If the 2011 season made anything clear for the Jacksonville Jaguars, it was the team's need for help at wide receiver. General manager Gene Smith made two major attempts to address that in the offseason, signing free agent Laurent Robinson and drafting Oklahoma State's Justin Blackmon in the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft. Blackmon has yet to sign a contract with the team, keeping him off the practice field, but the two sides are talking.
Pro Football Talk reported late Sunday evening that Blackmon and the Jaguars are working almost daily to hammer out a deal for the fifth overall pick in the draft. The kink in the process is Blackmon's DUI arrest in Oklahoma over the summer.
The Jaguars are reportedly seeking some protection in their financial commitment to Blackmon, something to protect them should his off-field incidents cause problems in the future. The nature of those protections are holding up a deal that needs to get done sooner rather than later in order for the team to get more help for second-year quarterback Blaine Gabbert on the field.
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