Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times Union mentions that the “in-house feeling” is that the Jaguars will offer impending free agent QB Chad Henne a new contract at some point this offseason.
Even so, Henne appears to be well aware of the fact that the Jaguars will likely be looking to another quarterback in either the free agent market or next year’s NFL draft.
“Absolutely, there’s no doubt about it,” Henne said. “All of the things that went on, the outcome obviously isn’t what we wanted, winning only four games, but the second half of the season, we did get better and do some really good things.”
Henne, 28, would be a serviceable backup for Jacksonville, considering that he spent most of the season as their starter, even though Blaine Gabbert was healthy enough to play. It’s hard to say what kind of market he’ll have come March, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that backup-caliber quarterbacks could see their value increase to some degree.
Blaine Gabbert
As for Blaine Gabbert, he expects to be back to finish out the final year of his rookie contract.
“I don’t want to be anywhere else,” Gabbert said, via the Florida Times Union. “I plan on being back and competing for the job.”
Gabbert was benched in favor of Henne after he suffered a few injuries, but the fact that he was never given another shot at starting really speaks for itself.
He was asked if he could seek a trade out of Jacksonville this offseason.
“No, that’s a ridiculous question to ask,” Gabbert said. “I’ll be here [April 21] when we start over and go through the off-season program with the same coach.”
Gabbert, 24, has a $2.011 million base salary in 2014, but there is a chance that the Jaguars could ultimately cut him loose and look for a better option elsewhere. I can’t imagine any NFL team would be willing to part with a draft pick, even a late-rounder, in return for Gabbert.
On Tuesday, GM Dave Caldwell told reports that he expects TE Marcedes Lewis to be being back next season.
There was some speculation that Lewis could be a cap casualty as his cap figure for 2014 will be a rather sizable $8.25 million. Although, Jacksonville shouldn’t exactly be all that concerned with available cap space given that they are projected to have close to $59 million, according to Overthecap.com.
Lewis, , played in only 11 games this season, which of course led to decreased production across the board. He did manage to catch 25 passes for 359 and four touchdowns this season.
He has two years remaining on his five-year, $35 million contract that included $17 million guaranteed.
Jaguars GM Dave Caldwell also mentioned that he also expects MLB Paul Posluszny to be back with the team next season.
Posluszny, 29, is a similar situation to Lewis in that he too will have a high cap figure ($9.5 million) in 2014.
Although, Posluszny was much productive the season as he tallied 161 tackles and recorded three sacks and nine pass defenses. While the tackles are impressive, Pro Football Focus has Posluszny rated as the No. 42 qualifying inside linebacker this season with a negative rating of -11.5.
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