Scouting Report
1 -
Jacksonville Jaguars
Enough with all the expansion-team
talk. The linebacking corps is strong, and so,
rightfully, are the team's Super Bowl
aspirations
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Hardy could very well be playing on the last Sunday in
January if he puts his sophomore slump behind
him. (Daman Strohmeyer) | The house was
not a happy place, not even for a second. In the living
room Joan McManus barked repeatedly at the TV set. Tom, her
son, could hardly glance at the screen. The two would
alternate primal yells with blank looks of disbelief. They
would have a hopeful
thought, then watch it vanish with yet another Terrell Davis
dagger.
Broncos 7-0. Broncos 14-0. Broncos 21-0. Finally, Broncos
42-17.
When all was said and done, when the brutal fate was
sealed, mother and son got up, shook off the potato-chip
crumbs and left Joan's Jacksonville home. The Jaguars had
been obliterated in last December's AFC wild-card playoff
game, run over by a Denver
offense that rushed for 310 yards and passed for another
201. There was one place Tom, Jacksonville's injured middle
linebacker, and his mom needed to go. The nearest
bar—and step on
it.
"I wanted to forget
that game as quickly
as possible," says
McManus, who missed all of last season with a torn anterior
cruciate ligament in his right knee. "Just the year
before, we had played Denver in the playoffs and beaten
them. I was in that game. Watching it this time on TV was
the most miserable
experience of my life. Mom's
too."
McManus didn't forget. He clutched the pain of that
horrible winter night, and he has refused to let go. So,
for that matter, have most of his teammates. "We just
got it handed to us," says defensive tackle John
Jurkovic. "Sometimes that can make you
stronger." The Jaguars
are stronger, much stronger. With the return of McManus and a
healthy Kevin
Hardy, plus the signing of free agent Bryce Paup, Jacksonville
has transformed its glaring Achilles'
heel—consistent linebacker play—into a strength. The
upgrade is a final step in completing the organization's
rapid-fire boost from fuzzy little expansion
club to feared Super Bowl contender. "If we just make
the playoffs again," says tight end Pete Mitchell,
"most guys here will be let down. Our
aspirations are extremely
high."
Everyone knows that coach Tom Coughlin's offense, seventh
in the league last season, can blow up scoreboards. Mark
Brunell is one of the game's top quarterbacks. Keenan
McCardell and Jimmy Smith are a dynamic duo of pass
catchers. The line consists of
five oxen. If James Stewart does most of the running, he
will gain 1,000 yards. If rookie Fred Taylor does most of
the running, he will gain 1,000
yards.
The defense, on the other
hand....
Coughlin plays a swarming,
ball-hawking, blitzing 4-3 that requires linebackers to attack
on first instinct. With great athletes there should be mass
chaos near the line of scrimmage. As last season wore on,
the Jaguars had neither great athletes nor
mass chaos. Hardy, the team's defensive cornerstone, sprained
the medial collateral ligament in his left knee on Oct. 19
against the Cowboys. He missed the next three games and
didn't play well after that. The other starters, Bryan
Schwartz and Eddie
Robinson, were blah. Jacksonville was adequate against the run
but 24th in the NFL in pass defense. Super Bowl teams don't
rank 24th against the
pass.
| Schedule |
| Sept. | 6 at Chicago |
| 13 KANSAS CITY |
| 20 BALTIMORE |
| 27 at Tennessee |
| Oct. | 4 OPEN DATE |
| 12 MIAMI (Mon.) |
| 18 at Buffalo |
| 25 at Denver |
| Nov. | 1 at Baltimore |
| 8 CINCINNATI |
| 15 TAMPA BAY |
| 22 at Pittsburgh |
| 29 at Cincinnati |
| Dec. | 6 DETROIT |
| 13 TENNESSEE |
| 20 at Minnesota |
| 28 PITTSBURGH (Mon.) |
|
|
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Enter Paup. Some say that signing a banged-up 30-year-old
to romp through Jacksonville's hellish heat is foolish.
Some said the lightbulb was a bad idea. Paup has slowed in
recent years. He will never come close to the
17 1/2 sacks he had as the
AFC Defensive Player of the
Year with the Bills in '95 and may not even reach double
figures. Fine. Paup is smart, strong and, age be damned,
one hell of a presence. "Bryce Paup isn't just an
All-Pro," says
McManus. "He's someone we can look to for leadership.
He's seen stuff some of
us never
have."
Paup didn't see what Hardy saw last season, which was rip
after rip in the newspapers. When he was taken out of
Illinois with the second pick in the '96 draft, Hardy was
hyped as a Lawrence Taylor in teal. In his first season he
didn't disappoint; he
had
5 1/2 sacks and 130 tackles and was named to the All-Rookie
team. Then came the injury and his subpar
return. "Watching myself on game tape, I could tell I
wasn't myself," Hardy says. "I was dragging my
leg. I didn't have that full range of motion. That
was a
problem."
Now, he says, it is not. Hardy has been switched from the
strong side to the weak side, which will allow him more
freedom. Paup, playing both linebacker and defensive end,
will rush the quarterback nonstop. Schwartz, McManus and
Robinson will all play
multiple minutes. "In college I always took pride in
being part of the country's best linebacking unit,"
says Hardy. "I'm getting the same feeling
here."
Maybe that's overstating things. But
McManus—and his mom—will happily drink to the
idea.
—Jeff
Pearlman
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