"Having had to hire a head coach and then the rest of the coaching staff this month, Jaguars general manager Gene Smith found himself starting the player evaluation process much later than he did in the past few years.

If all goes well for him, it could be a precursor to the next few years.

"It's basically like we're in the playoffs," Smith said of his schedule for beginning player evaluations this season. "It's put us behind a little bit. From my standpoint, maybe it's preparing us for something in the future that you can't always do it like we've done the last couple years, where you get a jump start on everybody else. So it's preparing us for better things.""