushing Yards 806 6
Yards Per Carry 3.68 5
Pass Attempts 284 20
Completions 122 1
Passing Yards 1401 1
Yards Per Attempt 4.93 1
3rd Down Conversions 35.5 3
Points Per Game 15.0 2 (T)
Turnovers 14 10 (T)


Defense looks good, despite the personnel problems, but the offense is shaky and we are turning the ball over a bit much. We look solid, but not really dominant.

Down the second half, we have one inexplicable loss in Kansas City, but otherwise take care of business, and finish as a 13-3 team, tied for the best record in the conference – right where we’d want to be. However, by a fluke of tiebreakers, we are actually placed as the #3 seed, and have to play in the wild card round to advance.


Front Office Football 2004
2027 Summary for Jacksonville Jaguars

Record: 13-3
Winning Pct.: .812

Jacksonville Jaguars Team Rank
Rushes 461 18
Rushing Yards 1881 16
Yards Per Carry 4.08 18
Pass Attempts 533 12
Completions 345 4
Passing Yards 4013 7
Yards Per Attempt 7.52 8
3rd Down Conversions 44.3 14
Points Per Game 23.8 8 (T)
Turnovers 28 23
Turnover Margin +3 12 (T)

Opponents Team Rank
Rushes 429 8 (T)
Rushing Yards 1594 4
Yards Per Carry 3.71 2
Pass Attempts 535 23
Completions 251 1
Passing Yards 2934 1
Yards Per Attempt 5.48 1
3rd Down Conversions 37.8 4 (T)
Points Per Game 13.4 1
Turnovers 31 4

Week Team Versus Oppnt
1 23 IND 6
2 20 at TBY 10
3 19 CLE 11
4 29 NYJ 26
5 20 MIA 21
6 28 at IND 3
7 49 TEN 31
9 7 at BUF 12
10 28 at NED 21
11 31 HOU 0
12 27 CAR 3
13 6 at KCY 14
14 31 ATL 24
15 21 at TEN 6
16 23 at NOS 10
17 20 at HOU 17
$$WC HOU

Passing Pos Att Comp Yards Y/Att TD Int
15 Blackburn QB 527 340 3964 7.52 32 18
**Team --- 533 345 4013 7.52 32 18

Rushing Pos Att Yards Y/Att TD
22 Schultz RB 197 820 4.16 2
48 Creamer RB 174 640 3.67 3
31 Ackerman RB 42 190 4.52 4
15 Blackburn QB 41 197 4.80 1
**Team --- 461 1881 4.08 10

Receiving Pos Targ Catch Yards Y/Ctc YAC TD
80 Conley WR 91 57 701 12.2 115 6
7 Raymond WR 97 53 887 16.7 310 8
48 Creamer RB 66 49 418 8.5 100 2
87 Conley TE 62 43 441 10.2 90 3
88 Eidsmore TE 66 43 362 8.4 62 3
86 Vang WR 42 28 438 15.6 66 2
83 Moln WR 48 26 379 14.5 62 3
26 Bates FB 26 21 166 7.9 66 2
**Team --- 532 345 4013 11.6 944 32

Defense Pos Tack Asst Sack Hurr Ints Defn
90 Graham ILB 82 30 0.0 1 0 2
91 Beeck OLB 76 23 2.0 0 2 2
95 Cardona ILB 62 26 0.5 0 0 1
97 Bush DE 60 18 13.5 61 0 0
41 Schultz S 50 14 0.0 0 7 5
77 Griffin DT 49 24 3.0 9 0 0
45 Bratsch CB 47 19 0.0 0 3 15
21 Myers CB 44 12 0.0 0 3 13
92 Sellers ILB 37 16 0.0 0 1 1
35 McNeil CB 33 10 0.0 0 1 5
42 Campbell CB 28 17 0.0 0 1 22
78 Hartman DE 24 11 9.0 33 0 1
43 Browning S 21 8 0.0 0 1 2
55 Rollins OLB 17 7 1.0 0 0 1
94 Parrella ILB 17 6 0.0 0 0 2
30 Twisp CB 16 0 0.0 0 0 1
**Team --- 773 265 36.0 117 21 76


32 touchdowns is a second big year for Blackburn – his previous season high was last year’s 31, but that seemed like an aberration at the time. He’s well into the 90s in passer rating both seasons, so it looks like this is indeed his new level of performance – pretty solid.

