The legal tampering hasn't begun, just yet, but that isn't stopping the Jacksonville Jaguars from making moves in free agency.
The team signed the recently-released Mitch Morse on Monday morning, per NFL Network's Mike Garafolo, to a two-year $10.5 million deal with $7 million guaranteed. Morse will come in and should win the starting job, right away, over 2022 third-rounder, Luke Fortner. Jags head coach Doug Pederson ran the Kansas City Chiefs offense during Morse's time there from 2015-2018.
Fortner is officially placed on the back burner, for now
Fortner started 17 games and played over 1,100 snaps at center in 2023, but it obviously wasn't enough to keep his job.
Morse should come in and win the starting gig, but don't think Fortner is just going to lay down and let him earn the job. Still, it won't be easy, as Morse is still playing good football at this point in his career - his 2022 Pro Bowl nod shows that.
Fortner allowed four sacks and 28 total pressures last year, which were 10th- and 11th-most among 32 centers with at least 641 blocking snaps on the year, per Pro Football Focus. Morse allowed 32 total pressures, which was seventh-most, but only one sack. If you're into grades, Fortner ranked 31st out of the 32 qualifying centers with an overall blocking grade of 43.3 - only rookie John Michael Schmitz was worse. Morse's 63.6 overall grade came in at 19th.
It'll be interesting to see if the Jags move Fortner to guard in order to create viable depth or if they leave him at center for the same reason. Either way, the third-year player is about to enter the most challenging offseason of his career.
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