The big story out of Jaguars General Manager David Caldwell’s introduction to the media was his firm statement that Donald Duck has as much chance of being a member of the Jaguars this season as Tim Tebow.
Tebow wasn’t the only quarterback who came up for discussion, though. Blaine Gabbert, who finished his second season with the Jaguars on injured reserve and didn’t do much to encourage confidence that he was the man for the future before that, was also on Caldwell’s list of talking points. Caldwell plans to have four quarterbacks on the roster in camp and said there would be an open competition for the quarterback job, but said that wasn’t something to interpret as writing off Gabbert altogether.
“He is still young. He’s had two different offensive coordinators in his first two years. Get a coach in here and get some sustainability for him. I think it’s important to see what he can do. Look at some quarterbacks. It takes maybe more than two years, three or four years. He came out as a junior and he’s a very young quarterback and he still has a lot of upside,” Caldwell said, via the Florida Times-Union. “I always thought Blaine was going to be a long-term project when he came out anyway. I studied him when he came out and he came out from the spread offense. I felt like it was going to be a longer process for him. Look at the quarterbacks like Matt Ryan and Peyton Manning, they spent a full five years in college. Blaine should be a rookie coming out this year. Let’s work with him.”
There’s a long time between now and camp, to say nothing of the start of the season, so any plans are in their infancy at this point. Gabbert may yet wind up being passed over, but it sounds like he’ll get another chance or two to prove himself before the new Jaguars regime is convinced they have to pull the plug.