The Jaguars have signed DE Matt Roth to a 1 year contact.  He is expected to start right away according to NFL insiders.  He will line up opposite of Arron Kampman.  The Jaguars will be counting on Roth to solidify the D-line this season.  They will now have the luxury of rotating Kampman, Roth & Lane as the starters with Morgan, Hart, Odrick & Scheichl as the back-ups.  This should generate more sacks, QB pressure, forced fumbles and all around disruption in opposing team's backfields.  Added D-line pressure will also help the linebackers and the secondary in getting turnovers as well.  Matt Roth brings a lot to the table for the Jaguars.  He has amassed 272 tackles (199 solo), 20 sacks & 6 forced fumbles since 2005.  He was drafted in the 2nd round by Miami and played DE and OLB in the Dolphins 3-4 defense.  He was claimed off waivers by the Cleveland browns in 2009. 

Tonight's game will be the first NFL game since the Super Bowl. The Jaguars will be playing the New England Patriots in a game with no real significance. I'm telling you now, the knee-jerk reaction from this game could be hard to cope with. If Blaine Gabbert plays well, then that's great, but don't worry too much if he doesn't play great. Just watch, listen, and enjoy.

We're all excited about the upcoming season. I'm simply giddy about the pre-season games tonight. I know they're not important, but I can't help myself.

Aside from all the excitement, there's still this whole black uniform thing that, apparently, many of you miss as well. Here's a link to sign a petition bringing the black uniforms back. It was sent to me by a reader, and I encourage any of you that would like to see the Jags in black to sign it.

There is no need for anyone to start panicking about the depth of the Jaguars WR corps.  The team has Mike Thomas, Jason Hill & Cecil Shorts locked up for the first 3 spots on the roster.  After them the Jags have Osgood, Dillard & Underwood.  Beyond that, they have Matthews, Inman, Ellingson, Newsome & Binns to choose from.  That's 11 WRs fighting for 5 or 6 spots, depending on how many WRs GM Gene & Del Rio decide on keeping at the start of the season.  Then there is the practice squad to consider as well.  So Let's dig deeper into the players who are in camp & see if any of them are worthy of making the roster or the practice squad.

Time for defense.

The Jacksonville Jaguars have signed QB Todd Bouman for the 7th time since 2007.  Seriously, what's the deal with signing Bouman......again?  I would rather have seen the UDFA QB they just released get a chance than see Bouman In a Jags uniform again.  Are you kidding me?  Are the Jaguars really doing this again?  I know he knows the system & apparently he and Del Rio are all buddy buddy, but come on.  I'm so sick of them signing Bouman.  It is time to move on from the Todd Bouman experiment.  He has never been very good & he is almost 40 years old.  I keep hearing that GM Gene is so great at finding football players that other teams overlook, but he can't find one decent back-up QB besides Bouman.  Are you insane?  Bouman can't possibliy be the best choice from all the free agents available. 

Last week, Ricky Keeler asked if I would like to answer some questions about the Jaguars for Foxboro Blog. I was more than happy, and he was kind enough to return the favor. Here's our end of the Q&A:

1) Ryan Mallett was a guy that many think has all the talent in the world, but he has some big character issues. Is he the heir apparent to Tom Brady or will he likely be a backup until the Patriots do have to find a replacement for Brady?

When Mallett was working out with the Patriots before the draft, I didn't think they would make the move at least in this draft for Brady's heir apparent. If Mallett can control his character off the field, he does have the skill set to be a good NFL quarterback. The one thing that concerned me in college about Mallett was when he did not play well in the big games against Alabama and then the Sugar Bowl against Ohio State. He gets a chance like Aaron Rodgers did to learn behind a future Hall of Famer for the next 4-5 years and mature into a pro. Even if Mallett is not used, the Patriots have an excellent trade piece and we saw what Philly got for an unproven commodity in Kevin Kolb. I like the 3rd round pick and I think he is the future quarterback in New England, but luckily we have a while before we have to decide on that.