JACKSONVILLE— Let's get to it … Rob from the Duuuu:
To add a few more players that should be in the Pride of the Jaguars ahead of Josh Scobee, I would put Marcedes Lewis and even Paul Posluszny. Did Scobee ever make a Pro Bowl? What if we get a really good kicker in the near future who has a better career than Scobee? We gonna have six dudes and two of them kickers? It really is a huge outrage that this "Ring of Honor" was such a hard-to-achieve honor that Mojo, Sheen, Brack, Darius, Keenan and up until a few months ago Jimmy Smith were all shunned and now this? Sorry, man, but it is either a complete outrage or they got to open up the flood gates and let like 20 dudes in the ring right now. I can tell you it will mean a lot less to guys like Mojo who truly deserve this honor when and if they do get it. Going in after Scobee is truly a disgrace to their legacy. Letting him retire here and giving him some good PR and writing about his career was all that was needed with Scobee. Or a job as an announcer. It's too late now. The ring of honor is a joke, and there is no honor in being a part of it anymore.
John: Um, Rob? Rob? Take a breath, OK? Another. Another. Better? Good. First, if the Jaguars got a really good kicker in the near future and put him in the Pride of the Jaguars a few seasons after he retired, that would mean putting him there in about two decades; I suppose I'd worry about that in about … oh, two decades. Second, Scobee's not in the Pride of the Jaguars. No one around the Jaguars ever said he was going to be in the Pride of the Jaguars. I honestly doubt he will be in the Pride of the Jaguars. I personally think having him retire as a Jaguar was honor enough – and I think that will probably the highest Jaguars honor he receives. My point in my discussions on this topic this week is that Scobee meant a lot to this fan base and gave them a lot of good memories. The other players you mentioned did this as well. Scobee also was very important to a lot of people in the community for a lot of years and mattered a lot during a time when this franchise was struggling. Those things were true of a lot of the players you mentioned, and there are a slew of players honored around the NFL for being meaningful players to their team and their communities on and off the field for a lot of years. I personally have no problem with teams honoring a lot of players and I don't even have a problem with teams honoring "too many players." I guess I just think there are worse crimes and far bigger "outrages" and "disgraces" in our world.
DimeJag at Jag4slife forum:
Hey, man .... With the draft in less than two weeks, I gotta tell ya, the Jaguars better not draft any "busts" this year. Any player who doesn't go to the Pro Bowl or lead his team to the Super Bowl in his first three years is a "bust." In fact, even if a player makes the Pro Bowl, or gets voted No. 56 in the NFL Network's Top 100 players, if they have a bad season after that … the player is a "bust." No ifs, ands or busts about it. And, one more thing ... Me and my friends don't appreciate the efforts of the Jaguars' organization trying to sell season tickets and other ticket packages, because they've been losing too much. None of us are season-ticket holders, and those of us who did have season tickets haven't renewed them. I know "homers" would say that if the team had 100,000 fans who shared this incredibly flawed way of thinking, the team would not be financially viable in its current location, and would be better served to consider moving, but I don't care. That's your problem!
John: Yeah, but how do you feel about Scobee and the Pride of the Jaguars?
Warren Z:
How come you didn't mention Zevon's "Play It All Night Long?" ... I know you are a fan.
John: I indeed could have mentioned Warren Zevon's "Play It All Night Long" in our Lynyrd Skynyrd/Neil Young discussion. It was a song in which Zevon referenced "Sweet Home Alabama," referring to it as a "dead band's song." Zevon reportedly once told Rolling Stone he intended it in part as a tribute to Skynyrd, and while at first listen it may be difficult to see it as a tribute, anyone familiar with Zevon's twisted genius realizes tributes from the late, great songwriter probably came in forms previously not considered such. But I digress: I didn't include "Play It All Night Long" in the Skynyrd/Young discussion because I figured we had digressed far enough. I feared that before. Now, I am relatively certain of it.
Trae from Jacksonville:
Shinedown? What are these kids thinking these days?
John: It's a whole thing.
Rick from Saint Jones:
After researching Derek Barnett, I came away very impressed, and think he's one of the most underrated, potential top picks in this year's draft. Keep in mind he's only a junior. In three years at Tennessee, both forced fumbles and sacks increased each year, with nine sacks in 2014, 10 in 2015 and 14 in 2016. I would also point out this was against the likes of Brandon Scherf, DJ Humphries and Cam Robinson. I would feel safer if we were to pick Barnett over Leonard Fournette. I would think success against first-round NFL talent such as his would raise interest among scouts, would you agree? Since his stats haven't peaked yet, he could continue to improve.
John: I'm not all that big on college statistics as a measure of how a player will fare in the NFL. Even playing against "SEC Competition" isn't a real great comparison to playing NFL players every week. That's why you must project how players will play – and it's what makes the draft process such a maddening crap-shoot at times. The book on Barnett is that while he wins – and gets a lot of college sacks – with speed and quickness, he doesn't often win with power and strength. That's why he's in the Top 10-to-15 and not the Top 5. I like the idea of Barnett in the first round. At No. 4? Maybe … just maybe.
Tom from Loughborough, England:
I take back what I said about a month ago. Leonard Fournette looks like an absolute beast who would definitely alleviate pressure from Blake Bortles. Go watch him running over Brandin Bryant from Mississippi State. Fournette actually throws him to the ground like a piece of paper into a bin!! (Or should I say trash can ...)
John: There's no question Fournette is a beast – and if being an elite NFL running back was about the ability to run over college defenders, Fournette would be a dead-solid lock as a Top 5 selection and future multi-season All-Pro player. The question with Fournette isn't about college-level power and strength but about NFL "miss-ability." It's really hard to be an elite NFL back without the ability to make the first defender miss with side-to-side quickness. Does Fournette have enough of that to be elite in the NFL? Some believe yes and others aren't as sure. That will be the toughest question to answer until we actually see it at the NFL level.
Don from Ponte Vedra Beach, FL:
Even if you had the best player in the league at every position it would not ensure a winning season. It's not individuals who win; it's the best team that works and does those things that nobody else wants to do. When the season starts, you have who you have. What you do with it depends on how well everyone works as a group. Every player on the team needs to have a chip on his shoulder. One individual here or there is not going to get you squat! You do need talent to win, but are you going quit if you're weak in one position or another? I just do not understand why fans have a hard time understanding what team means. Who you have is what you got and you have to make it work with no excuses. Doug Marrone and Tom Coughlin know this. Why do fans have a hard time with it? You have to find a way to win with what you have if you want to be a winner. Deeds not words!
John: True, Don. All true … though having the best player in the league at every position wouldn't suck, either.
Scott from Columbus Circle, NY:
I think you should take tomorrow off. Go ahead and pick a few questions right now, answer them, write the blog post and pre-post it with a delay so that it appears at exactly 10:04 am tomorrow. Everyone, even you, deserves a day off every few years.
John: Tomorrow never comes, Scott. It never comes.