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 Jaguars 2013 jacksonville jaguars Fantasy Preview

A healthy Maurice Jones-Drew should mean wonders for the Jaguars offense this season, as they have a couple of interesting fantasy situations in their skill set positions. First of all, MJD, if healthy, is still a late first-round pick, and Cecil Shorts came out of nowhere to be a terrific No. 2 WR, and was at his best during weeks 12-16 - or the last two weeks of the fantasy regular season and playoffs. Justin Blackmon's four-game suspension will play havoc with your draft (more on that below). They're still a mess at QB, as neither Blaine Gabbert nor Chad Henne has much fantasy value - though Henne did have a couple of nice weeks but they were so far between it was impossible to know when to play him. Stay away from them completely. Marcedes Lewis was a bye-week replacement at TE and will be so again this fall.

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Maurice
Jones-Drew

RB - Jaguars

FACT: Jones-Drew has finished in the top five in fantasy points among running backs twice in the last four years.
Offseason Moves

The Laurent Robinson experiment was a complete failure, so now Jacksonville has replaced him with Mohamed Massaquoi, who will likely be the No. 2 WR while Blackmon sits. A healthy Massaquoi would be a decent option in theory but he's just not explosive enough to warrant drafting. The team let Rashad Jennings walk in the off-season, so just in case Jones-Drew falters or gets hurt, Justin Forsett will inherit the backup RB job - and he's always performed well when given the opportunity, whether it was with Seattle earlier in his career or last year in Houston. If you draft MJD, Forsett should be your late-round handcuff. Ace Sanders and Denard Robinson were both late-round draftees at WR, but they're more curiosities than they are fantasy possibilities.

Sleepers & Busts

Justin Blackmon is even more of a sleeper than he was now that he's missing the first third of your fantasy season. He really flashed towards the end of 2012, averaging over 6 catches and 12 targets a game in the last month. He was a high first-round draft pick of the Jaguars for a reason, but this is the second time he's come under some sort of discipline in a little over a year. When he returns from suspension I expect him to become the Jaguars top wideout and end up a strong No. 2/low-end No. 1 fantasy WR in the process. He's a monster. He'll come back from this situation with his hair on fire to try to prove to everyone he's elite. He reminds me of Dez Bryant in a way of how talented he is but is prone to frustrating knuckleheaded-ness. He's going to drop in all of your drafts, but get him late if you can (after you've drafted your top two or three WR's), and stash him on your bench. I'm not as high on Cecil Shorts this season but there's no denying he's going to get all the targets early in the season, but I don't know if Shorts can re-produce his 2012 campaign. It's tough to count on those out-of-nowhere WR's in their follow-up season - especially when beginning in October the Jaguars will have a guy opposite him with a better pedigree ready to bust out. Because of what he did last fall, he's going to be high on many people's draft boards, but I wouldn't even feel right if he was the second WR I drafted. I'm just not convinced enough to build my WR corps around playing him every week. I'd like him more as my No. 3.

Fantasy Depth Chart
POSFIRSTSECONDTHIRDOTHER
QB Blaine Gabbert Chad Henne Mike Kafka Matt Scott
RB Maurice Jones-Drew Justin Forsett Denard Robinson Jordan Todman
WR Cecil Shorts Justin Blackmon Mohamed Massaquoi Jordan Shipley
TE Marcedes Lewis Allen Reisner Isaiah Stanback Brett Brackett
K Josh Scobee - - -

( ) Projected Round


Top 5 Board
#NamePos. Rank
1 Maurice Jones-Drew 13
2 Cecil Shorts 27
3 Justin Blackmon 46
4 Marcedes Lewis 26
5 Justin Forsett 65
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