Latest / The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network / Jags A.M. Podcast Ep. 147 | Takeaways from First Day of OTAs

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Jags A.M. Podcast Ep. 147 | Takeaways from First Day of OTAs · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

0:17
Speaker 1: Welcome to Dagdam.
0:18
Speaker 2: I'm kind of honest. Stephen Spriin, Sexton and John Oser
0:20
Speaker 2: are with me today as we get ready to talk
0:22
Speaker 2: to you about OTA's the unofficial kind of start to
0:25
Speaker 2: the offseason workouts, and that's our big thing Number one
0:27
Speaker 2: OTAs Brian, we kind of make fun of this time
0:30
Speaker 2: of year sometimes, but with a new regime coming in,
0:32
Speaker 2: this is really important. And we saw pretty great turnout
0:35
Speaker 2: from the players yesterday. I don't want to say it
0:37
Speaker 2: was one hundred percent, but I think only a couple
0:39
Speaker 2: of faces were missing, and seeing everybody buy in this
0:42
Speaker 2: early is really good to see.
0:43
Speaker 3: Well, listen to all of the players from the quarterback
0:46
Speaker 3: going down talk about the energy with this young staff
0:49
Speaker 3: and the newness that comes with it, and they're.
0:51
Speaker 1: All obviously revitalized by the fact.
0:53
Speaker 3: That they finished four and thirteen last year, and anything
0:57
Speaker 3: would be better than that. I'll tell you what I
0:59
Speaker 3: was most interested in was when you look at the
1:02
Speaker 3: roster that they hand out to the members of the
1:04
Speaker 3: media by offensive line, there weren't tackles or guards or center.
1:07
Speaker 1: It was all ol right.
1:09
Speaker 3: And so that's interesting because we've been into OTA's in
1:12
Speaker 3: the last couple of years we knew there was maybe
1:14
Speaker 3: a competition between Cam Robinson and Walker Little at left tackle,
1:18
Speaker 3: but you here's Ezra Cleveland and they signed Mitch Morse
1:21
Speaker 3: last year. You kind of knew who it was and
1:23
Speaker 3: where they were going to be. John, It's fascinating to
1:27
Speaker 3: see it all jumbled up and not really have any
1:30
Speaker 3: delineations of who's where or when. Even the coach said
1:33
Speaker 3: it's going to go rep to rep from time to time.
1:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think that's definitely the plan. I think
1:39
Speaker 4: some of the guys that we assume will start in
1:41
Speaker 4: the offensive line probably will wind up starting, but they
1:44
Speaker 4: have to earn it. I'm gonna take the needle and
1:46
Speaker 4: put it back on the first song. And we've heard
1:50
Speaker 4: this record before around here about OTAs with the regime change.
1:55
Speaker 4: I don't necessarily think that OTAs are always vital for
1:58
Speaker 4: every veteran on the team, But with the regime change
2:01
Speaker 4: and with a new offense, and with Trevor Lawrence talking
2:04
Speaker 4: on Monday about he's still learning this, well, guess what
2:07
Speaker 4: if he's still learning it, everybody else surround him needs
2:11
Speaker 4: to be learning it with him. So while we really
2:13
Speaker 4: can't evaluate this or shouldn't evaluate it for you know,
2:17
Speaker 4: we don't know, based on an Ota price, who's going
2:19
Speaker 4: to start, but it is incredibly important for the players
2:22
Speaker 4: to be learning and to be absorbing the culture what's
2:25
Speaker 4: going on around here.
2:26
Speaker 2: Good point, John, John Big thing number two is QB one, which.
2:30
Speaker 4: We talked about Trevor.
2:31
Speaker 2: We haven't seen him working with a lot of these
2:33
Speaker 2: new players. I've seen him working out in the off season,
2:35
Speaker 2: but now with the rookies here, everybody's here working with
2:38
Speaker 2: QB one, and Trevor talked a little bit about what
2:41
Speaker 2: he did with rehabbing through the off season.
2:43
Speaker 5: Not a ton obviously, just getting back into throwing. You know,
2:46
Speaker 5: I went for a solid three and a half plus
2:49
Speaker 5: months without throwing, just with the shoulder deal, and so
2:53
Speaker 5: starting to throw a little bit for OTA's and then
2:55
Speaker 5: working into it.
2:55
Speaker 1: I feel really good now.
2:56
Speaker 5: I feel like my arm's back in shape, feel like
2:58
Speaker 5: I'm getting sharper and sharper every day.
3:02
Speaker 2: John Wey saw Trevor out there. He's working learning a
3:04
Speaker 2: new system, but also a lot of new players he's
3:06
Speaker 2: got to work with, both on the line and the
3:08
Speaker 2: wide receiving group.
3:09
Speaker 4: He's got to get used to. Yeah, and I think
3:10
Speaker 4: particularly key, obviously is the wide receiver group, which I
3:13
Speaker 4: know we'll talk about as a show goes on. They're
3:16
Speaker 4: really fast, they're much quicker, they seem much more athletic
3:20
Speaker 4: than maybe any group this team has had here going
3:23
Speaker 4: back to the nineties. So there is a crucial element
3:27
Speaker 4: of getting on the same page with those guys. But
3:29
Speaker 4: I think the biggest storyline for Trevor Lawrence is the footwork,
3:33
Speaker 4: and not necessarily that he needed to improve the basics.
3:36
Speaker 4: Dramatically said there was some work he did there, but
3:39
Speaker 4: Brian getting his footwork right for this offense, it's fascinating.
