Cutting Taylor dents Jaguars locker room

<em>Posted by ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky</em> <p>Last week, the Jaguars cut Jerry Porter and Drayton Florence. The moves were a giant "our-bad" from the organization, which invested significant money and hope in the free agents last year and wound up seeing their lack of production paired with their prices turn into a major issue in a locker room that went bad.</p> <p>Monday, <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3911006" target="_blank">the AP reports</a> the Jaguars cut Fred Taylor. It's&nbsp;a move with a far different set of repercussions.</p> <p>Taylor is expensive and aging - he would have cost $6 million against the cap in 2009 and he just turned 33, a huge number for a running back.</p> <p>He has been an underappreciated player throughout his career. He got a reputation as injury prone in his first four seasons, but played in 100 of 112 regular season games since. He's fifth all-time among running backs with at least 10,000 yards with an average of 4.64 yards per carry.</p> <p>INSERT CHART</p> <p>According to ESPN.com researcher Andrea Williams, the next best average among active backs belongs to LaDainian Tomlinson who's at 4.4. Taylor's been a quarter yard better per carry than Tomlinson. Bet you can win a bet armed with that next time you get together with the gang.</p> <p>In Jacksonville Taylor was a stand-up guy, super-accountable and unselfish - willingly working as a duo with Maurice Jones-Drew after having had the lead role to himself. Those are qualities Jack Del Rio and new GM Gene Smith will be looking to infuse into a restructured locker room, and it has to be hard for them to let go of a guy who they could point to as a model.</p> <p>(Here's a link to a <a href="/blogs/afcsouth/0-7-88/On-hoping-we-haven-t-see-the-last-of-Taylor.html" target="_blank">December entry</a> on Taylor when he went on IR with a thumb injury.)</p> <p>This season, I heard from many fans who wondered if Jones-Drew should take over as the starter. I didn't believe that would have solved anything at all. Taylor and Jones-Drew were good backs running working behind a line gone bad because of a slew of injuries, and the Jaguars possessed no receiving threat to make defenses back off.</p> <p>Their time together was mutually beneficial. I understand the attraction to the younger and more powerful Jones-Drew. But I think he may have benefitted a bit more from Taylor than Taylor benefitted from him - those defenders getting bowled over by MJD were tired from chasing Taylor. In time, I suspect there will be little question that Taylor was the better and more feared back.</p> <p>Is Taylor finished?</p> <p>Old running backs aren't a popular commodity, and he's not the one-cut-and-go type that's becoming increasingly popular. He's not been a major pass catcher in recent years as Jones-Drew has been on the field more in situations where the Jaguars would throw to a back.</p> <p>But with his shiftiness, Taylor could fit someone's vision for a veteran piece of a backfield. If it's a low-risk, high-reward, incentive-laden contract, then here's an occasion where maybe the general running back age concerns can be put on hold long enough for Taylor to go through training camp and show what he's got left.</p>

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