Jaguars owner Shad Khan’s recent comments to the teams star running back Maurice Jones-Drew may have driven a wedge into whatever progress may have been made between Jones-Drew and the team. It was believed that Jones-Drew would end his holdout in time to start the season, but these comments plus those by Head Coach Mike Mularkey that the running back wouldn’t be able to step right back into his feature back role without learning the new playbook (a reasonable request) have left MJD feeling unwanted. In fact the running back responded to Khan’s comments by saying he’s open to being traded. Obviously since he’s still under contract he can’t actively seek a trade without the team’s permission, but at this point it might be the best middle ground.
There are essentially 3 options.
1) Ends the holdout, MJD reports to camp, kicks ass and they can talk about an extension. This seems fairly likely, but it does sort of benefit the Jaguars heavily and sort of invalidates the holdout.
2)MJD Holds out the season [or until he gets a new contract] Obviously the contract solves the problem from Jones-Drew’s perspective, but then it gets into that bad precedent thing, and Khan’s made it pretty clear he’s not ready to open up his checkbook any time soon.
3) The Jaguars start looking for trade partners. It’s pretty unlikely that a deal gets done, but I actually don’t think it’s a horrible idea. If this really is a stalemate situation and MJD won’t play without a contract and the Jaguars won’t give him one…a trade may be best for both sides. As long as the Jags land a high draft pick (and maybe an additional runner to help take pressure off Rashad Jennings.)
At the end of the day Maurice Jones-Drew will likely be playing for the Jags this season and hopefully into the future. The media firestorm makes speculation fun for now, but continued talks with Jaguars GM Gene Smith and hopefully Head Coach Mike Mularkey should smooth things over.
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