TE Wayne Conley missed eight games, or he might have posted another 1,000-yards season for us. He’ll be back for the playoffs, at least. The WR corps played pretty well – as our downfield passing game was the best we’ve seen – both of our top guys caught well over half the passes thrown his way.

On defense – 61 hurries for Jamal Bush is tops in the league – by 19. Is he just a super-dominant force in the pass rush? Or is he at least partially a product of benefiting by lack of competition – in the same way that a pretty solid MLB on a terrible defense can rack up huge tackle totals without necessarily being all that great a player? Probably the latter—though he is an outstanding talent, no denying that. But Peter Hartman missed 5 games completely (and was hurt in two more) making Bush the only serious pass rusher on the team for much of the season – and Hartman himself still managed to be the 3rd-highest hurrier in the league, despite being in for only 347 pass plays. The PRPct numbers for these guys are astronomical – Bush 15.5 and Hartman 12.9. I’ve never seen anything like it.

We get a solid effort from the rest of the defense, including our constantly-shuffled SILB and CB slots, due to injuries. All around, high marks for the defense -- #2 against the run, and #1 against the pass is awfully tough to improve upon.


Postseason Summary

Wild Card Round: Houston (9-7) at Jacksonville (13-3) – We are made a trifling 5 point favorite here at home – what gives? Well, the 21-16 final score mutes my objection, as we move on but not in impressive fashion.

Divisional Playoff: Jacksonville (14-3) at Miami (13-3) – In a thriller, we get our revenge on the Dolphins, after they come back in a classic fourth quarter track meet to tie the game and send it into OT on a 57-yard bomb – we then put together a workmanlike OT drive to get the game-winning FG and move on.

Conference Championship: Cleveland (13-5) at Jacksonville (15-3) – We’re lucky to get to play at home, and we get DE Peter Hartman back for this one too. After last week’s shootout, this one is more close to the vest – but we build up a 10-0 halftime lead, and it’s 16-0 before Cleveland scores in the late fourth quarter. A defensive virtuoso performance, and we secure a Superbowl berth at last.

Superbowl: Jacksonville (16-3) vs. Green Bay (15-3) – Might as well share the box score here:


Box Score: Green Bay vs Jacksonville
Sarasota, FL.

Front Office Championship, 2027

Attendance: 56,300 (56,300).


Weather: 49 degrees, fair.

1Q: 05:39 GBY - Lorenzo Gailey 33 field goal.
2Q: 14:53 JAX - Vince Schultz 4 run.
2Q: 14:53 JAX - Justin Oldham extra point.
2Q: 08:12 GBY - Rondell Pineo 13 pass from J.J. Narcisse.
2Q: 08:12 GBY - Lorenzo Gailey extra point.
2Q: 00:55 JAX - Wayne Conley 18 pass from Bernard Blackburn.
2Q: 00:55 JAX - Justin Oldham extra point.
3Q: 10:35 JAX - Derek Conley 4 pass from Bernard Blackburn.
3Q: 10:35 JAX - Justin Oldham extra point.
3Q: 02:59 GBY - Lorenzo Gailey 36 field goal.
4Q: 11:31 GBY - Lorenzo Gailey 44 field goal.
4Q: 01:30 GBY - Leroy Howard 32 pass from J.J. Narcisse.
4Q: 01:30 GBY - Reggie Maxwell run for conversion.
4Q: 00:06 JAX - Justin Oldham 39 field goal.
OT: 04:36 JAX - Wally Creamer 15 run.

