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Press Pass | Jaguars Players Discuss Prep for Week 1, Discovering '26 Team Identity · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We feel like we've got a good team, and we
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: really just want to show people how good we are
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: at the end of the day.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: We've been training hard for it, practicing hard for it,
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: and I think we're going to go out.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: There and do that.
• 0:09
  Speaker 4: Do people still doubt in you, this team?
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: I really don't care for real. That's up to them.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: I can't control it.
• 0:14
  Speaker 5: Only one full offseason with the team, and you're already
• 0:16
  Speaker 5: being selected as a team captain. Is it rewarding knowing
• 0:19
  Speaker 5: that your peers view you in such a high regard?
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say so, especially the way I see them.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: I feel like there's a lot of guys who probably
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: could have got picked over me, Honestly, I mean, it
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: was a surprise to me, but I'm grateful for it.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: And hopefully I can just step up to the plate
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: and do what I'm supposed to do for the team.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Jacoby, so much continuity.
• 0:34
  Speaker 6: Have you seen that pay dividends here this camp and
• 0:37
  Speaker 6: getting ready for the season opener?
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: I would say so. But, I mean, football is kind
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: of fun because it's a roller coaster, right? So we
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: have good days, we have bad days. It's ultimately like
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: who's going to see it through regardless. So I think
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: we've got guys who are going to see it through
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: at the end of the day. So whatever shows out there,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: we're going to be tough. We're going to stick together
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: and then get better the next day.
• 0:54
  Speaker 6: Jacoby, starters didn't play, obviously, during the preseason. Is there
• 0:57
  Speaker 6: a little extra work you got to get done this
• 0:59
  Speaker 6: week to kind of ramp up since you didn't get
• 1:01
  Speaker 6: a lot of time?
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: I would say so, but like I said, we got
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: a lot of good guys, a lot of professional guys,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: so everybody knows what they kind of got to do.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: They just want to keep building every day, so we
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: all going to deal with the mentality to get better
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: and go out there and put our best foot forward.
• 1:12
  Speaker 7: How much does it.
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: Help going into the season knowing who you are or
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: thinking you know who you are.
• 1:17
  Speaker 8: Or what you guys are?
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: It really don't matter, honestly. When the ball kick off, you...
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Who are you?
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: At the end of the day, it don't matter who
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: you think you are or what somebody else thinks you are.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: When the game starts, show me who you are.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: I think their D-line plays hard. They're up-the-field rushers.
• 1:31
  Speaker 9: Then they have two backers that can run sideline, and
• 1:34
  Speaker 9: sideline is pretty athletic. So that's what we notice that
• 1:37
  Speaker 9: jumps out to us on the screen, and we're just
• 1:39
  Speaker 9: trying to combat that with a good game plan and
• 1:41
  Speaker 9: just doing what we do.
• 1:42
  Speaker 5: How much are you looking forward to showing your receiving
• 1:44
  Speaker 5: skills a little bit more this year?
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to it a lot.
• 1:48
  Speaker 9: Primarily last year was a lot of handoffs, but getting
• 1:51
  Speaker 9: an open space and drawing up players to give me
• 1:53
  Speaker 9: an open space is kind of what I'm looking forward to.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: What's it like seeing Emmanuel Pregnon take that step as
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: a rookie? It's amazing.
• 2:00
  Speaker 9: He comes in, he's a pro as a rook, and
• 2:03
  Speaker 9: that's what we love to see. He stepped in, he's
• 2:06
  Speaker 9: doing a great job. He's in his playbook, he's out
• 2:08
  Speaker 9: there on the grass doing a good job. So just
• 2:11
  Speaker 9: kudos to him and how much it works with him.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: Facial Toon, thanks so much for your time.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 2:14
  Speaker 6: From the running game's perspective, what has to happen to
• 2:17
  Speaker 6: pick back up where you were before the end of
• 2:20
  Speaker 6: last season when it dropped off? What do you guys
• 2:22
  Speaker 6: have to do to get back to the successful running
• 2:24
  Speaker 6: game that the coach was talking about?
• 2:26
  Speaker 9: Just stay on track and then stand on our details,
• 2:29
  Speaker 9: harping on things we practice and just being true to ourselves.
• 2:32
  Speaker 9: I think with the O-line blocking as good as they
• 2:34
  Speaker 9: have been and then the running backs just putting the
• 2:37
  Speaker 9: ball where it's supposed to go is you know, a
• 2:39
  Speaker 9: big piece of our success.
• 2:40
  Speaker 6: When you look at it at the end of the day,
• 2:41
  Speaker 6: there's yards, yards per carry, all those things. What's a
• 2:45
  Speaker 6: stat that you look at that shows you efficiency?
