Well, here’s a bit of good news for Blaine Gabbert on this wildly busy morning for the Jaguars.
Chris Mortensen of ESPN.com reports that Jaguars G.M. Gene Smith got a new three-year contract from owner Wayne Weaver.
So the Jaguars have fired their coach, the team has been sold, and the general manager got a new contract.
It looks like Weaver wanted to set Smith up for the future as one of his last acts as team owner. Smith has drafted fairly well the last few years, but he also talked about a three-year plan pointing to the 2011 season. It hasn’t gone well.
Smith will presumably have a big voice in choosing the next head coach. It’s safe to say, then, that the Jaguars won’t be going after some of the big names without jobs like Bill Cowher that would want personnel control.
It will be interesting to see if Smith essentially picks a head coach with an eye on developing Gabbert or whether he’ll let the coach bring in other quarterback options. Sticking with Gabbert too long could hamstring the next Jaguars coach.