Game MVP: JAX 78 Peter Hartman

Green Bay 3 7 3 11 0 - 24
Jacksonville 0 14 7 3 6 - 30

Team Statistics GBY JAX

First Downs 23 20

Total Rushes 29 32
Rushing Yards 121 108
Yards Per Carry 4.1 3.3
Pass Attempts 47 33
Completions 25 17
Passing Yards 311 264
Yards Per Attempt 6.6 8.0
Sacked 6 1
Yards Lost 36 6
Interceptions 0 0
Fumbles/Lost 2/0 0/0

Total Plays 82 66
Total Yards 396 366
Yards Per Play 4.8 5.5

3rd Down Plays 12/22 7/15
Avg. YTG on 3rd 6.8 7.8
4th Down Plays 1/1 0/0

Penalties 9 5
Penalty Yards 66 44

Avg. Drive Start OWN 23 OWN 27
Time Of Possession 38:57 31:27

Jacksonville Individual Statistics

Rushing Att Yards Avg Long TD
22 Schultz 20 44 2.2 9 1
48 Creamer 9 53 5.8 18 1
15 Blackburn 3 11 3.6 5 0

Passing Att Comp Yards Yd/Att Long TD Int Sckd
15 Blackburn 33 17 264 8.0 38 2 0 1

Receiving Catch Yards Avg YAC Long TD
87 Conley 6 81 13.5 18 18 1
7 Raymond 4 60 15.0 12 23 0
80 Conley 4 72 18.0 6 38 1
22 Schultz 1 5 5.0 3 5 0
26 Bates 1 11 11.0 3 11 0
88 Eidsmore 1 35 35.0 2 35 0

Punt Returns Att Yards Avg TD
28 Stargell 3 41 13.6 0

Kick Returns Att Yards Avg TD
86 Vang 4 92 23.0 0

Punting Punts Yards Avg Long In20
6 Grieg 8 350 43.7 58 2

Kicking FG FGA Long PAT Att
2 Oldham 1 1 39 3 3

Defense Tackle Assist Sack Int IntYds IntTD
77 Griffin 9 1 1.0 0 0 0
91 Beeck 9 1 1.0 0 0 0
33 Becker 8 1 0.0 0 0 0
78 Hartman 6 1 3.0 0 0 0
97 Bush 5 3 1.0 0 0 0
90 Graham 5 3 0.0 0 0 0
45 Bratsch 5 1 0.0 0 0 0
92 Sellers 3 2 0.0 0 0 0
43 Browning 3 2 0.0 0 0 0
21 Myers 3 1 0.0 0 0 0
95 Cardona 2 4 0.0 0 0 0
59 Ransom 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
28 Stargell 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
35 McNeil 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
88 Eidsmore 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
83 Moln 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
40 Conley 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
42 Campbell 0 1 0.0 0 0 0
94 Parrella 0 1 0.0 0 0 0

Miscellaneous Fumb FForc Recov MiscTD KeyRBlk SckAlwd
70 Sellers 0 0 0 0 2 1
59 Ransom 0 0 0 0 3 0
73 Straight 0 0 0 0 2 0
74 King 0 0 0 0 2 0
78 Hartman 0 1 0 0 0 0
64 Collier 0 0 0 0 1 0
26 Bates 0 0 0 0 1 0
88 Eidsmore 0 1 0 0 0 0


In an apparent thriller, we reprise the script from the Miami game – Green Bay gets the big drive for 8 points to tie things in the final minutes, and send it into overtime. But we eventually get the game winner in the extra stanza, and come away winners – this time, as champions.


Great season, needless to say. They all are when you get the ring. But despite the odd #3 seeding, we basically got everything we needed – great efforts from our top players and a team that patched over its injuries very effectively all season. Cohesion is certainly on our side, but having pretty decent talent at nearly every position is a key as well, no doubt. And all from round seven of the draft.