• 2:49
  Speaker 9: Honestly, for me, wins and losses. You know, as long
• 2:51
  Speaker 9: as we, you know, it might not be a game
• 2:53
  Speaker 9: when we go out there and, you know, rush for
• 2:54
  Speaker 9: 100 yards, 200 yards. As long as we get out
• 2:57
  Speaker 9: with the win on the category, I'm, you know, I'm
• 2:59
  Speaker 9: pretty much fine. If I got five yards, then I
• 3:00
  Speaker 9: got five yards as long as we come out and
• 3:02
  Speaker 9: You know, we dominate on offense to get the W.
• 3:04
  Speaker 9: That's kind of the realm I'm focused on.
• 3:06
  Speaker 6: Do you have a number in mind, though, of what
• 3:07
  Speaker 6: you've got to do in, say, first down in order
• 3:09
  Speaker 6: for the running game to be efficient?
• 3:11
  Speaker 9: We always like to measure, you know, a good run
• 3:13
  Speaker 9: is four yards.
• 3:13
  Speaker 8: Three to four yards is a good run.
• 3:14
  Speaker 9: So that's kind of how we try to stay on.
• 3:16
  Speaker 8: Track per carry.
• 3:17
  Speaker 9: And, you know, if we just do that, then, you know,
• 3:20
  Speaker 9: the chip fall would have made. How excited are you
• 3:23
  Speaker 9: to finally get this thing going after OTA, his training.
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: Camp, everything to be here now?
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: I'm so excited.
• 3:27
  Speaker 9: You know, we didn't get a taste of it, you know,
• 3:29
  Speaker 9: during preseason, so... This weekend being our first, you know,
• 3:32
  Speaker 9: real go at it as a team, as a squad.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: I'm looking forward to it.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: I'm amped up and I can't wait.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: Does it feel real that it's actually here now?
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it definitely does.
• 3:41
  Speaker 9: You know, time flies. And, you know, we've been putting
• 3:43
  Speaker 9: work in for the past couple of months with camp
• 3:46
  Speaker 9: and OTAs and things like that. So to come out and,
• 3:48
  Speaker 9: you know, have official game week and game plan and,
• 3:50
  Speaker 9: you know, we're going out there and playing on Sunday.
• 3:52
  Speaker 9: It came so fast, but it's so real for us. Obviously,
• 3:55
  Speaker 9: a lot of the media out here, outside of this
• 3:58
  Speaker 9: locker room, doubting what you guys can do with your
• 4:00
  Speaker 9: repeat success?
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: Just how confident are you in this team.
• 4:02
  Speaker 7: That you can go back and continue to succeed like
• 4:04
  Speaker 7: you guys did last year?
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Very confident.
• 4:06
  Speaker 9: I think the biggest thing that helped us out last year,
• 4:08
  Speaker 9: we just block outside noise. You know, a lot of
• 4:11
  Speaker 9: people doubt us, and, you know, it was like that
• 4:13
  Speaker 9: last year. And, you know, we expect nothing different. So
• 4:16
  Speaker 9: as long as we come out and, you know, we
• 4:18
  Speaker 9: play physical fast and, you know, the model we like
• 4:20
  Speaker 9: to play and how we like to play, I think,
• 4:22
  Speaker 9: you know, we'll prove.
• 4:23
  Speaker 8: What a lot of people want. He's a hell of
• 4:25
  Speaker 8: an athlete, man.
• 4:26
  Speaker 10: Stronger lower body, breaks a lot of tackles, and he
• 4:29
  Speaker 10: does a really great job on extending the play. So
• 4:32
  Speaker 10: we're going to have to really, you know, if one
• 4:34
  Speaker 10: person holding him up, let me be the only one
• 4:36
  Speaker 10: to hit him, though. Don't want nobody jumping on my
• 4:38
  Speaker 10: tackles or something. But everybody else holding him up, we
• 4:41
  Speaker 10: all got to populate to the ball.
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: The last time you went against an offense led by
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: Todd Munkin, it was 2023 against Baltimore. They had over
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: 250 yards on the ground. Are you expecting that play
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: style to translate over to Cleveland as well?
• 4:56
  Speaker 10: It's not going to happen. I mean, our motto is
• 5:00
  Speaker 10: to stop the run. So by any means, they're not
• 5:02
  Speaker 10: running that ball that much on us. So I expect,
• 5:07
  Speaker 10: you know, coming out and running the ball, his philosophy
• 5:10
  Speaker 10: of how he sees the game, yes, I expect that.
• 5:13
  Speaker 8: But, you know, 230 yards, that's not happening. So respectfully.
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: Do you guys go into the season believing you know
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: who you are? and you already have an identity because
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: of a lot of carryover? A lot of the same
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: guys back from last year, obviously the same coaching staff.
