Latest / Jags A.M. / Jags A.M. Podcast Ep. 227 | Schedule Release Review, Upcoming OTA's
Transcript
- 0:18Speaker 1: Good morning, and welcome to Jags a m mid May.
- 0:22Speaker 2: Things are starting to heat up before they cool back
- 0:25Speaker 2: down again at the end of June, and we've got a.
- 0:26Speaker 1: Lot to cover.
- 0:27Speaker 2: We've got Mark Dufner here, so you know it's a
- 0:29Speaker 2: big show when the coaches around.
- 0:31Speaker 1: John Osier is here.
- 0:32Speaker 2: Let's get started right out of the gate, as we
- 0:34Speaker 2: always do with big things. Last Thursday night, the schedule
- 0:38Speaker 2: dropped and you knew it about seven thirty when the
- 0:41Speaker 2: schedule release videos all hit the internet. Now we know
- 0:45Speaker 2: is big thing one. First of all, now we know
- 0:49Speaker 2: who the Jaguars play and when they play him, and
- 0:51Speaker 2: you know, in a skeptical world, it's really skeptical in
- 0:54Speaker 2: the age of the Internet and social media. I was
- 0:56Speaker 2: really surprised by how many people actually thought that Trevor
- 1:00Speaker 2: Lawrence got his haircut for a schedule release video.
- 1:03Speaker 1: Duff, what'd you think of the video? And then how
- 1:06Speaker 1: do you approach the.
- 1:07Speaker 2: Schedule when you get it the first time as a coach?
- 1:10Speaker 2: What are you're looking for, how it's broken up, where
- 1:11Speaker 2: you're going in August, where you're going in November.
- 1:14Speaker 1: How do you look at a schedule?
- 1:16Speaker 3: Well, first of all, I did think the video is unbelievable,
- 1:19Speaker 3: so I have to agree it clearly attracted me and
- 1:24Speaker 3: got my attention big time as far as that's concerned.
- 1:26Speaker 3: In fact, I was thinking about going to the same
- 1:28Speaker 3: barber and trying to get mine done if they would
- 1:31Speaker 3: take me. But I was very impressed with that. And then,
- 1:34Speaker 3: you know, as far as the schedule is concerned, Yeah,
- 1:38Speaker 3: I break it into quarters, you know, and kind of
- 1:40Speaker 3: look at well, you know, we have to come out
- 1:43Speaker 3: winning these quarters for us to get to where we
- 1:45Speaker 3: want to go. And especially as a coach, when you
- 1:48Speaker 3: scheduled does come out, you're looking at the chronological order
- 1:51Speaker 3: in terms of now I've got to really dive into
- 1:55Speaker 3: the deep details of this opponent, the strengths that they've got,
- 1:58Speaker 3: the weaknesses they've got, so that we've got to expose
- 2:01Speaker 3: our players to in the practice routine and also in
- 2:04Speaker 3: the classroom. So the order is very, very important to
- 2:07Speaker 3: coaches because again, the schedule that you've got and what
- 2:10Speaker 3: you want to get taught in training camp to them
- 2:12Speaker 3: and in pre season to get them ready to play
- 2:14Speaker 3: the season.
- 2:15Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 2:15Speaker 5: I sort of knew it wasn't real, but a lot
- 2:21Speaker 5: of my readers I got this cycle hey, is it real?
- 2:25Speaker 4: And then as soon as they found out it wasn't,
- 2:27Speaker 4: I knew what.
- 2:28Speaker 5: So I think it fooled a lot more people than
- 2:31Speaker 5: maybe people are willing to admit.
- 2:33Speaker 4: But we'll never know about that.
- 2:34Speaker 5: So I guess when I look at the schedule, I
- 2:37Speaker 5: try to look in the same way as Duff. I
- 2:39Speaker 5: also look at it from the point of view that
- 2:42Speaker 5: you sort of know from experience that the teams.
- 2:48Speaker 4: You can think that the first part of a schedule looks.
- 2:51Speaker 5: Quote easy or winnable, or you can navigate it. But
- 2:56Speaker 5: if you had looked at this schedule this time last year,
- 2:59Speaker 5: you wouldn't have thought the Patriots in Week.
- 3:01Speaker 4: Two were a big game. Correct.
- 3:04Speaker 5: Nobody last year thought that Jaguars Broncos would be a
- 3:09Speaker 5: huge game, and the Broncos might be there, but nobody
- 3:12Speaker 5: thought the Jaguars, you know that late December game is
- 3:15Speaker 5: gonna be big. So I don't think you really know
- 3:19Speaker 5: how hard a schedule is until about week five or six,
- 3:22Speaker 5: when it's actually going on and you know the teams.
