USA Today Team Report - JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS

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Inside Slant
The Jaguars are gambling that their medical staff is right about Fred Taylor.
Taylor hasn't practiced since he injured his knee last Dec. 19 in Green Bay and underwent arthroscopic knee surgery in January.

Yet the Jaguars apparently aren't pursuing another veteran running back because the medical staff keeps telling them Taylor will be ready for the start of camp on July 29.

When reports surfaced that the Jaguars had rejected Seahawks' offer of veteran Shaun Alexander for a third round pick, the Jaguars even denied there had been any talks.

Coach Jack Del Rio said, "Unless the janitor called them up, Shack (Harris), Paul Vance and myself have not had any of those types of discussions. Like I said, I think it's the time of year. It's early in June. It's getting into where basketball soon will be over. They call it the dog days of summer. We're getting into those times where it's lean out there. There is not much material out there, and I understand that, but I just don't care to get into continual discussions about people throwing rumors out there to see if it sticks. There is really nothing else to talk about as far as that goes."

Of all the speculation at this time of year, Del Rio said, "I kind of get a kick out of it. It's kind of funny that things like that can be just thrown out there with no factual basis and kind of get regurgitated around the league, almost to the point where you have to defend whether or not it's actually true."

Charles Bailey, the team's pro personnel director, said, "It's a bunch of nonsense. Where do these things get started?"

When Del Rio was asked if there's any interest in a player like Alexander or Travis Henry of Buffalo, he said, "No. We like the group that we have. Shack (Harris), the vice president of player personnel, does a great job keeping me abreast of potential additions to the squad. We review that constantly. I think at this point in the offseason, guys are looking for stories and they throw stuff out there and hope it sticks on the wall. We like the way the guys are working right now."

Del Rio also said, "We have nothing on the burner right now. I hear things once a week at least. People come in and say, "Is this true? I heard this rumor.' We'll let you know if there is anything going on. Right now we're working our squad that's here and they're giving us good hard effort and good attention and that's what we'll continue to focus on."

So the Jaguars seem committed to Taylor and think he'll be back at full speed this year.

If they're right, the Jaguars should have a strong running game.

But if Taylor isn't ready, the Jaguars could have problems running the ball this fall.

NOTES, QUOTES

—Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver is playing a big role in the big market-small market battle over revenue sharing in the league.

Weaver and Dan Rooney, the owner of the Steelers, have proposed a plan where each team would put 34 per cent of their local revenue into a pool that would be shared by all the teams.

But the plan would cost the big market teams like Washington and Dallas millions of dollars.

Weaver, though, points out that the team with the highest revenue (Washington) will make $260 million and the team with the lowest (Arizona) will make only $120 million.

That's a $140 million difference and makes it difficult for the small market teams to compete. Since each team will have player costs of about $103 million this year, Arizona will have just $17 million to run its franchise and will probably lose money.

The Jaguars are in the bottom line and while they're profitable now, they could be going in the red in future years if there's not more sharing of revenue.

The big market teams, though, aren't sympathetic. In a small scale, it's an example of what is going on in the country where the tax cuts for the wealthy have resulted in huge budget deficits. That's not a recipe of success for the NFL is the teams in the bottom third are running in the red.

—The Jaguars, trying to avoid blackouts this year, keep coming up with new ideas to sell tickets.

Now they're got a tie-in with NASCAR.

For $99, a fan can buy ticket to the Pepsi 500 in Daytona Beach on July 2, including coach transportation to the race, and a Jaguar ticket to the season opener against Seattle.

The Jaguars have covered up almost 10,000s seats, but they're still short of selling the 49,000 non-premium seats to lift the blackouts this year.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "We'll take the guys on a bowling trip or a trip to the movie theater. We have a barbecue out here from time to time. So we're doing those types of things to really build the chemistry on the football team. I feel like some of that has really paid off. I think our guys are growing closer and we hope to have that payoff in the fall for us," coach Jack Del Rio on building chemistry on the team.

STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL

FRANCHISE PLAYER: S Donovin Darius.

TRANSITION PLAYER: None.

UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENTS: DE Jason Gildon; DT Matt Leonard.

RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS: None.

EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS FREE AGENTS: None.

PLAYERS RE-SIGNED: RB/KR David Allen; LB Akin Ayodele; S Deke Cooper; WR Troy Edwards; RB Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala; QB Quinn Gray; DT Derrick Ransom; C Brett Romberg; S Nick Sorensen; LS Joe Zelenka.

PLAYERS ACQUIRED: DT Martin Chase; CB Terry Cousin; DE Reggie Hayward; OG Brent Smith; LB Nate Wayne; DE Marcellus Wiley; DT Tony Williams; CB Kenny Wright.

PLAYERS LOST: DE Lionel Barnes; CB Juran Bolden; FB Marc Edwards; LB Tommy Hendricks; DE Elton Patterson; CB Dewayne Washington; OT Bob Whitfield; OT Sammy Williams.