3:44
Speaker 4: He talked about, he talked about several times this offseason
3:47
Speaker 4: how the footwork dictates where he's going with the ball
3:51
Speaker 4: and those things need to be muscle memory. If that's
3:55
Speaker 4: the case, and it is, then every rep is crucial
3:58
Speaker 4: as he tries to get this offense where it's second
4:01
Speaker 4: nature by the regular season, you know.
4:02
Speaker 3: And there was some conversation on the sidelines yesterday because
4:05
Speaker 3: he threw a couple of passes that got tipped and intercepted.
4:08
Speaker 1: And he overthrew one.
4:09
Speaker 3: Listen, he alone is just coming back from all the
4:12
Speaker 3: time he missed last year. Let alone all of the
4:14
Speaker 3: new players, like you mentioned guy. But what we don't
4:17
Speaker 3: know is how much he's going to progress from day
4:19
Speaker 3: to day because we're not out there every day, right
4:21
Speaker 3: So he may have struggled a little bit yesterday just
4:23
Speaker 3: getting into the rhythm of things with people, but he
4:25
Speaker 3: may have a much better day today. I think when
4:28
Speaker 3: you look at the body of work, you can't look
4:30
Speaker 3: at OTAs separate from training camp. It's going to be
4:32
Speaker 3: how he works his way through this new system and
4:36
Speaker 3: getting himself back into football shape all the way up
4:39
Speaker 3: to the start of the regular season. I think that's
4:41
Speaker 3: the best way to evaluate him. And you know, Johnny
4:44
Speaker 3: kept saying yesterday that this offense keeps giving you answers.
4:47
Speaker 3: He didn't elaborate. We didn't have enough time to really
4:49
Speaker 3: dive into that. I'll be interested to find out more
4:51
Speaker 3: what that means as we get into this thing with him.
4:54
Speaker 2: Our final big thing today is going to be expectations.
4:56
Speaker 2: As we talk about OTA's head coach Liam Cohen talked
4:58
Speaker 2: about what he thinks is important this time of year.
5:02
Speaker 6: Are we going to catch every ball and throw every
5:04
Speaker 6: ball out here in the first day at Phase three?
5:07
Speaker 6: I would assume not but more in terms of the operation,
5:11
Speaker 6: the communication. Are we understanding what we're trying to get
5:13
Speaker 6: accomplished out of the calls. It's a learning phase, not
5:16
Speaker 6: necessarily a competitive phase.
5:18
Speaker 1: And do you want to be cleaner? Absolutely?
5:21
Speaker 6: Do you want it to look perfect, yes, we all do.
5:24
Speaker 6: That's just not the reality at this phase this time,
5:26
Speaker 6: in this phase, ran I.
5:28
Speaker 2: Love some brutal honesty, which is fair the first day
5:31
Speaker 2: out there, obviously not one hundred percent, not what you'd
5:33
Speaker 2: expect to see at a practice in November. But it's
5:35
Speaker 2: the little things that are important this time of year, right, communication, hustle,
5:38
Speaker 2: getting your conditioning together. That's all little things when you
5:41
Speaker 2: look at it. But in this grand scheme it's going
5:43
Speaker 2: to play a big factor coming up in a couple
5:44
Speaker 2: of months.
5:45
Speaker 4: Well.
5:45
Speaker 3: And obviously he understands what they're trying to do and
5:48
Speaker 3: expects that the players will get better from meeting the
5:51
Speaker 3: meeting in practice to practice, so that by the time
5:53
Speaker 3: they get out of OTAs and into mini camp and
5:56
Speaker 3: did the start of the training camp then to the
5:58
Speaker 3: start of the regular season, they'll get closer to where
6:00
Speaker 3: he wants to go. The thing I really enjoyed about
6:03
Speaker 3: him yesterday was just the candidates that you mentioned, but
6:05
Speaker 3: just the transparency.
6:06
Speaker 1: He gets it.
6:07
Speaker 3: He knows that people are going to talk about what
6:09
Speaker 3: the quarterback did yesterday or what the defense did. Having
6:12
Speaker 3: a couple of interceptions off the two starting well, the
6:14
Speaker 3: starting and the backup quarterback both through a couple yesterday,
6:17
Speaker 3: He's not gonna let that bother him. He's not gonna
6:18
Speaker 3: let that become the storyline.
6:20
Speaker 4: I'm going to move the needle back to the start
6:22
Speaker 4: of the record again, right and look, it's the first
6:26
Speaker 4: practice of OTA's unpadded work with a new system, a
6:30
Speaker 4: new offensive system, a new defensive system, new players in
6:33
Speaker 4: that system, new coordinators however you slice it, and a
6:37
Speaker 4: quarterback who didn't throw for three and a half months
6:39
Speaker 4: this offseason. No unit is ahead of the other unit
6:44
Speaker 4: at this point because they're not competing like that. They
6:48
Speaker 4: are trying to learn what's going on and trying to
6:50
Speaker 4: be as ready as possible for training camp. You don't
6:52
Speaker 4: want all the interceptions, but to think you weren't going
6:55
Speaker 4: to have any on day one was a little.
6:58
Speaker 2: Selly here on jag Zam. The schedule released last week.
7:02
Speaker 2: We're going to go over all of the dates with
7:03
Speaker 2: you coming up after the break. Jag Zam brought to
7:08
Speaker 2: you by Fresh from Florida. It's always in season.
7:16
Speaker 4: This this school, that, this school. Welcome back to jag Zam.
