Jacksonville Jaguars: Left Tackle? Check. Wide Receiver? Check. Fan Base? Blank.

When Gene Smith received the call from Wayne Weaver, owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, informing him that he would be replacing Shaq Harris as the General Manager, Gene knew that he had a lot of work ahead of him.

A dismal 5-11 year was fresh on the minds of the players and the fans, and it was very apparent that this was not the team that many had envisioned them to be just a few months prior.

There were major player gaps that needed to be filled, coaches that needed to be replaced, and players that had to go, regardless of the financial repercussions. How did Gene respond?

He started by cleaning house, quickly cutting Jerry Porter, Drayton Florence, Fred Taylor, Paul Spicer, Mike Petterson, and anyone else he felt didn't fit the Jaguars mold of a team-first attitude or could be used to rebuild for the future.

These aggressive moves had the fans cheering and scratching their heads at the same time. But the real question on the fans' minds was still what Gene was going to do in free agency and the draft.

Jaguar fans would say that they know a thing or two about disappointing free agent signings and first-round draft picks.

With the previous year's recent signing of free agents such as wide receiver Jerry Porter, who was paid just over 10 million dollars to catch 11 passes for 181 yards with one touchdown, the fans knew that free agency was not the way to build your team of the future.

Everyone put faith in Gene to build the team through the draft as he repeatedly said was his intention. However, some fans scoffed that this notion as well, realizing that 3 out of Jacksonville's last 6 first round draft picks had been cut from the team. Notice I said cut, not traded. What was to follow?

Gene and his staff broke down the roster and spotted the obvious weaknesses that needed long-term solutions.

The offensive line, which two years prior had allowed the Jaguars to have one of the most dominating running games in the NFL, had been completely decimated by injuries and obviously needed vast improvement.

This improvement would have to include the replacement of released left tackle Kalif Barns, who really struggled protecting quarterback David Garrard's blind side. For the fifth year in a row, the Jaguars sorely needed help at wide receiver.

Even with the free agent signing of veteran Torry Holt, the Jaguars knew that they were a mere small knee injury away from having Dennis Northcut and injury-prone Mike Walker as their starting two wide receivers.

As the final pick in the draft passed, the Jaguars had accomplished exactly what Gene Smith and Jack Del Rio set out to do. Picking two dominating left tackles with their first two picks, including Eugene Monroe who some thought to be the No. 1 overall tackle in the draft, the Jags locked up their bookends on the offensive line for a decade to come.

They also used three other picks to acquire speedy, sure-handed wide receivers to compete for the number two and three slots on the team. Everything was looking up for the Jaguars. Player weak spots were strengthened, locker room issues were gone, exciting new talent was arriving. 

But there was one major hole still missing in Jacksonville. Where were the fans? Correction... Where ARE the fans?

The following quote was taken from Jacksonville.com regarding ticket sales for upcoming 2009 season:

The Jaguars may be forced to blackout most, if not all, eight regular season home games on TV. The Jaguars need to sell 50,000 non-premium seats at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium to lift the blackout, but they're not close to that figure after finishing their season ticket renewal campaign.

Tim Connolly, the team's senior vice president for business administration, declined to release the figure of how many non-premium seats they've sold, but a league source put the figure in the 35,000-range. "It's going to be challenging," Connolly said.

Fifty thousand seats?! Despite trying to turn the team around, the fans just aren't buying in.

Blame it on the economy, blame it on the lack of star playmakers, blame it on the small market, blame it on anything you want, but the truth of the matter is that it appears that the Jaguars may be on the fast path to moving cities-but not because Wayne Weaver wants to sell the team.

Let me explain. Mr. Weaver has very strong ties in Jacksonville and really loves the city he fought so hard to bring an NFL team to. But, how much money can he afford to give away?

With cities such as Los Angeles sitting back licking their chops for the opportunity to steal an established NFL team away from a small market city, it would be pretty hard to pass up the opportunity to move a team that couldn't sell out one home game in a season of great potential. So what can Jacksonville do?

How do you get the fans in the door? Jacksonville already hosts some of the lowest prices in the country for an NFL game experience. Prices therefore are not the issue. There is only one thing that will bring fans into the seats and that's winning ball games.

Gene Smith has done everything he has said he would so far, but the only way that anyone will see the results is if his work puts a W in the win column. Is it shallow of Jacksonville fans to only support a winning team? Maybe. But sadly, that's just how it appears.

If the team comes out and shows that they are once again the team that the fans fell in love with just two seasons ago, then Gene will be able to sit back and place a check in the box next to "Fan Base." Has he done enough? I guess we will all sit back and watch... during away games that is.