Arizona’s Gabbert looks at present, not past

JACKSONVILLE — Had this been three years ago, maybe then Blaine Gabbert would approach today’s game against the Jaguars with additional incentive.

Beat the team that drafted him 10th overall but gave up on him.

But more than threeand-a-half years have passed since the Jaguars flipped Gabbert to San Francisco for a sixth-round pick to clear the decks for Blake Bortles, who was drafted a month later.

For Gabbert, it will be the Arizona Cardinals against the Jaguars, not him against the Jaguars.

“That was so long ago,” Gabbert said. “A lot of time has passed. I don’t think the emotions will play a role in it.”

Jaguars fans still have strong emotions about Gabbert and they are nearly universally negative. He won only five of 27 starts for the quarterback-starved franchise from 2011-13. He would make some eye-popping throws but was inconsistent and then his him.

The Jaguars moved on to Bortles and Gabbert moved on to the 49ers (three years) and Arizona (first year). He will make his second start for the Cardinals after injuries to Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton.

“Leaving the Jaguars opened doors in San Francisco and I’m in Arizona now,” Gabbert said. “I wouldn’t change anything that happened along the way. Everybody dreams about staying in one spot for their entire career, but that’s health betrayed almost a fairy tale in this day and age.”

In 2011, the Jaguars traded Nos. 16 and 49 to Washington to take Gabbert 10th overall. He was 6-foot-5 and 235 pounds, mobile and had arm strength.

“He had all of the measurables,” tight end Marcedes Lewis said.

Things didn’t start well and never got any better for Gabbert and the Jaguars. He played for three head coaches and three offensive coordinators from 2011-2013 before being traded to San Francisco in March 2014.

“I don’t know if he knew the trade was coming, but it was new air for him to go somewhere and maybe get an opportunity,” Jaguars quarterback Chad Henne said. “The fans were on him. It was a lose-lose situation.”

Gabbert went 4-9 as the 49ers’ starter.

An unrestricted free agent for the first time, he did not sign with Arizona until May 10.

Stanton beat out Gabbert for the back-up job in training camp, but Gabbert had impressed coaches and earned a roster spot.

“He really lit it up for us in the OTAs and played a good preseason,” Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said.

Gabbert applied the lessons of his Jaguars tenure to his next two stops.

“Just growing up and going through the ups and downs as a young quarterback — things in your control, things out of your control, seeing how the NFL works,” Gabbert said. “Things didn’t work out in Jacksonville, but I made a lot of good friends and learned quite a bit.”