7:26
Speaker 2: We're gonna go over some of the schedule for you
7:27
Speaker 2: and do a little this or that in relation to that.
7:29
Speaker 2: So this came out last week on Wednesday, and now
7:32
Speaker 2: we finally know where and when they're going to be playing.
7:35
Speaker 2: We knew the opponents already, but that first five games
7:38
Speaker 2: of the schedule is not going to be an easy set.
7:41
Speaker 2: I think we've talked about this obviously. We did a
7:43
Speaker 2: schedule release show. We talked a little bit about this,
7:45
Speaker 2: but I figured for our jag Zam fans we'll recap
7:47
Speaker 2: a little bit. But for me, if you can go
7:50
Speaker 2: two and three here, I'm fine with that. This is
7:54
Speaker 2: pretty tough out of the gate, including a primetime matchup
7:56
Speaker 2: against the Chiefs here at home, which will should be
7:58
Speaker 2: a great game if nothing else except to have Monday
8:01
Speaker 2: night football back, which is always fun. John is the
8:04
Speaker 2: first game against the Panthers. Is that a must win game?
8:07
Speaker 2: I know you love call things must win.
8:10
Speaker 1: No, it's not.
8:12
Speaker 4: Because it's week one and if you say you must
8:16
Speaker 4: win it. If you win the last sixteen, you look
8:19
Speaker 4: pretty silly saying that was a must win game. But
8:22
Speaker 4: for energy, for belief, yeah, I think it's important only
8:30
Speaker 4: because if you believe that twenty four results will translate
8:35
Speaker 4: into twenty five, then this is a really tough start.
8:38
Speaker 4: That's usually not the way it works. But that's all
8:40
Speaker 4: we have to sort of gauge it on right now.
8:43
Speaker 4: If you lose to Carolina, now you're looking at a
8:46
Speaker 4: Bengals team that thinks it's going to compete for the
8:48
Speaker 4: Super Bowl. The Texans are your big rival in the division.
8:51
Speaker 4: You've got the Chiefs, who look, you can play really
8:54
Speaker 4: well against Patrick Mahomes and not win. And then the
8:56
Speaker 4: forty nine ers. You can't believe they're gonna be six
8:58
Speaker 4: and eleven again, so must win. No, but you better
9:02
Speaker 4: win a couple of these. And that looks like the
9:05
Speaker 4: one that's the most gettable.
9:08
Speaker 1: I'll take the other side of the coin. From an
9:09
Speaker 1: emotional side. You remember what it fell around here last
9:11
Speaker 1: year when they were one and.
9:12
Speaker 3: Four, not great, and it felt like they were out
9:14
Speaker 3: of it, you know, And there are still players in
9:16
Speaker 3: the locker room who remember that. Despite the fact that
9:19
Speaker 3: there's a lot of new faces, both on the coaching
9:21
Speaker 3: staff and next to them in other lockers. One in
9:24
Speaker 3: four would be a disastrous start to this season, not
9:27
Speaker 3: because you couldn't overcome it, because recently they didn't, and
9:30
Speaker 3: it would it would be like the negative muscle memory, like,
9:34
Speaker 3: oh boy, here we go again.
9:36
Speaker 1: What's really changed?
9:37
Speaker 3: So from that perspective, yeah, beating Carolina here on opening
9:40
Speaker 3: day seems like a really important game.
9:42
Speaker 4: And part of that too. Look, we're used to this
9:46
Speaker 4: team struggling because it lost the last or five of
9:50
Speaker 4: the last six and twenty three and four and thirteen
9:53
Speaker 4: last year, so we're sort of tend to look at
9:56
Speaker 4: the schedule with that sort of feeling. Still, these guys
10:00
Speaker 4: don't believe they're going to be that team. So if
10:03
Speaker 4: you're not that team, then that schedule at the top
10:07
Speaker 4: is just a difficult schedule.
10:09
Speaker 3: But after Kansas City, if you're one in four, that's
10:12
Speaker 3: not good. They're still going to believe that they're not
10:14
Speaker 3: that team. That's right, right, I mean I don't I.
10:18
Speaker 2: Think a little bit at this time we were all
10:20
Speaker 2: a little Dilall listen here.
10:21
Speaker 3: The other thing is you don't know, you don't know
10:23
Speaker 3: who comes into the season banged up, right, What if
10:26
Speaker 3: one of those receivers gets hurt in Cincinnati and training
10:29
Speaker 3: campan isn't full speed. You know, what if the offensive
10:31
Speaker 3: line that they've rebuilt in Houston isn't there. We're judging
10:35
Speaker 3: them based on last season's results, and we're projecting that
10:38
Speaker 3: the Niners won't be as bad as they were last year,
10:41
Speaker 3: which seems fair to project, but we don't know where
10:43
Speaker 3: they're going to be. So yes, it looks on face
10:46
Speaker 3: value like a very challenging schedule, but there's a lot of.
10:48
Speaker 2: Unknowns there are, and it's important for us to remember too,
10:51
Speaker 2: as much as we remember how things didn't feel great
10:53
Speaker 2: last season. I feel like almost half this roster is
10:55
Speaker 2: different at this point, so they'll feel a little bit
10:58
Speaker 2: differently going into this as well. So let's look at
10:59
Speaker 2: that next chunk of games, week six through ten. I
11:02
Speaker 2: believe obviously they're heading to London during that stretch, and
11:06
Speaker 2: then there's a bye week. How important is it around
11:09
Speaker 2: the bye to have a winning record be five hundred?
