Dante Fowler Jr. downplayed his one-game suspension, saying the incident was in the past and insisting he has made personal progress the past year.
“Did I go to jail?” Fowler asked rhetorically, via quotes distributed by the team. When the media answered he hadn’t, Fowler responded, “There you go.”
The league suspended the Jaguars defensive end for the season opener for violating the league’s personal conduct policy. He was arrested in St. Petersburg, Florida, last summer for battery and pleaded no contest to three misdemeanor charges.
“We really already knew it was going to happen,” Fowler said of the suspension announced by the NFL late last week. “It’s a situation that happened last year. The NFL finally took it into their hands this year. We talked, and they told me what it was going to be, and I just appreciate them hearing me out and hearing my side of the story. It could have always been worse. I’m just going to take this game and be ready to go when we come back for the Patriots.”
Fowler, who turns 24 next week, opened camp on the physically unable to perform list with a left shoulder injury.
“It’s the shoulder so they just want to be careful, but my strength is actually back,” Fowler said.
He enters a prove-it season after the Jaguars declined to pick up the fifth-year option on his contract. The third overall pick in 2015 has made 12 career sacks, and as it stands now, Fowler is scheduled to become a free agent in March.
“I honestly don’t care,” Fowler said of the Titans declining his option.
The only way for Fowler to make that statement believable is for him to have a career year.
