Dunta Robinson has the answer to the question plaguing fans of current Jacksonville Jaguars rookie quarterback (and former Missouri star) Blaine Gabbert. Until now, as the 2011 NFL regular season is reaching its end, some rookie quarterbacks have looked solid and promising (a la Andy Dalton, Cam Newton) while others have yet to display the reason they were chosen so early. Gabbert is certainly the poster child of the potential busts of this class, although that's an unfair label at this point. And Robinson says he knows why: no receiving options.
Indeed, Robinson is correct even if his language doesn't convey it in the proper way. A recent quote to the Florida Times-Union has Robinson describing the Jacksonville receiving situation as the following:
Those guys are [——] jokes," Robinson said. "Those guys couldn’t get a [——] receiver if it hit them in the head," he said.
Terry McCormick from the National Football Post says Robinson has a point. "Indeed, the Jaguars have had almost as many misses on receivers over the years as the Detroit Lions, with washouts like R. Jay Soward, Reggie Williams and Matt Jones in the first round. And while Robinson was blunt in his assessment, he has point. The current group has virtually no recognizable playmakers. What has helped to make Dalton and Newton successful in large part is the presence of A.J. Green and Steve Smith in Cincinnati and Carolina, respectively.
"While Gabbert has struggled, one thing is clear, the Jaguars have to improve the talent around him if they want to avoid him heading down the Tim Couch/David Carr path of quarterbacks who failed because there wasn't enough talent on hand to help them out."
If Gabbert is going to succeed, expect the Jags to pick up a talent like Justin Blackmon from Oklahoma State in the draft. It'd be hard to go wrong with a talent like that coming in to hep Gabbert adjust to the pros.