11:12
Speaker 2: Are you looking at it that way, Brian? Are you
11:14
Speaker 2: kind of just looking at it as a whole.
11:16
Speaker 3: I'm looking at it as a whole because you can
11:18
Speaker 3: grab some momentum over the final six games of the season.
11:22
Speaker 1: But let's put it this way.
11:23
Speaker 3: You want to be around five hundred at the worst,
11:26
Speaker 3: because you've got these trips to the West Coast interspersed there,
11:29
Speaker 3: You've got some challenge as you come off Kansas City.
11:31
Speaker 3: You know, you've got a game against Seattle, who's been
11:33
Speaker 3: a pretty good team consistently for the last decade. And
11:36
Speaker 3: we know about the Rams in London, and then you
11:38
Speaker 3: come home. You got to go to Vegas and that'll
11:40
Speaker 3: be a different team under Pete Carroll. And then you're
11:43
Speaker 3: at Houston. So two and three gives you a chance.
11:47
Speaker 3: With these four games, maybe you could go three and
11:49
Speaker 3: one and take advantage of that and find yourself at
11:53
Speaker 3: five and five, five to four, right, I mean, that
11:58
Speaker 3: would be ideal. When you look at the will stretch
12:00
Speaker 3: of the season.
12:01
Speaker 4: The question is do you have to be five hundred
12:04
Speaker 4: to buy you know? I do you have to be
12:05
Speaker 4: three and four, four and three? I think you need
12:07
Speaker 4: to be three and four, you know, I think at
12:09
Speaker 4: least because it's easy to say, well, you know, you
12:15
Speaker 4: can be two and five and come back from look
12:17
Speaker 4: what they did in twenty two. But remember how historic
12:20
Speaker 4: and what heavy lift got to run the table for you,
12:22
Speaker 4: and you had to have a team come way back
12:24
Speaker 4: to you. You can't count on a late season dramatic run.
12:28
Speaker 4: So I do think you have to tread water with
12:31
Speaker 4: what if the schedule is indeed difficult. I think you
12:34
Speaker 4: have to tread water and be five and five, six
12:37
Speaker 4: and six ish and then have a chance to sort
12:39
Speaker 4: of reel some teams back in with what looks like
12:42
Speaker 4: a more manageable late season schedule.
12:44
Speaker 3: And we're also assuming that this team is gonna we
12:46
Speaker 3: are assuming that this team is going to struggle a
12:49
Speaker 3: little bit early.
12:50
Speaker 1: New coach, some new players. Maybe they don't.
12:54
Speaker 4: Maybe they don't, that'd be great.
12:55
Speaker 2: Let's look at our third section, or a third chunk,
12:58
Speaker 2: which is games eleven through fourteen. I think, as we mentioned,
13:02
Speaker 2: there's those West Coast trips interspersed there some tough road matchups.
13:06
Speaker 2: When you looked at this schedule as a whole, Brian,
13:09
Speaker 2: what was the toughest road games on there?
13:12
Speaker 3: I think going to San Francisco. I mean, even though
13:15
Speaker 3: they were six and eleven, we know the quality of
13:16
Speaker 3: that team, and that's a place that the Jaguars have
13:19
Speaker 3: never fared well against a team that they've never fared
13:21
Speaker 3: well with. That one is the one that stands out,
13:24
Speaker 3: is the biggest West Coast trip, you know. But when
13:26
Speaker 3: you look, you see the one against the Cardinals. That's
13:30
Speaker 3: a sneaky good team. Because the quarterback will be healthy
13:33
Speaker 3: this year second half of the season. I think that
13:37
Speaker 3: Cardinals game is going to be a pivotal one for them.
13:40
Speaker 4: Yeah, it feels like that you guys about road games,
13:43
Speaker 4: but that Chargers game here at home. Chargers feel like
13:47
Speaker 4: a team that's going to push Kansas City this year.
13:50
Speaker 4: I agree with Brian, and San Francisco feels like the
13:53
Speaker 4: toughest one coming up in this final stretch. Denver with
13:57
Speaker 4: Sean Payton feeling like he's got that thing go, and
14:01
Speaker 4: it just feels like they're going to be contending and
14:03
Speaker 4: it's gonna be a game that matters to the Broncos late.
14:06
Speaker 4: So I would go with that one as well.
14:08
Speaker 2: I agree with you, John, when I look at that
14:09
Speaker 2: schedule and I see Denver in December, knowing what they
14:13
Speaker 2: did late in the season last year. You have an
14:15
Speaker 2: experience head coach of a rookie quarterback kind of coming together.
14:17
Speaker 2: We'll see what a sophomore campaign looks like but for
14:20
Speaker 2: me cool, if it's a game, it'll be a big
14:22
Speaker 2: game Meeta way, I think just in terms of the
14:24
Speaker 2: Jaguars on the road that'll be for us. I think
14:26
Speaker 2: it'll mean.
14:27
Speaker 1: Something that's always a great environment too.
14:29
Speaker 2: Absolutely all right, So let's here on Jagsam. Coming up
14:31
Speaker 2: in a little bit, we're gonna go over OTA's. You'll
14:33
Speaker 2: hear from head coach and your quarterback.
14:39
Speaker 4: Move the freight.
14:40
Speaker 2: Move the freight, Magellan Transport. But the coolest office space
14:43
Speaker 2: in Jacksonville. You can check things out at Magellanlogistics dot com.