- 3:24Speaker 5: So I kind of look at it as Okay, you're
- 3:27Speaker 5: going to cold weather in Chicago late, You've got a
- 3:31Speaker 5: couple of hot games early and maybe take advantage of
- 3:33Speaker 5: the heat. I try to look at it sort of
- 3:35Speaker 5: stepped back from it because everything changes so fast with
- 3:38Speaker 5: injuries and roster turnover that.
- 3:41Speaker 4: Except for a few teams, it's hard to know how
- 3:43Speaker 4: good they're gonna be.
- 3:44Speaker 2: And we'll obviously spend a little more time on that
- 3:46Speaker 2: later in the show. We move along to big Thing
- 3:49Speaker 2: number two and is tinkering The Jaguars add a veteran
- 3:51Speaker 2: running back to that room, a Mirrorbduel who's been with
- 3:55Speaker 2: the Lions and the Colts, a couple of other teams
- 3:57Speaker 2: since coming into the league.
- 3:58Speaker 1: A few years back.
- 3:59Speaker 2: And it's a John in particular. Travis Eta Junior is gone,
- 4:04Speaker 2: and so they bring in Chris Rodriguez, and they've added
- 4:07Speaker 2: some guys through free agency, undrafted rookie free Agentsy in.
- 4:11Speaker 1: Particular, and now they bring in a mirror of Duela.
- 4:13Speaker 2: Your thoughts on tinkering with the running back room and guys,
- 4:17Speaker 2: both of you, is there another room or two that
- 4:20Speaker 2: you might be looking to add a veteran like of
- 4:22Speaker 2: Doulah who could come in and give you a specific
- 4:25Speaker 2: subset or roll on this team as you head into
- 4:28Speaker 2: OTA's and beyond that, mini Caount.
- 4:30Speaker 5: Yeah, I think there's a subtle difference in the last
- 4:33Speaker 5: four or five years to this sort of a move,
- 4:34Speaker 5: and maybe before I'm not sure if they had made
- 4:38Speaker 5: it five years ago, before practice squad could be brought up,
- 4:42Speaker 5: before veterans could stay there.
- 4:44Speaker 4: I sort of wonder about the move.
- 4:46Speaker 5: Now you can bring in a ten or eleven year
- 4:48Speaker 5: veteran with the idea of Okay, maybe they make the
- 4:52Speaker 5: top three or four, but if not, you can have
- 4:56Speaker 5: them on the roster the whole season, activate them or
- 5:00Speaker 5: the roster around the practice squad, activate them two or
- 5:02Speaker 5: three times, have them there and ready to move up
- 5:05Speaker 5: if there's an injury.
- 5:06Speaker 4: He also brings you some returnability, so that feels like
- 5:11Speaker 4: this kind of move.
- 5:11Speaker 5: I'm not saying he won't make the fifty three, but
- 5:14Speaker 5: you can bring in older veterans now, and if they
- 5:17Speaker 5: don't make the fifty three, you can still have them
- 5:20Speaker 5: be an active part of your organization for the entire year.
- 5:24Speaker 5: Other places, look, a defensive tackle still makes sense, but
- 5:30Speaker 5: I think rush and maybe once they hit training camp
- 5:36Speaker 5: you could still see them. Okay, now we've seen it
- 5:39Speaker 5: on the field, Maybe rush and a.
- 5:42Speaker 4: Third fourth guy there. You never know.
- 5:45Speaker 5: I don't think duff right now, they are thinking, hey,
- 5:47Speaker 5: we're desperate to address another position.
- 5:49Speaker 3: I agree with you, and I agree with your assessment
- 5:51Speaker 3: of the running back edition. I mean again, I think
- 5:54Speaker 3: that's a brilliant move right now, and it's also kind
- 5:57Speaker 3: of again indicative of the push to make the running
- 6:00Speaker 3: game even better and better, having more fresh legs, fresh
- 6:04Speaker 3: application in terms of personnel as far as that's concerned.
- 6:06Speaker 3: So I think that's really good, and I'm with you
- 6:08Speaker 3: in terms of your assessment of what areas need some
- 6:11Speaker 3: possible attention. You've got to affect the quarterback, and however
- 6:15Speaker 3: we can do that, whether it be internal rush with
- 6:18Speaker 3: the into your defensive lineman, which I kind of leaned
- 6:21Speaker 3: that position maybe the most, but also as an edge guy.
