Why Blaine Gabbert Doesn't Have Help in the Jacksonville Jaguars Receiving Corps

R. Jay Soward, Matt Jones, Reggie Williams and Jerry Porter.

Four names that cause the Jacksonville Jaguars brass to lie awake at night. They are demons from the past. Players associated with failure of past drafts and free agency moves.

They are part of the reason for the lack of success in the Jacksonville Jaguars passing game today.

It’s not fair to place all the blame of four former players who are long gone from the Jaguars roster, but looking forward and the state of the receiving corps now, it would appear mistakes of the past have led the current Jaguars management to take a different approach to filling their roster.

And with a rookie quarterback who looks like a high school passer at times, this is not a good thing for him to have to handle.

The Jacksonville Jaguars did their best to solidify a leaking defense by bringing in big names like Paul Posluszny, Clint Session, Matt Roth and Dawan Landry. They also added Drew Coleman and Dwight Lowery.

The receiving corps wasn’t addressed until Chastin West was signed off Green Bay’s practice squad and free agency brought in Mike Sims-Walker and Brian Robiskie. Cecil Shorts was a fourth-round pick and he has not been a factor in the passing game and has hurt the return game to some extent.

The Jaguars never took a shot at a good free agent group of Lance Moore, Steve Smith, James Jones and Sidney Rice among others. Somehow, this team thought its pass catchers were on par with other units in the NFL.

They were wrong. The Jaguars are currently ranked last in passing offense and second to last in scoring offense.

Jaguars general manager, Gene Smith, is not the kind of general manager to take a chance with bigger named talent and relies on smaller college talent to fill voids with this team. While he as not part of the drafts that brought in first-round receivers in the past, he has had a name in drafting Tiquan Underwood, Shorts and Jarrett Dillard.

He also brought back Sims-Walker this year and has remained steadfast in making Mike Thomas the team’s leader in the slot.

This team is a decade removed from Jimmy Smith, Keenan McCardell and Mark Brunell being one of the top five pass/catch combinations.

None of these receivers on this team were in college yet when those three played together.

Next year’s draft could bring a receiver to the mix early and often. Alshon Jeffery, Justin Blackmon, Michael Floyd and T.Y. Hilton all could help this team. All could start right away. All are better than what the Jaguars have right now.

Blaine Gabbert needs more targets, better targets to get the kinks out of his system. The Jaguars cannot rely on Jason Hill and Chastin West to save this team when it is third-and-long. Star power is needed to revitalize the team and a fan base that is clamoring for a big-name deep threat.

Until then, living in mediocrity will just have to do. And until then, no receiver will come south of Atlanta to see if the team as well as the weather is to their liking.