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Countdown to Kickoff | How Can Jaguars End Season in Positive Direction · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's signed for our weekly Conversation with Pride of the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Jaguars running back Fred Taylor. Jaguars eliminated. They're headed to Nashville.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Two teams that are struggling, obviously, the Jags to and ten,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the Titans three and nine. Fred and five games to
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: go and eliminated. This is the earliest in a while.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: It's never fun in these Decembers.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: No, it's never fun, especially when you have two teams
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: that were always considered rivals at this point in the season.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: This would be a meaningful game. You know, even if
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: there was a team not making the playoff, there was
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: a team that had a chance to play spoiler because
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: other team probably was.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: In position to win the division.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: But it seems that everything is shifted to Texas a
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: little bit further west, the Titans. The Titans aren't a
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: very good team. The Jaguars aren't a very good team.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: But if I was a betting man, which I know
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  Speaker 2: I'm not betting on my Jaguar, I would certainly say
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: I believe even this match up, the Jaguars are a
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: better team. Considering the close games that they've been in,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: et cetera, et cetera. They've been through a lot, they're
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: still finding a way to show some competitive grit. So
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: my pick, which is always my pick, is the Jaguars
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  Speaker 2: for this matchup.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: I don't remember the last time you picked against them,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: so that makes sense to me, Fred, And why not
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: keep it going in Week fourteen? Fred, what do you
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: make of the decision to shut Trevor Lawrence down for
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the rest.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Of the season.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: You know, I think it was a great decision. Is decision,
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  Speaker 2: you know, for Trevor. You know, I believe overall it
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: was for the Trevor's future, his long term health, and
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: also for the Jaguars future, you know, in the team's
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: long term health as well, because it seems that the
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: team is only going to go as Trevor goes, you know,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: with the investment recent leaders pass offseason and they secured
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: him for another four years after this season. So I
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: believe it was a great business decision, but more importantly,
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  Speaker 2: just a decision that allows the Jaguars to say, we
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: are a high class organization. We don't care what's going
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  Speaker 2: to happen with We care what's going to happen with
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  Speaker 2: the rest of the season.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: But as it pertains, the Trevor Lawrence.
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  Speaker 2: We are more concerned about his health and what we
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: can help.
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  Speaker 3: We can get him right now. So I thought it
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: was a big decision.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: We called for it on the post game, you know,
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: I was an advocate for saying, hey, maybe they should
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: shut him down. And now that they've announced that he's
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: shut down, he can have his procedure on his shoulder
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: and so to just get better, you know, not just physically,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: but mentally. He can find himself in a good space
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: and they can look now to start evaluating to see
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: what they're going to do with the other guys by
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: giving them opportunity to play.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Brett Taylor with us. How many times in your career
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: were you in a scenario like this with five games
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: to go eliminated? It feels like you guys were a
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: lot of times in the mix, but maybe a week
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: or two to go would get knocked out and finish
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: like five hundred or whatever. But have you been were
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: you ever this early eliminated?
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: You know, I don't believe so, JP. That was years
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: and years ago.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: My rookie year is approaching thirty years, which is insane.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: It's one of gray in that beard right now.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: I got to say, I mean, you.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Know, my wife she likes the salt and peppers, so
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: I ain't even tripper on the gray. But I don't know.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: I know we had a lot of competitive teams. I
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: believe there was a five and eleven somewhere in there. Maybe,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: but then again I have to go and look and see.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: But I know a lot of times we were nine
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: and seven rookie year, we were eleven and five then
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: of course fourteen and two, ninety seven, ninety seven, maybe six,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: and I don't know, but we were always fairly competitive.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: The question, though, is from a player's mindset, when you
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: are eliminated and you still have a lot of work
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: to go, and you're healthy, you want to stay healthy,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: but you're paid to play football, right, I mean, this
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  Speaker 1: is what's the balance of competitive nature there?
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  Speaker 3: You know what even money aside.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: You know, competitive nature is just that it's just any
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  Speaker 2: like you're like people like you throw around.
