Maurice Jones-Drew is now willing to be traded.

The Jacksonville Jaguars holdout running back would have you believe that making such a declaration amounts to a magnanimous gesture where he’s giving something up.

That is not the case at all.

Maybe MJD is more willing to be traded today than he was yesterday. But the fact is, it doesn’t matter. The Jaguars don’t need his consent to trade him.

They need something much more difficult to get than that: A partner willing to trade for a disgruntled player demanding a lucrative new contract.

And I presume they aren’t going to search for one, because trading him amounts to giving him what he wants, and they’ve made it clear they aren’t giving a player who’s under contract for two more years what he wants.

It’s harsh to say but it is absolutely true: The play Jones-Drew and his agent, Adisa Bakari, are making here is laughable. They’ve butchered this situation and they don’t seem to have a handle on the fact that they have no leverage.

So while they set all this in motion, they now say they are insulted by recent comments that the player’s absence isn’t “moving the needle.” And the only way they can gain some leverage is if the holdout continues and the Jaguars fail without Jones-Drew.

Thus, he’s set up to root against his teammates and hope they don’t succeed.

What an excellent teammate! If I’m part of the Jaguars' locker room, under solid new leadership from Mike Mularkey and his staff, Jones-Drew is a guy I am really pulling for to get what he feels like he deserves -- a guy who wants me to fail.

Jones-Drew can be fined up to $30,000 a day during the holdout.

What’s adding up more than the fine total is the damage MJD is doing to his reputation.