14:50
Speaker 2: Back here on jags AM, OTAs are underway and we
14:53
Speaker 2: got to hear from head coach. Got to hear from
14:55
Speaker 2: the quarterbacks the first time in a while, so it
14:58
Speaker 2: was nice to get their perspective of Obviously, Trevor Lawrence
15:01
Speaker 2: mentioned he hasn't been throwing for a couple of months
15:04
Speaker 2: due to that shoulder surgery. Now he's back out there,
15:06
Speaker 2: fully active with his teammates, but also learning a new system,
15:09
Speaker 2: which he talked a little bit about yesterday.
15:13
Speaker 5: I really like it. You know, it has a lot
15:14
Speaker 5: of answers. You know, it's it's it's great. I mean,
15:17
Speaker 5: it puts a lot of the players you have to
15:18
Speaker 5: know your stuff, but it gives you all the answers.
15:20
Speaker 5: You know, you're not I don't feel like you're stuck
15:22
Speaker 5: in a play that's uh not set up for success.
15:25
Speaker 5: You know, gives us a lot of answers. And uh
15:27
Speaker 5: we changed the presentation a lot and make a lot
15:29
Speaker 5: of things look the same. You know, there's there's a
15:31
Speaker 5: whole lot of without going into too much detail, you know,
15:33
Speaker 5: there's a lot of things that I like about it.
15:35
Speaker 5: And it's definitely unlike any system that I've learned before.
15:39
Speaker 5: So it's been cool to learn and just pick the
15:40
Speaker 5: coach's brain and try to get it down as fast
15:43
Speaker 5: as possible.
15:45
Speaker 2: John, that was your question to Trevor Lawrence, and he
15:47
Speaker 2: said he likes that it has a lot of answers
15:49
Speaker 2: for him, kind of talking about that new system for
15:53
Speaker 2: him making things available to him. What did you take
15:55
Speaker 2: from his answer?
15:59
Speaker 4: No, Core on first day of OTA is going to
16:02
Speaker 4: stand up and say this system stinks. But I do
16:06
Speaker 4: think it's a storyline to follow in terms of what
16:10
Speaker 4: this system gives the quarterback easily, meaning the footwork all
16:16
Speaker 4: ties into making the decisions easy and making the quarterback
16:20
Speaker 4: have to think. Let's quarterback always has to think, But
16:23
Speaker 4: it's about taking as many making as many decisions, feel
16:28
Speaker 4: like muscle memory, based on the footwork, based on the routine,
16:31
Speaker 4: based on the pattern. So I think that's really what
16:34
Speaker 4: he's talking about liking, and it's going to be interesting
16:38
Speaker 4: to see how quarterback friendly because I think that's what
16:42
Speaker 4: I think that's the word they're looking for with this.
16:44
Speaker 4: It's supposed to make it easy to make decisions.
16:47
Speaker 3: Back there, Well, I'm going to take the needle and
16:48
Speaker 3: move it forward a song. Okay, okay, well only in
16:52
Speaker 3: the sense that the running game I think is going
16:55
Speaker 3: to be the key to making the quarterbacks life easy.
16:57
Speaker 3: I know the footwork is going to become a story,
16:59
Speaker 3: and we're focused on Trevor Is he comes back from
17:01
Speaker 3: the shoulder injury, and I think we have plenty of
17:04
Speaker 3: new viewers, Travis Hunter fans who come on who may
17:07
Speaker 3: not know it was the non throwing shoulder for him,
17:09
Speaker 3: So it's not like he wasn't throwing because it was
17:11
Speaker 3: the throwing shoulder. It's the non throwing shoulder. But I
17:14
Speaker 3: think that the running back position is as interesting as
17:17
Speaker 3: any and we won't talk about it early in OTAs,
17:20
Speaker 3: we'll talk about it more when they're actually in pads
17:22
Speaker 3: in training camp. But as he kept talking about answers
17:26
Speaker 3: and answers and answers, I think the ability to convert
17:30
Speaker 3: on third down and shorts, which they haven't done, will
17:33
Speaker 3: give him as many answers as anything because it will
17:35
Speaker 3: keep the defense guessing.
17:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, if the running game can get him in better,
17:38
Speaker 4: not only converting more second and fives as opposed to
17:43
Speaker 4: second and eight, it'll be key for him. So how
17:48
Speaker 4: the offensive line fares is going to be key for
17:52
Speaker 4: him and for everybody this year.
17:54
Speaker 2: You read between the lines a little bit too when
17:55
Speaker 2: he says having plays where he feels like they're set
17:58
Speaker 2: up for success, where maybe some other times we talk
18:00
Speaker 2: about those third and longs, a lot of the first
18:03
Speaker 2: couple plays maybe weren't setting them up for success in
18:06
Speaker 2: past regimes. So we'll definitely see some changes alteration there.
18:10
Speaker 2: So I think everybody's looking forward to kind of seeing
18:12
Speaker 2: what they do there. Trevor Lawrence also finally got to
18:14
Speaker 2: work with Travis Hunter. Right, We've been talking about that
18:16
Speaker 2: for a while. Travis Hunter have mostly been focusing on
18:18
Speaker 2: offense thus far, and Trevor talked a little bit about
18:21
Speaker 2: what he's seen from himself.
18:22
Speaker 1: Far, I got a lot of juice. He can run
18:25
Speaker 1: all day, a lot of energy.