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: Do you feel like you already know who you guys
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: are going into the season?
• 5:40
  Speaker 8: We'll find out week one. We can't live in the past.
• 5:44
  Speaker 10: We only can be where our feet are.
• 5:49
  Speaker 8: We're about to find out who we really are.
• 5:52
  Speaker 10: Practice is one thing, but We can translate practice to
• 5:54
  Speaker 10: the game, and then that shows how real our identity is.
• 5:57
  Speaker 8: But the model is the same.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: Everything is the same.
• 6:00
  Speaker 8: But, you know, how is our attention going to be
• 6:02
  Speaker 8: when we step on the field? So we'll– you can
• 6:04
  Speaker 8: expect that next week.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Brian Thomas making the roster last week. What did you
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: see from him over the course of camp and the preseason?
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: What did his performance kind of say to you?
• 6:10
  Speaker 8: I mean, the same thing y'all saw. You know, a
• 6:12
  Speaker 8: guy that just rushed relentless.
• 6:14
  Speaker 10: A guy that can affect the game in the run,
• 6:17
  Speaker 10: in the pass.
• 6:18
  Speaker 8: And a guy that plays with a high motor.
• 6:20
  Speaker 10: And you can tell– you can tell– how a guy
• 6:23
  Speaker 10: is to the locker room. By the way, everybody comes
• 6:26
  Speaker 10: to them when they make a play.
• 6:28
  Speaker 8: He had a lot of love.
• 6:31
  Speaker 10: So, yeah, I mean, he's well-deserving of it. And I
• 6:34
  Speaker 10: can't wait for him to keep progressing and.
• 6:36
  Speaker 8: Keep getting better.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: Of course. I think that's most teams.
• 6:39
  Speaker 11: If the secondary is, you know what I'm saying, usually
• 6:41
  Speaker 11: the better group on the team, I think that's a
• 6:43
  Speaker 11: good team.
• 6:44
  Speaker 6: Tell me about sticky coverage because that's all we've heard
• 6:47
  Speaker 6: from coaches and folks, that we need to get just
• 6:48
  Speaker 6: a little bit stickier in coverage.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: What does that mean here?
• 6:51
  Speaker 11: I think that got to do with, you know, we're
• 6:53
  Speaker 11: a little bit of a zoney team, you know, so
• 6:55
  Speaker 11: just knowing, you know, since it's getting tighter to your coverage,
• 6:58
  Speaker 11: I think a little bit of times last year we
• 6:59
  Speaker 11: were getting to our zone and we were doing what
• 7:02
  Speaker 11: we were supposed to do, but there's a little bit
• 7:03
  Speaker 11: of error in it, so just trying to take a
• 7:05
  Speaker 11: lot of the error out of the coverage.
• 7:06
  Speaker 6: You've also been a little more aggressive, I think, when
• 7:08
  Speaker 6: we watched you guys this year. A little more man concepts?
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: What do they call that? Vision zone where you're looking?
• 7:14
  Speaker 11: There's a little more matchy. It's still, you know, zoney,
• 7:17
  Speaker 11: but just playing a little more matchy.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: Do you like that? Does it fit you? Yeah, I mean,
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: you know, at Florida State, I was a man-to-man. That's
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: all we did, you know.
• 7:24
  Speaker 11: And I kind of excel in those type of things,
• 7:26
  Speaker 11: you know. So, yeah, I think that kind of plays
• 7:29
  Speaker 11: to all of our strengths. But, you know, before Cap came,
• 7:31
  Speaker 11: we were a big man team, you know, kind of
• 7:34
  Speaker 11: did it every play. You know, so just being able
• 7:35
  Speaker 11: to match the zone with the man, and even when
• 7:37
  Speaker 11: you're in zone, matching up.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: The coverage, I think that's a big help to us.
• 7:40
  Speaker 6: You guys didn't get to play much, hardly at all,
• 7:43
  Speaker 6: in the preseason, only in those joint practices. Will it
• 7:45
  Speaker 6: take you a little while to get sort of going
• 7:47
  Speaker 6: on opening day, or can you get ready for that
• 7:49
  Speaker 6: with extra work this week?
• 7:51
  Speaker 11: I think with the extra work this week, and then
• 7:53
  Speaker 11: during the joint practice, we did a good job of,
• 7:54
  Speaker 11: you know, we're a physical team. I think we practiced
• 7:56
  Speaker 11: that way. So I don't think it would be a
• 7:58
  Speaker 11: lack of, like, physicality when it comes to the game.
• 8:00
  Speaker 11: You know, I just think, like, we didn't get those, like,
• 8:03
  Speaker 11: getting ready for a game, like pregame and stuff like that.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: So I think that would be new.
