Jaguars radio guy fawning over the Ravens

[bensmotorcyclehelmt]

It all starts with the owner having a little bit of patience.
Finding the right GM and coach is duifficult. But expecting anyone to turn around a franchise in 2 years makes a difficult job near impossible. Cleveland has been wretched because of a lack of patience. They have changed coaches and directions a dozen times in the past decade.
I'm convinced if they would find a good (not even great) GM and coach, and give them a solid 5-7 years, they could be back in the playoff hunt. Tennesee never had a great coach or GM, but was able to do decent from time to time because they gave Fischer (who I consider good, not great) time to be successful and implement their plan.

[somedumbguy]

It has never been lost on me that Steve Biscotti made his money building and running a staffing company. He knows how to conduct an interview for a position and find the right person. He understands that GM's, coaches and scouts who evaluate the on the field talent make a difference. He has done what he needed to do to keep Ozzie happy. He has done what he needed to do to keep DeCosta happy and insure continuity when Ozzie retires. When coaching jobs open, the press always looks at high profile re-tread coaches and the hot college guys. Biscotti's talent is that he was able to determine that a special teams coach with no coordinator experience had the skills to be a head coach and he trusted his instincts enough to hire him. I think Biscotti's business experience as essentially an HR person gives him an advantage over a lot of other owners.

[GOTA]

It has never been lost on me that Steve Biscotti made his money building and running a staffing company. He knows how to conduct an interview for a position and find the right person. He understands that GM's, coaches and scouts who evaluate the on the field talent make a difference. He has done what he needed to do to keep Ozzie happy. He has done what he needed to do to keep DeCosta happy and insure continuity when Ozzie retires. When coaching jobs open, the press always looks at high profile re-tread coaches and the hot college guys. Biscotti's talent is that he was able to determine that a special teams coach with no coordinator experience had the skills to be a head coach and he trusted his instincts enough to hire him. I think Biscotti's business experience as essentially an HR person hives him an advantage over a lot of other owners.

That's an excellent point. It also explains why Steve Bisciotti was willing to learn under Art Modell for years. He knew that he could learn the business from Art even though he might have wanted to just jump in. Steve Bisciotti has been about as smart an owner as you will find in professional sports.

[Greg]

I wish the best for the Jags, but they just don't have the foundation built to ever be like the Ravens IMO. Its really hard to build a team in the salary cap era without mass spending in one offseason like what the Phins did which is never a really good solution and can lead to major issues down the line.

Disagree. 2 or 3 really good drafts can change things in a hurry.

That is the hard part. Spending in FA is the fool's way to try and change a franchise. FA should be for supplemental players, not your way to find game changers.

[leachisabeast]

Disagree. 2 or 3 really good drafts can change things in a hurry.

That is the hard part. Spending in FA is the fool's way to try and change a franchise. FA should be for supplemental players, not your way to find game changers.

Jacksonville are more than 2 or 3 draft picks away from competing in the AFC South. They have a hole in nearly every position, and their QB totally sucks. Its not easy to find a decent QB let alone a franchise QB, and there isn't much talent in this years class of QBs.

[jonboy79]

Jacksonville are more than 2 or 3 draft picks away from competing in the AFC South. They have a hole in nearly every position, and their QB totally sucks. Its not easy to find a decent QB let alone a franchise QB, and there isn't much talent in this years class of QBs.

Greg did say 2-3 drafts, which can equal 10-15 playrs...

They have a LT, a RB and... not much else. They had a NT but he went to Denver. They may hve a WR, kind of have a TE...

So yeah, they need 10-15 players, which can possibly come in 2-3 drafts.

[Raveninwoodlawn]

Disagree. 2 or 3 really good drafts can change things in a hurry.

That is the hard part. Spending in FA is the fool's way to try and change a franchise. FA should be for supplemental players, not your way to find game changers.

In the long run, it won't matter much unless they hit on a QB.