18:27
Speaker 5: I love it. Good energy, always just dapping guys up,
18:30
Speaker 5: just bringing juice every day. And like I said, high
18:32
Speaker 5: motor can just go. It's like a kid just runs
18:34
Speaker 5: around all day. He doesn't get tired. It seems like
18:36
Speaker 5: so you can't have enough of that. And then as
18:39
Speaker 5: far as just talent, I mean kind of speaks for
18:41
Speaker 5: his self, ball skills, run after the catch, he's very explosive.
18:44
Speaker 5: She didn't realize how exposive he was in and out
18:46
Speaker 5: of cuts. You know, he's impressive to watch. And we've
18:48
Speaker 5: gotten to connect a couple of times, just so lo'ly
18:50
Speaker 5: gonna keep getting better and better. You know, we've only
18:52
Speaker 5: worked together for a couple of days now, so we
18:54
Speaker 5: got some time to really dial in on the details.
18:57
Speaker 2: Brian, you have to imagine he's excited to have then
19:00
Speaker 2: new weapon like that.
19:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just thought though he was asked the question,
19:03
Speaker 3: if I was asked the question to answer it, I
19:05
Speaker 3: would have said, absolutely, the guy is fast, he's explosive.
19:08
Speaker 3: But did you see number seven out there today? Because
19:11
Speaker 3: there were a couple of plays throws to Brian Thomas
19:13
Speaker 3: Junior where he caught the ball and accelerated up the field.
19:17
Speaker 3: I've never I've never seen a receiver since Jimmy Smith
19:21
Speaker 3: do that in Jacksonville. The explosion is how much better
19:23
Speaker 3: Brian Thomas is poised to be this year, and obviously
19:27
Speaker 3: having Travis Hunter on the other side will help him
19:29
Speaker 3: because they won't be able.
19:30
Speaker 1: To key on him.
19:32
Speaker 3: But for all of the things that Travis Hunter is
19:34
Speaker 3: advertised to bring to Jacksonville, he is showing those on
19:37
Speaker 3: the field. It's just that Brian Thomas Junior was the
19:41
Speaker 3: most impressive guy on the field yesterday.
19:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, he BTJ feels like a great player who's about
19:49
Speaker 4: to make that second year jump. He was very good
19:52
Speaker 4: as a rookie, but he looks like a guy who
19:55
Speaker 4: all of a sudden is out there going, oh, this
19:57
Speaker 4: is what I can do. You know, and knew it
20:01
Speaker 4: last year, but now I was seeing everything. I thought.
20:04
Speaker 4: The most interesting quote from Trevor when he was talking
20:07
Speaker 4: about Travis Hunter was how quick he is in and
20:09
Speaker 4: out of breaks. That sometimes can be where fast receivers
20:15
Speaker 4: don't translate to the NFL, because you have to be
20:17
Speaker 4: able to get open. I don't know how good Travis
20:21
Speaker 4: Hunter is going to be in terms of numbers this year.
20:23
Speaker 4: I don't know what his stats are going to look like.
20:25
Speaker 4: But if he can scare defenses on a play to
20:29
Speaker 4: play basis, which I think he will, and score eight touchdowns,
20:33
Speaker 4: and even if he's not a polished route runner, which
20:35
Speaker 4: I don't expect him to be yet, if his playmaking
20:38
Speaker 4: and his dynamic talent, quickness, all that stuff make plays
20:44
Speaker 4: that coordinators when they're writing down had a game plan.
20:47
Speaker 4: If they're writing down seven, twelve and five, who's Dianny Brown. Well, then,
20:52
Speaker 4: all of a sudden, for the first time in a
20:54
Speaker 4: long time around here, you've got a bunch of guys
20:56
Speaker 4: that scare defensive coordinators. Travis Hunter willquably scared them more
20:59
Speaker 4: than anybody.
21:00
Speaker 3: And we should probably point out that Brown showed it
21:02
Speaker 3: is the first time we got to look at him,
21:04
Speaker 3: showed his explosion is yesterday and his speed as well.
21:06
Speaker 2: I was impressed with what he was doing yesterday. For me,
21:09
Speaker 2: not that I had little expectations for him, but just
21:11
Speaker 2: to kind of see them all out there, and especially
21:13
Speaker 2: Brian Thomas Junior. We talk about He's quickly gotten to
21:16
Speaker 2: that point where John, You've covered players like this before
21:18
Speaker 2: that are dynamic. You see them do crazy things and
21:21
Speaker 2: you just expected. At this point, it's not even oh,
21:23
Speaker 2: that's amazing, it's like, well, yeah, he's amazing, Like of
21:25
Speaker 2: course he's doing that.
21:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, And this team hasn't had that level of blue
21:31
Speaker 4: chip enough. I would say Jalen athletically Jayalen Ramsey was
21:36
Speaker 4: that guy. There's been others, Jimmy Smith back in the day,
21:39
Speaker 4: Fred Taylor, in the history of the franchise, there has
21:41
Speaker 4: been that, but maybe at the receiver position, which has
21:46
Speaker 4: become the rock star position. This feels like the first
21:49
Speaker 4: Jaguars rock star since Jimmy Smith.
21:51
Speaker 3: I just I see him move, and he just moves differently, right.
21:55
Speaker 3: I Mean I never watched Secretariat run, but you see
22:00
Speaker 3: Secretariat running in some of these clips and you realize
22:02
Speaker 3: he's completely different than everyone else. And all I think
22:05
Speaker 3: of when I see Brian Thomas out there is the
22:07
Speaker 3: guy is the Secretariat of wide receivers.
