Threesome in Jacksonville QB Race, Another Surgery for Gronk

With Shahid Kahn as the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, he’s looking for bigger and better things from his team. One place that needs immediate help is at quarterback.

This week, the team picked up back up Mike Kafka after the New England Patriots let him go to make room for the arrival of quarterback Tim Tebow. Kafka now makes a Jaguars quarterback trio all trying for the starting role and his new general manager David Caldwell thinks he’s a legitimate contender, according to ESPN‘s Paul Kuharsky.

Mike Kafka

He wrote: “In 2011, when Caldwell was part of the Falcons front office, he saw the best of Kafka’s limited NFL work. Michael Vick got hurt, Kafka took over for him and the Eagles and hit on 7-of-9 passes for 72 yards in a game Philadelphia lost 35-31. Caldwell said Kafka’s got ‘just as good an opportunity’ to win the job as Gabbert, Chad Henne or undrafted rookie Matt Scott.”

For Kafka, this was the last time he had a stat line and it included 11 of 16, 107 yards, zero touchdowns and two picks. He’ll need to shake off some rust.

So what about Gabbert and Henne, the other players in the threesome?

Gabbert was drafted by the Jaguars in 2011 but got injured in 2012. He got off to a rough start in his rookie season when he was sacked 40 times (third highest in the league) with 14 fumbles (top of the league) and a 50.8% pass completion rate (second lowest in the NFL for quarterbacks with 200-plus attempts).

Looking for improvement in 2012, he got off to a good start in the season’s regular opener against the Minnesota Vikings with his career-high 260 passing yards and two touchdowns but by November he was on the team’s injured reserve list due to a torn labrum.

Enter Chad Henne.

He finished out the season for the team, which ended with a 2-14 record with 2,084 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Former coach Mike Mularkey is a fan and this week tipped his hat to Henne as his starter of choice but it doesn’t mean much as he is no longer with team.

Kafka rounds out the trio as well as rookie Matt Scott and undrafted Jordan Rogers as the fifth quarterback on the team. He’s been out recovering from a sports-hernia surgery but he’ll be ready for camp.

This week as the Jaguars finished their OTAs and await training camp, the quarterback competition is still open. Caldwell said via The Associated Press, “We don’t feel there’s much of a rush. When it presents itself and we feel good about it, that somebody’s the flat-out winner, we’ll do it. We’ve got to go through camp and some preseason games to figure it out.”

As for the Jaguars, they sit with a 2013 regular season win total at 5 (115 o/u).

Gronkowski to Undergo Back Surgery

Rob Gronkowski

It’s been an offseason full of surgery for the New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski and it’s not over yet.

On Tuesday, the player will undergo back surgery. This comes after the story broke last month that Gronkowski would again go under the knife. This surgery will represent his fifth one since November, beginning with one on his left forearm that grew into four.

Back in February 2012, he also had ankle surgery.

His timetable to return is open for this upcoming season and it’s becoming a concern for the Patriots. An expected recovery time for this type of surgery is 12 weeks, reported ESPN. Doing some math, that has Gronkowski out for training camp and for the team’s Sept. 8 opener against the Buffalo Bills, which falls on Week 11.

Can you say tight end Tebow?

The Patriots have an 11 1/2 over (-105) under (-125) for this year’s regular season win total. To win the Super Bowl, Bovada has them at +800.