Note: Draft season is upon us, for the best draft party have your draft at B-Dubs! Players receive food & drink specials plus a free draft kit. Sign up HERE today!
Last season the Jaguars finished 3-13, ranked 20th in passing, 22nd in rushing and 30th in turnovers with 16 more turnovers lost than gained.
Could they somehow be worse this year?
The knee-jerk reaction following two preseason games is that the Jaguars don't have a quarterback solution in Blake Bortles. They do have a running back solution in Leonard Fournette, but he's banged up these days and will be forced to work behind an offensive line that, after looking decent last week, couldn't run block at all against Tampa Bay.
Is this just a typical preseason freak-out or are the Jaguars headed toward becoming a Fantasy Football wasteland?
Fournette looked good in the second week of the preseason. He was in a nice white polo shirt, beard was tight, head clean shaven, watching the game from a press box at Everbank Stadium.
He wasn't on the field because he hurt his foot at some point last week, though he didn't look hurt in the preseason game against the Patriots. Coach Doug Marrone said the problem was "something that's been kind of growing" and was simply being cautious with his first-round pick.
It makes us harken back to Fournette's 2016 season at LSU when he missed five games with a left ankle issue that, at the time, was called "reoccurring." There's no telling if his current injury is related to his previous injuries, but clearly the ailment was bad enough to hold him out of a week's worth of practices and the preseason game versus Tampa Bay.
What magnifies Fournette's situation is the lack of consistent run blocking from the Jaguars O-line. While it looked good last week against the Patriots' backups, the unit struggled mightily against the Buccaneers' first- and second-string defense. Rare were the rush lanes for T.J. Yeldon and Chris Ivory to run through.
Putting together these puzzle pieces might lead Fantasy owners to pass on Fournette. He's not healthy, though the severity is unknown. His O-line as it stands now won't help him glide to monstrous gains too often. And it's not like the Jaguars will play with the lead and give way for Fournette to rack up a slew of 20-carry games.
All that without mentioning the ludicrous idea of him having to split reps with Yeldon and Ivory, which is apparently a thing in Marrone's world.
Grinding out 1,000 yards and seven touchdowns? Yeah, that's doable. But a year like Ezekiel Elliott had as a rookie? Not happening. Heck, Elliott in 10 games might out-produce Fournette in 16 (or however many he suits up for). Think of Fournette as more of a No. 2 Fantasy running back than a No. 1 stud.
Maybe the Jaguars passing game will help ease pressure on the run game.
Uhh ... maybe not.
Marrone made it clear following the second preseason matchup that Henne will have a chance to earn the starting job from Bortles. That simply means Henne will be given every chance to start Week 1 against the Texans.
A lot of the same problems Bortles had in 2016 resurfaced this preseason. Although the offense is now tailored to keep Bortles from holding on to the football for too long, he's still not accurate enough to be effective. And although he's not as sloppy with his mechanics, he's still not efficient enough.
Make no mistake, Henne is not a great quarterback. But judging from the first two preseason games, he's more prepared to run the Jaguars offense effectively than Bortles. Henne was very good with his accuracy -- three of his incompletions against Tampa Bay were drops. His worst throw was an overshot of Allen Robinson in the end zone.
But that was Henne in a preseason game. With a career 59.3 completion percentage and a 58-to-63 touchdown-to-interception ratio, we know he's not a difference-maker at quarterback. Henne is and will be a game manager, someone who will take care of the ball and not take a lot of chances. That seems to be a lot better than whatever it is Bortles has been for the Jaguars.
Not that you're starting these guys in Fantasy. But you might start this one ...
Once upon a time, Robinson turned 151 targets into 80 catches, 1,400 yards and 14 touchdowns. He was beloved.
Then came 2016. And Robinson had 151 targets again! But his stats were Bortl-ized as he caught seven fewer passes for a painful 517 drop in yards and eight fewer scores.
What happened? Robinson lost his big-play abilities, registering only 11 receptions of 20-plus yards and one measly 40-plus-yard play. By comparison, teammate Marqise Lee was more explosive and efficient last year, finishing 10 catches, 32 yards and three touchdowns shy of matching Robinson's stats despite getting nearly 50 fewer targets.
Robinson can't win with Bortles and his backward-trending ways, and he won't be able to reclaim his previous career-bests with Henne, who has only helped one receiver produce 1,000 yards (Brandon Marshall, 2010) and another more than five touchdowns (Cecil Shorts, seven, 2012).
It's too bad, because Robinson is a genuinely talented receiver. You can't but notice the sudden nature of his comeback routes, and his size is obvious. But as blessed as he is to have a great skill set, he's also just as cursed to be stuck with bad quarterbacks.
Expect another sub-1,000-yard season from Robinson with modest touchdowns. If you can't draft him as a No. 3 Fantasy receiver, don't draft him at all.
