Niners trade for QB Gabbert

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After only three seasons, the Blaine Gabbert experiment is over in Jacksonville. The Jaguars announced on Tuesday that they've traded Gabbert, the 10th overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, to the 49ers.

In exchange for Gabbert, Jacksonville will get a sixth-round draft pick from San Francisco, according to ESPN.com.

"We thought highly of Blaine as an early entry into the 2011 NFL Draft," 49ers general manager Trent Baalke said in a statement. "He is a high-character individual that will be given every opportunity to develop within our system and we are looking forward to working with him."

Gabbert will presumably battle it out with Colt McCoy for the right to backup Colin Kaepernick in San Francisco.

The 49ers tried to trade McCoy in August and when that didn't happen, it looked like the team was going to release him. McCoy ended up sticking around in San Francisco though after he agreed to take a pay cut.

Blaine Gabbert's career in Jacksonville is over after only three seasons. (USATSI)

As for Gabbert, it might be fair to officially label him as a bust. After being selected 10th overall in the 2011 draft, Gabbert started 14 games in his rookie year and went 4-10 in the span. In 27 career starts with Jacksonville, Gabbert has put together a 5-22 record.

Gabbert actually won the Jags starting quarterback job in August, despite the fact that he had an injured thumb for most of the preseason. Gabbert came back from the thumb injury to start in Week 1, but he ended up on the bench after suffering a hand laceration in the fourth quarter of the Jaguars season opener.

The 24-year-old came back to start in Weeks 4 and 5, but a hamstring injury led to Gabbert missing more time and Chad Henne ended up starting the rest of the season.

Henne signed a two-year deal with the Jaguars on March 7 and shortly after the deal, coach Gus Bradley said he hoped that Henne would be the opening day starter in 2014. After that, it was only a matter of time before the Jaguars got rid of Gabbert.

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Cowboys cut WR Miles Austin



The Cowboys have opened more salary-cap space by letting go of another veteran. This time, it's wide receiver Miles Austin who was handed his walking papers. It's not quite as surprising as the release of DeMarcus Ware, but Austin is a popular player who had spent his entire eight-year career in Dallas.Austin burst onto the scene in 2009 as he recorded more than 1,300 yards and 11 touchdowns. In 2010, the Cowboys gave him a six-year contract worth $54 million. But Austin never lived up to that contract, mostly because his hamstring didn't allow him to. Problems with both hamstrings have been basically constant for Austin and have forced him to miss 11 games since the start of the 2011 season.The team has designated Austin as a post-June 1 cut, which clears about $5.5 million in cap space. Of course, they won't get that space until after June 1.Austin caught just 24 passes for 244 yards last season.



Austin became expendable once rookie Terrance Williams settled in as Tony Romo's No. 2 WR. Austin will turn 30 in June and will most likely have to settle for a one-year deal as no team should put a long-term investment into Austin with those uncooperative hamstrings. It's very easy to re-injure those muscles, as Austin has repeatedly shown.