When you look back at our teams from 2001-2007, we routinely had good drafts and had 3 HOF players in or near their prime for most of those years and we still were inconsistent from year to year and never honestly looked like a Super Bowl team with the exception of the 2006 year with McNair. Our QB play was pretty bad and that capped our ceiling.

You have to get a good QB if you have any hopes of getting to and staying in that upper tier of teams.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[AirFlacco]

But where are they gonna find a franchise QB. They thought they had one with Leftwich.

Tags wanted to put teams in the Sunbelt because it's big on college football with the best
conference in the country - the SEC.

But he didn't know the prob in Jax is that most of the people there are transplants from around
the country either old retireees form up north or people moving there with their companies.

Nobody in Jax is from Jax-lol. They all root for their home town teams and go to games when
they visit the Jags. Opposing colors always dominate the old Gator Bowl.

Tags showed a map taken at night of the east coast from outer space. You could see every street light lit up from Florida to Main. The entire east coast was lit up. But the further west you go the less lights there were. Just some dots in St Louis, Cinci and Kansas City. Past there it was
completely dark til you get to Denver and nothing til California.

Over 50% of the country is in 2.9% of its land mass so Tags thought he had something in
JAX with all the lights lit up but didn't know they were all college fans and transplants from
around the country.

He put a team in Charlotte because the Nations Bank lent the NFL the money for replacement teams during the strike in the 80s which broke the union's back with the promise that the NFL would put a team in Charlotte and they did. Bank of America bought out that bank.

[Ravenboy2003]

Jacksonville is full of rednecks who sell out the Jags stadium with 80,000+ for Monster Truck Madness but can't put 50k a week in the seats for NFL games. They tarp 12,000 seats and then the owner buys the remaining tickets and calls the games sellouts when they are far from it.

As for Jax and how far away they are, who knows.. I think Blackmon will be a damned good receiver. Reminds me of a young T.O. And Cecil Shorts is a really talented guy who caught a lot of passes last season. So at WR I'd say they are close. If MJD stays healthy he's a great RB.. But they do need a franchise QB.. and their defense is like a block of swiss cheese.

They are a couple years away at minimum.

[Ravenboy2003]

BTW, how much did the Rams get? I wonder why the kid wanted to sell.

The Rams had just been valued at around $900 million when Georgia died. Chip and his wife were stuck with a massive estate tax bill on the 60% that Georgia owned. They couldn't come close to paying the tax bill without selling their stock in the team.

Kroenke paid somewhere around $500 million to take over controlling interest. He also agreed to sell off the Avalanche and Nuggets within 5 years of buying the Rams. He still owns all 3 teams and rumors are he will fight the NFL next year when the time comes for him to be rid of his other two franchises.

[Real Fan Dan]

Jacksonville is full of rednecks who sell out the Jags stadium with 80,000+ for Monster Truck Madness but can't put 50k a week in the seats for NFL games. They tarp 12,000 seats and then the owner buys the remaining tickets and calls the games sellouts when they are far from it.

This was certainly true when I went there in 2000. When I went there for that terrible goat-rope of a game in 2011 the stadium was pretty full - although there were a lot of Ravens fans there lol!

That game sure sucked. But at least the Jags Fans sing our National Anthem (the only good thing about that game :grbac:). Pretty funny actually. All the Jacksonville Fans are singing the Star Spangled Banner, and the Baltimore Fans (you know the ones who are from the town where the Banner was written ) are dumbass silent, except when they yelled "O!" which was a bit muffled because most of the fans in the stadium were singing the National Anthem lol!

[Greg]

Jacksonville are more than 2 or 3 draft picks away from competing in the AFC South. They have a hole in nearly every position, and their QB totally sucks. Its not easy to find a decent QB let alone a franchise QB, and there isn't much talent in this years class of QBs.

Who said picks? I said drafts, which means several picks. In 2 or 3 seasons things change dramatically in the NFL.