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  Speaker 3: You gotta be that dog.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you could be a gator and still be
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: a dog, not a jarge of bulldog, but like a
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  Speaker 2: dog dog Like that's what I was. And I just
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  Speaker 2: love competing, and I had teammates that you know, hey,
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: you knuckling up. I'm right there with you. But you
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: can kind of look around the locker room and see
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: some guys that kind of start to lose that sense
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  Speaker 2: of urgency. And I hope, I hope that this locker
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: room has enough leaders, enough guys that you know, are
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: embarrassed by the way this season turned out out where
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: they want to go out there and they just want to,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: you know, knock a couple heads off, you know, literally,
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: just to prove that, hey, I'm still me regardless of
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: our record, you still got to deal with me. You know,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: I'm still kicking ass out here. So that's what it's about.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: And that's the mindset until you know the clock hit zero,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: you know, some at some point in January.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: Bred Taylor with us.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is five games to go, man, and
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  Speaker 1: three of them in the division, so you know, and
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: it's the strength of schedules, like the easiest in the NFL.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: The rest of the way, it's clearly all about the
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  Speaker 1: Jaguars though, and how they perform. They've been in all
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: these close games this year, and you know, I guess
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: it's not too late to find a killer instinct and
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: win some of these games. They just haven't figured out
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  Speaker 1: a way to do it in the last seven times
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  Speaker 1: they've had a chance to do it. So why would
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: they start now? How do you finish a football game
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: this point in the season.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: That's a great question, Japer, You hit it on the head.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Why would they start now? I mean, just look around.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: I'm sure the scouting department they're looking at they've looked
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: at the entire season. What's available on the college ranks? Uh,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: you know what they can possibly use where we need
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: to get better at efforts across the O line, D line,
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: you know, secondary receivers. I'll say that again, receivers. Arizona
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: has a great young receiver who's gonna be a topick
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: and most of these teams are sort of looking at,
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: you know, draft picks. And this is a battle of
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: the uglies these next couple of weeks. Uh, they play
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: the Raiders. Who's up there, same record. The Jets aren't
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: appealing in their record. The Titans again aren't too great
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: in their record. So I don't know, right like, what
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: do you do as a staff? You don't do do
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: you I don't want to use the word tank. Do
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: you just try stuff? Do you look around and try players?
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: You know, not trying stuff. Isn't just trying different plays
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: or gadgetry or any of that stuff. It's let's look
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: at our roster and let's see, you know, in terms
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: of evaluations, evaluating, let's see who we can possibly bring
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: back next year. We can have a better look at
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: this player. We didn't have an opportunity to look at
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: him when the starters were there. Maybe we can look
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: at this player a little bit more. Started to kind
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: of taper down the starters a little bit, you know,
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: for injury purposes and wear and tear, to hopefully get
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: them to the offseason safely. But again, I'm not in
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  Speaker 2: those conversations. I'm not in the building. I don't know
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: mindset of the front office, the staffing department, or scouting department.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Excuse me, it's a lot, it's a lot.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: But as a player, you know, regardless of what they're
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: doing in the front what I've always said was I'm
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: here to play ball, you know, I'm here to ball
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: until somebody pulls me out. I remember somebody pulled me
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: out when I was close to some incentives tou once
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: upon a time. That's a whole different conversation, isn't it
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: like I'm drifting.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: That's actually right up our alley. If we want to
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: go down this path today.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: I am drifting. I mean, we need a little excitement
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: this late in the season. Right, Well, I digress. I
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: won't even bring it up. But hopefully you know, as
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: a player, man to a man, uh, these guys have
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: the mindset of one.
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: I have to compete, you know. That's what I was
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: born to do.
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  Speaker 2: I do it every single day, and that's what I'm
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: going to do to finish this season.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Right, You're the best, even though you didn't catch all
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: your incentives.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: Okay, we'll get them next year.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: It was one cold winter day in Kansas City and
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: I was yanked from the game. I was close to
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: seven fifty.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: That's a rhyme.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: That's a rhyme. Sometimes I can be a little witty,
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: sometimes a little silly, sometimes a little gritty without hitting
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: the gritty, you know what I mean. Fifty to fifty,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: that's one hundred percent. Okay, I'm done.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: Thanks Fred. We'll talk to you later, man, all right,
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: bro Later