- 6:24Speaker 3: People that can that are fresh and that can disrupt
- 6:26Speaker 3: the opponent's schemes and their playability, I think is what
- 6:31Speaker 3: we're looking for. So I think I agree with you.
- 6:33Speaker 3: I think your dead on and what your assessment is
- 6:35Speaker 3: in both areas.
- 6:36Speaker 2: All right, the Jaguars hit the field next week for
- 6:39Speaker 2: OTA's that's what's next.
- 6:42Speaker 1: As an I've lost track honestly of phases right I
- 6:44Speaker 1: there's phase one, Phase two phases.
- 6:46Speaker 2: I don't know, but I do know that next Tuesday
- 6:49Speaker 2: they'll be out there.
- 6:50Speaker 1: The media will be invited to join.
- 6:51Speaker 2: So it must be that phase of the game where
- 6:54Speaker 2: they can get something done in these OTA's on the
- 6:56Speaker 2: field activities.
- 6:57Speaker 1: Mark, you've been through this process.
- 6:59Speaker 2: Give us a sense of what this next couple of
- 7:02Speaker 2: weeks before mini camp is all about. Honestly, I think
- 7:05Speaker 2: OTAs in mini camp field just about the same these days.
- 7:09Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that the OTAs gives the coaching staff
- 7:12Speaker 3: a chance right now and the team to kind of
- 7:14Speaker 3: mesh you know, in the classroom. On the field, there'll
- 7:18Speaker 3: be more teamwork, more unit work than there's been up
- 7:22Speaker 3: to this point. Up to this point, there's been a
- 7:23Speaker 3: lot of individual position work and development as far as
- 7:27Speaker 3: that's concerned. So the coaches I think are really, I think,
- 7:30Speaker 3: working very very hard to establish the fundamentals, the foundation
- 7:34Speaker 3: of drills, of scheme of situations with the ball club
- 7:38Speaker 3: right now so that when they get into training camp
- 7:41Speaker 3: they can start from not the very beginning, but pick
- 7:44Speaker 3: up where they have been in OTAs and move forward.
- 7:47Speaker 3: You know, the pathway to execution is really paid with
- 7:50Speaker 3: repetition and the more repetitions, foundational repetitions this team can
- 7:56Speaker 3: put in and get established as far as with all
- 7:58Speaker 3: the team, not just the young players, the better they're
- 8:00Speaker 3: gonna be.
- 8:01Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 8:01Speaker 5: Next Tuesday is the first day of Phase three, which
- 8:06Speaker 5: is the first OTA and then there's two weeks of
- 8:08Speaker 5: OTAs and this year there's a mini camp and then
- 8:10Speaker 5: final week of OTAs. And what's important is that it's
- 8:14Speaker 5: the first time they can go eleven on eleven. It's
- 8:16Speaker 5: the first time they can have anything that really resembles
- 8:19Speaker 5: what you know.
- 8:22Speaker 4: When fans think of football practice.
- 8:25Speaker 5: This is the first time that looks like football practice
- 8:27Speaker 5: in the off season.
- 8:29Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 8:29Speaker 5: And the difference in mini camp and OTAs is you
- 8:31Speaker 5: have to go to mini camp, you don't have to
- 8:33Speaker 5: go ta's.
- 8:33Speaker 4: You don't have to go to OTA's if you don't
- 8:35Speaker 4: want to. So what are you looking for?
- 8:39Speaker 5: You're looking for this team to look a lot more
- 8:43Speaker 5: in tune than it did last year at this time.
- 8:48Speaker 5: From what Liam Cohen said during rookie minicamp, he's already
- 8:50Speaker 5: seeing that they're starting at a further along pace. You're
- 8:56Speaker 5: not having to teach as many fundamentals, but you're still
- 8:58Speaker 5: going over to the fundamentals. So it's going to look
- 9:00Speaker 5: the same as it did last year, except you wanted
- 9:02Speaker 5: to look crisper, and I have no reason to doubt
- 9:05Speaker 5: that it will because it looks so crisp at the
- 9:07Speaker 5: end of last season. Brian Liam said, I think during
- 9:09Speaker 5: rookie mini caamp that you really wanted to see them
- 9:12Speaker 5: sort of be able to start from a further along place,
- 9:16Speaker 5: and I.
- 9:17Speaker 2: Have no doubt that they've done that, and we will
- 9:19Speaker 2: have it confirmed for us next Tuesday when they hit
- 9:23Speaker 2: the Ota field on Tuesday afternoon. Those are big things.
