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Jacksonville Jaguars reaching for Randall Cobb good idea?

By Brian Spaen

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The Jacksonville Jaguars will have plenty of options on who to bring in during free agency with the most amount of money to spend. Ndamukong Suh would certainly be one of the biggest pickups in franchise history. Devin McCourty would be a smart one with the lack of great free safeties. However, Randall Cobb has been brought up as a potential target for the Jaguars.

According to Bill Huber of the Packer Report, the Jaguars along with Oakland Raiders are ready to make a run at the Green Bay receiver.

"According to OverTheCap.com, the Raiders have the second-most available cap space at $57.4 million. Jacksonville, which has a league-high $68.5 million in space, also is prepared to make a run at Cobb, a source said, though the source wasn’t sure of the specifics."

Cobb’s asking price has driven up to the $12 million per year mark. It’s still a pretty good deal on an emerging receiver, and surprising to think that the Packers opted not to use the franchise tag on him (although, it may not be a surprise since the team hasn’t used it since 2010).

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The real issue is that Cobb wanted more than $10 million, which is expected to be the level Green Bay set because they weren’t going to pay him more than Jordy Nelson. The Raiders and Jaguars, while probably not on Cobb’s wish list, look to be the biggest candidates at the moment.

After suffering a leg injury in October during the 2013 season, Cobb returned with the best season of his young career. He had 91 catches on 126 targets for 1,287 yards in the air and 12 touchdowns. The only downside was fumbling for the first time in four seasons. During his tenure with the Packers, Cobb has reeled in over 3,000 passing yards and 25 touchdowns in four seasons, with nearly half of that coming just in 2014.

However, the question now emerges if Jacksonville should even be focusing on a wide receiver in free agency. There’s a ton of weapons available in the draft, so why go after a target like this? Because the wide receiver corps at Jacksonville is really that bad.

Last season, the Jaguars ranked 31st in the league in yards per pass (5.4) and passing yards per game (187.6). They were also 26th in completion percentage (58.35%). This is also fault of not having a good quarterback under center, but look at what the receivers did.

Allen Hurns finished with 677 yards and six touchdowns, both team highs by a wide margin. He finished well above Cecil Shorts and Marqise Lee, two names that were expected to better than they were in 2014. Shorts did record the most receptions by a receiver (53), which doesn’t help matters.

Sam Monson from Pro Football Focus puts it perfectly in a tweet from Monday. It’s a large talented class in the draft, but Cobb would still be a great pickup in free agency.

It’s obvious that Jacksonville needs a lot of help, so they really can’t go wrong with picking Suh, McCourty, or Cobb. They have to feel what would best fit on their team. But picking up Cobb is a great idea at an extremely low cost.

Next: Jaguars: All in on Ndamukong Suh

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