• 8:06
  Speaker 11: But as far as, like, actually playing football, I think
• 8:08
  Speaker 11: we did a great job of doing that in the
• 8:09
  Speaker 11: joint practice.
• 8:10
  Speaker 6: Everybody talks about being a physical team. The coaches talked
• 8:13
  Speaker 6: about this being a more physical team. How are you
• 8:15
  Speaker 6: a more physical team? How do you achieve that in
• 8:17
  Speaker 6: a league where everybody wants.
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: To be physical?
• 8:19
  Speaker 11: Mentality, and I think you gotta practice it. I think
• 8:21
  Speaker 11: we do a great job of practicing it. We practice
• 8:23
  Speaker 11: physicality with everything we do, even when we don't, like
• 8:26
  Speaker 11: even when we're in spiders, like attacking blocks, attacking, you
• 8:29
  Speaker 11: know what I'm saying, doing everything the right way when
• 8:30
  Speaker 11: we're not in pads, using your hands, being physical with
• 8:33
  Speaker 11: your hands, shedding off of blocks, you know what I'm saying?
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: I think we do a good job of emphasizing stuff
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: like that.
• 8:37
  Speaker 6: Finally, I could ask you about Deshaun Watson or the
• 8:40
  Speaker 6: rookie receivers or Jerry Judy.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: But the coach keeps saying in and about any of that,
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: it's about you.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 8:45
  Speaker 6: You see it the same way?
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: How do you prepare then if.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: It's about you?
• 8:48
  Speaker 11: Uh, doing what you've been doing and attacking your process
• 8:51
  Speaker 11: the way you attack it. Obviously, they have a great quarterback,
• 8:54
  Speaker 11: great receiver. You gotta pay respect to everybody you play, obviously,
• 8:57
  Speaker 11: in this league. But I just think if we go
• 8:59
  Speaker 11: out and do what we're supposed to do, some things
• 9:01
  Speaker 11: could work in our favor.
• 9:02
  Speaker 7: Playing 50-50 ball is kind of hard on the defense.
• 9:05
  Speaker 7: So just matching that intensity, going out there and being
• 9:07
  Speaker 7: physical with those guys, trying to set the tone, like
• 9:10
  Speaker 7: you said. to begin that season, that's what we're looking
• 9:15
  Speaker 7: to do. Are you excited to see how this defense
• 9:16
  Speaker 7: can kind of come together year two for most of
• 9:18
  Speaker 7: you guys with Coach Camp and see how the pieces
• 9:20
  Speaker 7: kind of fall this year for this defense?
• 9:22
  Speaker 8: Absolutely.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: We got to take that next step.
• 9:25
  Speaker 7: We got to take the next step and be one
• 9:27
  Speaker 7: of those contenders to make sure that we click it
• 9:31
  Speaker 7: on all levels, honestly. So that's really about it. Our communication,
• 9:35
  Speaker 7: our play style, which is always going to be the thing,
• 9:37
  Speaker 7: it's just more so just being connected connected as a
• 9:40
  Speaker 7: team and you know as a defense specifically going out
• 9:43
  Speaker 7: there and playing together and communicating better and that's that's
• 9:45
  Speaker 7: really our next step you know if we can get
• 9:47
  Speaker 7: that i think we'll be really good i know we're
• 9:49
  Speaker 7: gonna be really good how do.
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: You compare the food in the locker room going into
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: this first game compared to this time last year knowing
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: the success that you had last season You.
• 9:58
  Speaker 7: Didn't really expect what guys would do out.
• 10:01
  Speaker 8: There and what it would look like together.
• 10:03
  Speaker 7: So we've seen what it looks like for our best,
• 10:05
  Speaker 7: and that's the standard that we want to go out
• 10:07
  Speaker 7: there and show this year. So year two was just
• 10:10
  Speaker 7: elevating that standard and keeping it to where we.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: Can play good ball consistently.
• 10:14
  Speaker 7: Last year we had some ups and downs. And we're
• 10:17
  Speaker 7: going to go out there and continue to get better
• 10:19
  Speaker 7: as a football team and stay together.
• 10:20
  Speaker 6: Absolutely.
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: That helps.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: That helps a lot.
• 10:28
  Speaker 7: Especially when you don't have to think about what type
• 10:31
  Speaker 7: of play style we're going to get out there.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: We understand the play style. We understand the standard.
• 10:35
  Speaker 7: We just got to go out there and execute it
• 10:37
  Speaker 7: and match up what we're doing against certain offenses.
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: So we know the standard.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: We know what's expected.
• 10:42
  Speaker 7: We just got to go out there and not think
• 10:43
  Speaker 7: too much, not be anxious, and go play.