- 9:26Speaker 2: We've got other things to share with you, including a
- 9:30Speaker 2: deeper dive into the schedule. We'll talk about tough stretches,
- 9:34Speaker 2: games we're looking forward to and more, and also the
- 9:37Speaker 2: O zones not far away. So stay with us here
- 9:39Speaker 2: on jags Am.
- 9:50Speaker 1: We're back on drags Am. Welcome, glad to have you.
- 9:54Speaker 2: We've got Mark Dufner here so as I like to say,
- 9:56Speaker 2: just because he blushes, and we said it's always a
- 9:59Speaker 2: big show.
- 10:00Speaker 1: Fellas.
- 10:01Speaker 2: We started being a little bit on the schedule in
- 10:03Speaker 2: big things, but let's talk about it since we haven't
- 10:06Speaker 2: had a chance since the schedule came out. There's some
- 10:08Speaker 2: tough stretches in this I mean everyone wants to look
- 10:10Speaker 2: at great a schedule. Is it a tough schedule? Are
- 10:13Speaker 2: there easy spots for them? There are a couple of
- 10:15Speaker 2: really challenging spots. So each of you had a chance
- 10:18Speaker 2: to look at the schedule. Now, where do you see
- 10:20Speaker 2: the rough spot might be for this football team?
- 10:23Speaker 3: Off, First of all, you know, I think said earlier
- 10:26Speaker 3: appropriately that you never really know until you see four
- 10:29Speaker 3: or five games into the season really what those teams
- 10:31Speaker 3: are about. But going into it early in the season
- 10:33Speaker 3: when we start off and we're playing at Denver, New England, Cincinnati, Philadelphia,
- 10:38Speaker 3: and Houston in London, geez before the buy, I mean,
- 10:42Speaker 3: that's a pretty tough stretch right there. Those teams reflective
- 10:44Speaker 3: of last year. Cincinnati is going to be on the
- 10:46Speaker 3: come right now, having a bounce back attitude, and they've
- 10:50Speaker 3: got to have a bounce back season. But when you
- 10:52Speaker 3: look at how good Denver was last year, New England's
- 10:54Speaker 3: play obviously Philadelphia and Houston, that's a tough stretch. So
- 10:58Speaker 3: that first one, I think is a concern. And then
- 11:00Speaker 3: later in the year when we get into play in Chicago,
- 11:03Speaker 3: the Bears, Pittsburgh here on a I think a Monday
- 11:05Speaker 3: night game if I'm not mistaken, Houston again on the road,
- 11:08Speaker 3: and then Dallas She's I mean, those are tough stretches
- 11:11Speaker 3: in a row, so you know, again you can get
- 11:14Speaker 3: all excited about them. He right, now, we take them
- 11:16Speaker 3: the old cliches. We take them one at a time,
- 11:18Speaker 3: and if we've got to play them in the parking lot,
- 11:20Speaker 3: we play them in the parking lot. But these are
- 11:23Speaker 3: certainly all these games will commander our full attention.
- 11:26Speaker 1: John.
- 11:27Speaker 2: When you looked, did you find a stretch that you
- 11:29Speaker 2: thought might be a significant storyline or identity creating opportunity
- 11:33Speaker 2: for this team?
- 11:33Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I think that's right early, that five
- 11:37Speaker 5: game stretch and Cleveland. You know, the bad news there
- 11:42Speaker 5: is the opener is always weird. So you can sit
- 11:45Speaker 5: there and say what Cleveland was X last year. We've
- 11:48Speaker 5: all seen enough openers to know it really didn't matter.
- 11:50Speaker 5: So my experience is, I think this is a team
- 11:56Speaker 5: me and the Jaguars. They can contend deep into the
- 11:59Speaker 5: post season, and if they're healthy, I think I think
- 12:02Speaker 5: they could be a super Bowl team. Usually super Bowl
- 12:05Speaker 5: teams can get through stretches like this, right, and then
- 12:08Speaker 5: you're not worried about it, but I think you are
- 12:10Speaker 5: going to find out if you're good or not. I
- 12:12Speaker 5: think they are good. I think they're going to find
- 12:13Speaker 5: out that they're good. But I wrote when I was
- 12:15Speaker 5: talking about this last week, getting you know, getting out
- 12:19Speaker 5: of that stretch four and two will be an accomplishment
- 12:22Speaker 5: and I think they can do it. But you'll feel
- 12:25Speaker 5: good about it if they do it. And you know,
- 12:28Speaker 5: a team that I didn't feel as confident in, I
- 12:31Speaker 5: could see being two and four coming to that. But
- 12:33Speaker 5: I think the Jaggeds we saw last year they beat
- 12:35Speaker 5: good teams down the stretch. They can play well on
- 12:37Speaker 5: the road, being on the road, which they are a
- 12:39Speaker 5: lot this season. Didn't bother this team last year. So
- 12:42Speaker 5: I don't see anything that they can't do. They just
- 12:44Speaker 5: have to go do it now.