22:09
Speaker 1: I mean, he's as good as they can count.
22:11
Speaker 2: Makes everything look really, really easy, which is enjoyable to
22:13
Speaker 2: watch in terms of what things actually look like. As
22:17
Speaker 2: a whole. As we mentioned, head coach wasn't overly impressed
22:20
Speaker 2: with everything being on the button yesterday, but he did
22:23
Speaker 2: say the defense looked good to him from what he saw.
22:26
Speaker 6: I actually thought they they did some really good things today.
22:30
Speaker 6: I thought, just from a communications standpoint, punching the ball out,
22:34
Speaker 6: doing it in the right way though, right we had
22:36
Speaker 6: a couple guys just trying to be intentional about getting
22:39
Speaker 6: the ball out and getting their hands on the football,
22:42
Speaker 6: something that we're you know, actively trying to be intentional
22:45
Speaker 6: about this whole offseason, and I thought the defensive staff
22:47
Speaker 6: has done a great job of communicating that in the
22:50
Speaker 6: meeting settings. Bringing it out to the practice field, I
22:54
Speaker 6: thought that they did a nice job kind of setting
22:56
Speaker 6: the line of scrimmage, playing with length on the D line,
22:58
Speaker 6: and you know, the ball was out. I mean, the
23:00
Speaker 6: ball is on the ground too many times for us offensively,
23:02
Speaker 6: but hey, on the flip side of it, that's the
23:05
Speaker 6: first time as a head coach you actually kind of
23:07
Speaker 6: have to be very neutral in those moments where I'm
23:09
Speaker 6: kind of ticked off that the ball is on the
23:11
Speaker 6: ground from an offensive standpoint. But ultimately, man defense did
23:15
Speaker 6: a nice job of getting the ball out that today
23:17
Speaker 6: for us, your.
23:18
Speaker 2: Offensive head coach had to rein it in a little bit.
23:20
Speaker 2: He's like, well, I coached the defense too, so we're
23:22
Speaker 2: happy to see that.
23:24
Speaker 4: John.
23:24
Speaker 2: At this time of the year, defense is always, you know,
23:26
Speaker 2: by nature position, it's a little more reactionary, so there
23:28
Speaker 2: always feels like they're ahead of the offense. But we
23:31
Speaker 2: don't talk a ton about the defensive side of the football.
23:33
Speaker 2: But obviously new coordinators, there some new key players, and
23:37
Speaker 2: then Eric Armstead switching back to his original position. There's
23:39
Speaker 2: gonna be a lot of changes we see there as well.
23:40
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's really hard to analyze defense well during the
23:47
Speaker 4: offseason because the pass rush is different. You're not really
23:50
Speaker 4: stopping the run. So much of defense in the NFL
23:54
Speaker 4: is how you stopped throwing early downs in a real
23:57
Speaker 4: life situation where you never get that you get to games.
24:01
Speaker 4: So how good are they going to be? I don't know,
24:02
Speaker 4: but I think they believe they have a chance to
24:05
Speaker 4: be pretty good defensively because they believe strongly in their
24:08
Speaker 4: two edge guys. They believe in Foyer Lucon and they
24:11
Speaker 4: believe in Eric Armstead in the middle, and they believe
24:14
Speaker 4: that out of that is going to be is going
24:17
Speaker 4: to come a pretty good interior core for the first
24:19
Speaker 4: time in a while. So it's good that they looked
24:22
Speaker 4: good yesterday. Brian, I don't know what it means.
24:24
Speaker 3: Well, the secondary had a good day yesterday, right, I mean,
24:26
Speaker 3: they got Trevor twice, They got Nick Mullens, the backup
24:28
Speaker 3: quarterback twice. From what you can tell, they were moving
24:33
Speaker 3: and they were communicating. And Eric Murray, the safety, the
24:35
Speaker 3: veteran safety they signed, the ten year guy from Houston,
24:39
Speaker 3: was in the middle of it all. So that's an
24:41
Speaker 3: important signing because you're dramatically changing the back end of
24:44
Speaker 3: the defense. As much as we talk about the offensive
24:47
Speaker 3: line as a work in progress, and you're going to
24:48
Speaker 3: figure out who goes where as training camp goes on.
24:51
Speaker 3: Same thing in the secondary. You know, with Jordan Lewis,
24:53
Speaker 3: you can play inside or outside where just Trump's hundred
24:56
Speaker 3: fet into all of this. But they had a really
24:58
Speaker 3: good day yesterday on the first day of OATES and
25:00
Speaker 3: that's not a bad sign.
25:01
Speaker 4: I think Tyson Campbell and Travis Hunter are sort of
25:06
Speaker 4: quietly huge stories. Meaning if Tyson is the cornerback that
25:11
Speaker 4: you paid, which I don't know that he's been that yet.
25:14
Speaker 4: But if he is, and the skill is there, the
25:19
Speaker 4: raw material is there to do that, and if Travis
25:22
Speaker 4: Hunter is impactful at corner, then all of a sudden,
25:25
Speaker 4: what seems like a weakness might become a strength. And
25:29
Speaker 4: as you said, Brian, that is really a story that
25:32
Speaker 4: because we focus so much on offense, we probably haven't
25:35
Speaker 4: talked about enough. But the secondary can't be what it
25:37
Speaker 4: was last year.
