By CHARLIE BERNSTEIN
FOXSportsFlorida.com / JagNation.com Editor
The Jaguars concluded their 2010 season with a 34-17 loss to the Houston Texans to officially knock the team out of playoff contention.
Jacksonville will enter this offseason with more questions than answers, as Jaguars fans saw a team which controlled its own playoff destiny three weeks ago drop their final three games of the season.
The big question that Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver will have to answer is if he has the right leader for his football team. Jack Del Rio just completed his eighth season at the helm of the Jaguars with very marginal results. Del Rio has a 65-63 record during his tenure with Jacksonville with no division titles and just one playoff victory.
Although Del Rio's results have been utterly mediocre, he only has so much to work with. Injuries and poor drafting left the team with one of the worst pass defenses in football and no legitimate answer at quarterback.
"There's no question in my mind I think anybody that has studied football understands we are absolutely squeezing the very most out of this football team," Del Rio explained. "We've been able to do that despite being right in the middle of a rebuild."
What's most disturbing about the Jaguars end of the season flop is that it has become far too routine. Jacksonville has won just four of 15 games in December or beyond over the past three seasons and have ended the last three years with losing streaks of two, four and three games respectively.
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I don't think we've reached that point," Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver said prior to this season.
Whether Del Rio is the Jaguars head coach next season or someone else, they must improve the personnel if the team is going to legitimately compete for more than three quarters of a season.
Quarterback David Garrard will be 33 years old next month and remains an enigma as he is one of the most inconsistent signal callers in football. Garrard has all the physical ability any team would desire, but continues to make rookie mistakes, even in his ninth year in the NFL.
"There are 32 teams, how many of those 32 would say they have a guy that's going to take them all the way? That number is really small," Jaguars offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter said of Garrard.
In five years as the team's starting quarterback, Garrard has posted just one winning season. With a salary figure north of $8 million for next year, it's likely the team can receive similar production from a younger player with more upside at a discounted cost.
Defensively, Jacksonville looked like a team in the midst of rebuilding as they were lacking talent and experience at key positions. Once Aaron Kampman went down with a season-ending knee injury, the Jaguars struggled to find a pass rush and finished the season tied 30th in the NFL in sacks one year after finishing 32nd.
It's unlikely that any of the Jaguars linebackers aside from Daryl Smith are retained, and the team's secondary was a major weakness all year long.
It's not all doom and gloom, as with an 8-8 season there were certainly some great things that happened to the franchise in 2010.
First and foremost, the Jaguars made it through their home schedule with no games blacked out, meaning all of their games were shown on local television.This was just one season after seven of their eight home games were dark.
The Jaguars also saw some playmakers emerge offensively, as tight end Marcedes Lewis matched a Jaguars franchise record with 10 touchdown receptions, earning him a Pro Bowl selection. Maurice Jones-Drew was amongst the NFL leaders in rushing before a knee injury claimed his final two games of the season.
Jones-Drew was still selected as the AFC's starting running back for the Pro Bowl. Second-year wide receiver Mike Thomas emerged as a reliable pass catcher and had 820 yards receiving, the most by a Jaguar since Jimmy Smith in 2005.
Although the Jaguars suffered through yet another late-season collapse, the team was in playoff contention until the last day of the regular season. Before the beginning of the year, plenty of Jaguars fans would have signed up for an 8-8 season in 2010 following two consecutive last-place finishes.
Unfortunately, the bitter taste of a three-game losing streak will be what resonates all offseason for this team and their fans.
With what is expected to be a tougher schedule next year, the Jaguars will have to get more talented personnel and get younger at the quarterback position if they are going to eventually improve on their recent string of mediocrity.
