Lombardi, Prisco agree to disagree on Blaine Gabbert
Published: April 18th, 2012 | Tags: Blaine Gabbert, Jacksonville Jaguars, Michael Lombardi, Pete Prisco
Michael Lombardi wrote on NFL.com in December that he hadn’t seen a “(high) first-round pick look as scared or out of place” as Jacksonville Jaguars rookie QB Blaine Gabbert.
CBS Sports senior writer Pete Prisco, an admitted Gabbert defender, recently showed the Jaguars QB what Lombardi wrote — and drew quite a reaction.
Lombardi and Prisco went head-to-head Wednesday on “NFL Total Access” to debate Gabbert’s future.
“Not to insult Mike, he said, ‘Who’s Mike Lombardi?’ ” Prisco said. “I said, ‘Mike has an opinion like we all have opinions,’ and Mike’s opinion on him was that he wasn’t very good and didn’t do a very good job last year and played scared, and to be honest with you, that’s a perception of a lot of people and he has to understand that.”
Lombardi argued that perception is reality in this case.
“I don’t think it really was a perception,” he said. “I thought the reality was, look, he fumbles 14 times behind the center and he really got rid of the football way too early.”
Lombardi added: “If I’m in Jacksonville, having been an executive for over 20 years in the league, I would be concerned with putting all my stock in Blaine Gabbert.”