25:38
Speaker 2: It was a huge liability of the secondary was and
25:40
Speaker 2: obviously everything goes hand in hand pass rush and whatnot
25:42
Speaker 2: leading into that, but we cannot see the explosive plays
25:45
Speaker 2: they allowed last season to drag into this season. So
25:48
Speaker 2: the secondary will definitely be a focus going into training
25:50
Speaker 2: camp and getting that all established stable us here on
25:53
Speaker 2: Jags am coming up. We'll tell you what's coming up
25:55
Speaker 2: the rest of the week and what we've got going on.
26:02
Speaker 5: There's an energy on the Pridue field. I think that
26:05
Speaker 5: starts with obviously Liam. He's a very energetic guy. He's passionate,
26:09
Speaker 5: loves football, loves to be out here. I think that's
26:11
Speaker 5: one thing I've noticed about him from the beginning is
26:13
Speaker 5: a lot of energy and that trickles down to the staff,
26:16
Speaker 5: right So I mean it's that. And then also the
26:18
Speaker 5: players that we have a big variety of the guys
26:21
Speaker 5: that they brought in and free agency, they all fit
26:23
Speaker 5: what we're trying to do. And the I guess, the
26:26
Speaker 5: culture and the energy and then even a guy like
26:28
Speaker 5: Travis bringing in who's just full of energy and positive
26:31
Speaker 5: and you know, a playmaker, all those things. It's cool
26:33
Speaker 5: seeing it all come together, and it seems like everything's
26:36
Speaker 5: well thought out about the type of people that are.
26:38
Speaker 1: Here, not just the talent.
26:41
Speaker 2: Things slowly coming together for the Jaguars. Obviously tons of
26:43
Speaker 2: changes in the off season. We hear that culture word
26:46
Speaker 2: a lot, John, but energy. You want to see the
26:49
Speaker 2: buy in. I think more than anything, you'll figure out
26:51
Speaker 2: what the team actually is as things go along. But
26:53
Speaker 2: seeing this buy in this early, as we mentioned earlier,
26:56
Speaker 2: huge turnout, probably only a couple of people missing. That's
26:59
Speaker 2: good to see at this point.
27:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, and not surprising. Players get it. They know that
27:04
Speaker 4: this is a year to be here. Even the veteran guys,
27:07
Speaker 4: they understand new regime. You want to be around it.
27:10
Speaker 4: You want to know what to expect coming in. I
27:12
Speaker 4: think Travis Hunter's presence for a team that you know
27:17
Speaker 4: anytime you change regimes, you're automatically going to be changing
27:21
Speaker 4: cultures because what happened last time didn't work, and what
27:24
Speaker 4: else are you going to talk about? But Brian, I
27:27
Speaker 4: do think Travis Hunter's confidence. There are certain guys who
27:32
Speaker 4: never really believe that they're not the best player out
27:35
Speaker 4: there and that their team shouldn't win, and that can
27:39
Speaker 4: help when you're trying to turn around to mindset. I
27:41
Speaker 4: think he does bring an element of that. Well.
27:43
Speaker 3: Obviously, he has all the skills, right, I mean, he
27:45
Speaker 3: can run forever, as you've heard, and he's so athletic,
27:48
Speaker 3: and he's got great ball skills. But it's that energy level,
27:52
Speaker 3: it's that personality. It's that confidence that he brings that
27:55
Speaker 3: sets him apart. There are lots of great athletes. It's
27:58
Speaker 3: the ability to step onto the field to know you
28:00
Speaker 3: belong and know you belong at the top of the
28:02
Speaker 3: guys who are out there.
28:03
Speaker 1: And I think that'll I think that'll bleed over.
28:05
Speaker 3: I spent a little time with him, as I told
28:07
Speaker 3: you guys in Green Bay, and have watched him out here.
28:09
Speaker 1: He's consistent.
28:10
Speaker 3: He's the same guy every time, whether you se him
28:12
Speaker 3: in the hallway or on the practice field. That's important too,
28:15
Speaker 3: because you guys know, there were some guys in the
28:17
Speaker 3: locker room in recent years who weren't really consistent. You
28:20
Speaker 3: want that consistency. They show up Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. They
28:23
Speaker 3: the same guy, whether they won or they lost the
28:25
Speaker 3: last week, that same sense of purpose, and it.
28:28
Speaker 4: Can give veterans a lift. A guy like this comes in.
28:30
Speaker 4: You see him running constantly, and you're in your fifth
28:34
Speaker 4: year and you're not playing two positions. You're like, gosh,
28:38
Speaker 4: I can't be tired. I mean, this kid's still running,
28:41
Speaker 4: and that enthusiasm can give veterans sort of a second win,
28:45
Speaker 4: the second life.
28:45
Speaker 3: Well, he expects to win, right, We've talked about that.
28:48
Speaker 3: I mean, he's a guy who has only known success.
28:51
Speaker 3: You see the trophies that he had last year, he
28:53
Speaker 3: won all of them. That expectation of excellence is something
28:58
Speaker 3: we haven't had enough of around here. And first round
29:01
Speaker 3: pick one of the most popular players in the league,
29:03
Speaker 3: already social media phenomenon. It's nice that you have that
29:06
Speaker 3: caliber of a player, with that caliber of expectation.
29:09
Speaker 4: Trophy sometimes, Yeah, everybody gave out the participation one team.
29:15
Speaker 4: There we go, I got that one.
29:18
Speaker 2: We'd love to see it all right. OTAs continue next week,
29:21
Speaker 2: we'll be back out there with them, and then we'll
29:23
Speaker 2: be back here with you on jags aam next week
29:25
Speaker 2: as well