2012 NFL Predictions: Is Blaine Gabbert Ready to Be the Leader of the Jaguars?

Blaine Gabbert won’t be given a mulligan for his performance last season as an NFL rookie quarterback, but he will be given several lessons over the course of this offseason to learn from what could only be termed as a less-than-stellar start to a professional career.

When you look at the way the season started, right after the NFL lockout, the missing of OTAs and time in the classroom, learning the plays, learning the system, dealing with a lame duck head coach and a less-than-adequate offensive game plan, it could an understatement that Gabbert may have had the worst road of any starting quarterback last season.

Gabbert is coming off a rookie season in which he was highly criticized for a 4-10 record, an NFL-low 65.4 quarterback rating and 50.8 percent accuracy.

This season, Gabbert, now in his second year, hopes to change that as Jacksonville moves forward. But it will take more than a strong arm to make Gabbert more than a curious question mark in Jacksonville and in the AFC South.

This year, Gabbert must become this team’s leader.

No more excuses. Better play in the pocket. More poise and of course, more time in the classroom to study and become better. That is the only way he is going to make it known to NFL teams that 2011 was an aberration, and the real Gabbert has many years of great football ahead of him.

In a column written in the Florida Times-Union by Gene Frenette, Gabbert spoke about how he wants to the leader of this team, how the Tim Tebow situation can only make him stronger, and how the new coaching staff is helping him be a better football player. All three of those “issues” or “challenges” have been highlighted over the course of the past year. The Tim Tebow situation which Jacksonville went through last month proved to be a bust.

"You can always wish and hope for a better outcome when you're looking back on it. At that point and time, I was just focused on going out there week in and week out and trying to play the best football I could," he said in the article.

Gabbert is this team’s starter. Chad Henne was brought in to challenge him in camp and be the team’s backup, and Tebow really had no place on this team. Gabbert must see that as a victory for him since the Jaguars passed on their hometown hero in 2010 and made the Missouri passer their top pick in 2011. But you cannot help but see that the two will forever be linked in Jaguars’ fans' memories.

Now, with the offseason here, the NFL draft 16 days away and the team looking to give Gabbert more offensive weapons, the hope is this team will exceed offensive expectations in a passing game that was worst in the NFL and a total offense that ranked at or near the bottom all year.

"I will have a [normal] preseason under my belt. I was here six days last year and then I started against the Patriots in the first preseason game. That was pretty wild, Gabbert said. "Now I have a chance to look back, watch the tape and see what you can improve on."

The best thing for Gabbert to do is come in and show he is worth another look. Quarterbacks are athletes who tend to get more breaks than any other positioned player. And for that reason, he will remain under a microscope in the Jacksonville media, with the fans and the NFL.

But, if he comes out looking like a new player, a leader and not the timid neophyte he once was, this team could have a chance down the road at greatness.

But it will all rest on the shoulders of the quarterback who needs to prove more than anyone on the team that he is a shadow of his former self.