The Jacksonville Jaguars have no shortage of players from small schools, a reflection of general manager Gene Smith's philosophy of scouting the player, not the school, writes Tania Ganguli of the Florida Times-Union. "I think that’s the one thing that we’ve done here." Smith said. "We do a lot of work on these players and so we trust our grades. Sometimes small college players are like an offensive guard and maybe a safety and they don’t get over drafted." Never has Smith's philosophy been more evident than in 2011, when the Jaguars selected Lehigh offensive lineman Will Rackley in the second round and Mount Union wide receiver Cecil Shorts and Wyoming safety Chris Prosinski in round four before adding Middle Tennessee State cornerback Rod Issac in the fifth. Rackley started 14 of 15 games as a rookie, playing in over 90 percent of the Jaguars' offensive snaps. Shorts and Prosinski were part-time contributors on their sides of the ball who had roles on special teams. In the last three drafts, Smith has also selected players from Central Arkansas (Larry Hart), Murray State (Austen Lane), Temple (Terrence Knighton), William & Mary (Derek Cox), Nebraska-Omaha (Zach Miller) and Liberty (Rashad Jennings), so don't be surprised if more players from non-BCS or non-Division I schools end up in Jacksonville later this week. Source: Mac's Football Blog
