Maurice Jones-Drew isn't the player fans want on their favorite NFL team, even if they don't realize that yet.
Once Jones-Drew said he would be open to a trade, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter, the idea that he could be headed toward [insert team here] flooded the web. Twitter exploded with ideas that he could be headed to places like Detroit, New England, Washington or to the New York Jets. Fans clamored to check for available cap space and assets to trade to Jacksonville so MJD could wear a new jersey.
It's just not happening, and if you're lucky, it won't happen to your team.
It's difficult to really look at the situation and begrudge Jones-Drew. The market played him like a fool after restructuring his deal a few years ago. He's not in the top five highest-paid backs, and he's clearly a top-five talent.
He's also the cornerstone of the Jaguars franchise, and it has run him into the ground in the past. At 27, with his wear and tear, he doesn't have a whole lot of great football left, and he wants to maximize his earnings while he's on top.
That's business.
Meanwhile, the Jaguars have a pretty unenviable position as well. They've given Jones-Drew a ton of money, and they expect him to honor his contract. They've got other fish to fry as they assemble a more well-rounded team, and they want their running back to play ball on the contract he negotiated in 2009.
It's not their fault other teams have been foolish in negotiations; they made him one of the highest-paid backs three years www.nikeeaglesnflstore.com/87_brent_celek_jersey_authentic_black_limited_cheap.html ago, and that should be enough.
That's business, too.
Football is a business as much as fans like to complain that it should be "just a game." Billions of dollars change hands every season, and it's up to every player and owner to get what they believe to be their fair share. Every year, negotiations like this happen, and every year, fans get upset because "there just isn't any loyalty anymore."
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Yet, owners will do the same thing to both players and fans at the first sign of new revenue streams.
A player who doesn't perform up to his contract (or gets injured) gets cut. Contracts are a two-way street in theory, but a one-way street in practice. Stadium leases are just as flimsy, as owners constantly place pressure on cities and taxpayers to fund bigger and better stadiums and practice facilities.
There are no good guys and bad guys in negotiations. This is just how business works, and that's the reality of football. Both Jones-Drew and the Jaguars are doing their jobs right now, even if it's causing angst among the fans.
So, now that the two sides have entrenched themselves even further, fans of 31 other teams want to know if Jones-Drew could be headed their way.
NFL fans, you don't want that.
The highest-paid backs in the NFL are Adrian Peterson, Chris Johnson, LeSean McCoy, Arian Foster, Steven Jackson, DeAngelo Williams and Marshawn Lynch. Only one of those backs, Foster, plays for a team that was in the playoffs in 2011.
This is a salary cap-driven league, and paying a running back a lion's share of that cap space is almost always inadvisable. The NFL is also a passing league, and teams that spend their money on passing the ball and stopping the pass (New England, Green Bay, New Orleans, Detroit) make the playoffs no matter who is rushing the football.
Now, that isn't to say that teams can't have fantastic running backs as assets and still make the playoffs. Getting an elite back in the draft can bring a team out of the cellar in a hurry. The problem is, those elite backs can come from anywhere www.nikeeaglesnflstore.com in the draft, (for example Peterson was the seventh overall pick whereas Foster was undrafted). This is why more teams have stopped drafting backs as high.
It is also why the Jaguars couldn't care less about Jones-Drew's demands.
The team loves Rashad Jennings (seventh-round pick in 2009), and while he doesn't have the elite talent of Jones-Drew or the history of production, he's more than enough to move the chains and break some long gains. The team spent millions on receiver talent in the offseason and will likely need to spend more on both sides of the ball to join the NFL's elite.
The same can be said for every team rumored to be a "good landing spot" for Jones-Drew.
Why would the Lions spend on MJD when they have spent three valuable draft picks on the running backs (Kevin Smith, Jahvid Best and Mikel Leshoure), and they got to the playoffs in 2011 without two of those three seeing the field?
The Patriots have long succeeded without a dominant back, taking guys in the twilight of their careers or drafting complementary backs in the middle-to-later rounds. Corey Dillon is the best comparison to the Patriots possibly picking up MJD, but he was the exception rather than the rule and came a lot cheaper than the contract Jones-Drew would be looking for.
Mike Shanahan and Mike McCarthy have both succeeded without elite backs in their careers—why change course now?
Even if everyone agrees that Jones-Drew is a phenomenal talent and would make any team (regardless of its current level of success) better, that ignores the fact that he is 27 and has had a heavy workload for years in Jacksonville, where he was the main offensive weapon.
He's averaged 247 carries over his six-year career and led the league with 343 carries last year. The chances of Jones-Drew shouldering the load like that again and doing so efficiently are very slim. Michael Turner and Chris Johnson are two recent examples of guys who still haven't returned to form after an incredible amount of carries.
That, of course, is another reason the Jaguars don't want to pay Jones-Drew and why teams would be foolish to trade for him.
Overall, this is just posturing, and Jones-Drew is unlikely to be going anyway. Once he starts losing game checks, the two sides will return to the table and work something out—a bone to throw even if it isn't the amount either side really wants.
Even if the situation continues and the Jaguars actually look to unload Jones-Drew, any team that seriously thinks he's the answer to its problems is misguided. Any resources traded or committed to Jones-Drew would be more wisely spent elsewhere.
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Michael Schottey is the NFL National Lead Writer for Bleacher Report and an award-winning member of the Pro Football Writers of America. Find more of his stuff alongside other great writers at "The Go Route."
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