Jaguars Free Agency: How the first 24 hours went down.

The NFL free agency season began yesterday at 4pm. For the Jaguars it started off very slowly. The first big move actually happened before 4pm when the Jaguars released wide receiver and special teams ace Kassim Osgood. The Jaguars acquired Osgood two years ago from San Diego. Osgood spent his time on special teams rarely seeing time in the offense unless the Jags used a 4 wide receiver set or as  backup to injuries players. Personally I thought he deserved more play time. Jaguars also released OT Kevin Haslam who they signed back in 2010 but did not get any stats for the Jaguars. The next move the Jags made was resigning line backer Russell Allen. The versatile Allen stepped up big time this past season when Clint Session went down with a concussion this season earning him a three year $6 million contract. At that point Jag fans were getting antsy as WR's like Pierre Garcon were quickly snatched off the open market. Then Adam Schefter reported that the Jags would be meeting with Laurent Robinson and Chad Henne. This bought Gene Smith some time before talk of firing him began among Jag Nation. With Mario Williams on his way to meet with the Buffalo Bills Jaguar fans began to panic. The need for a decent pass rusher at defensive end was starting to worry the community. Then another report came out. The Chicago Bears was in talks with the Jaguars 2011 sack leader Jeremy Mincey.

Jag Nation pretty much lost it at that point. It was around 7pm and the Jaguars had yet to make any type of move. All one could really do was read tweet after tweet while teams were flying players in and making contract offers. This would go on late into the evening. It got to the point to where even the media was questioning wither Gene Smith was aware that free agency started. Then some time after 9:58pm est a tweet hit the internet and was quickly retweeted by the media and Jaguars fans. "looks like Lowery's back..."  along with a picture of strong safety Dwight Lowery wearing a Jaguars jersey with his back to the camera giving a touch down signal. Lowery signed a four year deal worth $13.6 million including a $3 million signing bonus.

This bought GM Gene still more time. It was after midnight by this point. Then all of a sudden Scout.com reported that the Jaguars had resigned Jeremy Mincey. Twitter exploded for about 3 minutes then Times Union beat writer Tania Ganguli tweeted a deal had not been reached yet. I don't know about the rest of Jacksonville by my heart dropped. Then about five minutes later she tweeted "OK *now* Mincey's four year deal is done to return to the #Jaguars" Once again twitter exploded with congrats to Jeremy Mincey. I sent him a tweet saying "four more years of "Your a mean one @MrMince94"  he replied "YEAHHH"  The contract Mincey wound up signing was four years for $27.2 million with $9 million guaranteed including some nice incentives like $100k for every year he makes the Probowl. It was a great signing for the Jaguars as Mincey was reportedly 5 minutes from accepting a deal with the Bears but a last minute call from GM Gene brought him back to the Jaguars family. By this time Laurent Robinson had arrived in Jacksonville and would be meeting with Jag coaches and staff in the morning at Everbank.

I checked twitter periodically to see what was happening during the day. Most of what I saw from 8am-5pm was Robinson and Henne are in the building. At 1:27pm @Jendy tweeted "Maybe #Jaguars Fans should tweet @LaurentRobinson and tell him why he would love to play in Jax?" That started a trend and the tweets started flying to Laurent mentions. Lots of reasons from beaches to no state income taxes to babes to all kinds of reasons flooded his mentions. Then about 5:45ish PM it was reported that Robinson had left Everbank and was headed to the airport by Associated Press' Mark Long. Once again the hearts of all of Jag Nation dropped. I even went so far as to tweet "Call Brandon Lloyd, Mario Manningham and any one else thats a WR". Then something happened. Adam Pratt a former intern at Pro Football Talk reported that Robinson was at Ruth Chris Steakhouse with Jaguars defensive coordinator/assistant head coach Mel Tucker and wide receivers coach Jerry Sullivan. Jag Nations heart started to beat again and all at once there was the urge to go to Ruth Chris to plead our case to Robinson on why he should sign. About 20 minutes later Adam Schefter reported that the Jaguars had signed Laurent Robinson to a five year contract worth $32 million including $14million guaranteed and other incentives.  A big sign of relief was breathed throughout all of Duval social media as the newest member of the Jaguars then tweeted "Its official everyone. Taking my talents to Jacksonville #Jags." Welcome to Jacksonville and other tweets like that were directed towards Robinson.

"Don't know if this is out there, but the #Jaguars signed Chad henne to a two year deal" was the tweet that Tania Ganguli casually sent out confirming the Jaguars signed the former Miami Dolphins QB. This was followed by Jaguars defensive tackle C.J. Mosley resigning with the team. Mosley signed a 3 year $7 million contract with $2 million guaranteed. Thus ended the first 24 (really 28) hours of the Jaguars free agency.