- 12:45Speaker 2: This to me, and I wrote this for the schedule observations,
- 12:48Speaker 2: looks to be a schedule where the NFL is saying,
- 12:51Speaker 2: prove it right. I mean, based on last year, you
- 12:53Speaker 2: won your final eight, you were one of the stories
- 12:56Speaker 2: of the season. There's the quarterback and Liam Cohen and
- 12:58Speaker 2: everything emerged. Now prove it, which is why they give you,
- 13:01Speaker 2: you know, the Broncos in Denver and the Patriots here,
- 13:04Speaker 2: two teams that played each other in the AFC Divisional.
- 13:07Speaker 1: Game last year.
- 13:08Speaker 2: I mean, this looks like gay in all the prime
- 13:10Speaker 2: time because the two London games are essentially primetime and
- 13:13Speaker 2: then the other three primetime games.
- 13:15Speaker 1: This to me, Mark says, what do you got?
- 13:18Speaker 3: Yeah? No, I think you're one hundred percent correct. I
- 13:20Speaker 3: mean that they're they're putting the challenge out there and
- 13:22Speaker 3: in big Bowl letters, if you will, as far as
- 13:25Speaker 3: that's concerned, and heck, that's what we want though. I mean,
- 13:27Speaker 3: if you know, we don't want to be a flash
- 13:29Speaker 3: in the pan. We don't want to be a one
- 13:30Speaker 3: year wonder, if you so to speak. So we're I
- 13:33Speaker 3: think this team, the way they attacked last year, as
- 13:35Speaker 3: you mentioned, how they played on the well, on the
- 13:38Speaker 3: road against the best competition in the league, I think
- 13:41Speaker 3: they're primed up for it and anxious to pick up
- 13:44Speaker 3: from where they left off and know that they got
- 13:45Speaker 3: more in the tank and let's go get them.
- 13:47Speaker 5: I think, Brian, if things go right this year, which
- 13:49Speaker 5: I have no reason to think that they won't, by
- 13:53Speaker 5: the end of the season, the Jaguars should feel like
- 13:56Speaker 5: a normal good team again, meaning you've seen them. If
- 14:01Speaker 5: you're not this market, if you're in you know, Scottsdale,
- 14:05Speaker 5: you've seen.
- 14:06Speaker 4: The Jaguars four or five times, you're familiar with them.
- 14:08Speaker 5: To me, that Baltimore Ravens game on Thursday night mid season,
- 14:12Speaker 5: because they won't have been on prime time until then,
- 14:15Speaker 5: is sort of the Okay, hey, now we're here, you know,
- 14:18Speaker 5: and you're playing another good team at some point for
- 14:23Speaker 5: this franchise, you've got what the five high profiles games
- 14:28Speaker 5: plus New England.
- 14:30Speaker 4: At some point this year.
- 14:32Speaker 5: It shouldn't feel like a surprise to people when the
- 14:37Speaker 5: Jaguars are two and one in those or three and o,
- 14:40Speaker 5: whatever it is. But when they've navigated things successfully, you
- 14:44Speaker 5: hope that by November December, that's not a huge story
- 14:47Speaker 5: and you're just chugging along and you're doing what you do,
- 14:51Speaker 5: which is beating good teams.
- 14:52Speaker 4: I think that's how this year is gonna feel. Now.
- 14:54Speaker 5: It won't feel routine around here. I'm not saying that
- 14:56Speaker 5: from a national point of view. I think by the
- 14:59Speaker 5: end of this year it's yeah.
- 15:00Speaker 4: They're good, all right.
- 15:02Speaker 2: So let's wrap up the schedule conversation with this what's
- 15:04Speaker 2: one game when you saw the schedule, you said, that's.
- 15:07Speaker 1: Gonna be fun.
- 15:08Speaker 5: Yeah, there's so many of them, which I think is
- 15:11Speaker 5: the overriding thing of this schedule is that they're six
- 15:13Speaker 5: or seven.
- 15:14Speaker 4: They are going to be like that.
- 15:16Speaker 5: The Dallas game late in the season over there at
- 15:21Speaker 5: at and T Stadium, and it's on that December twenty seventh,
- 15:25Speaker 5: primetime Sunday. There's no official list of these, but that's
- 15:30Speaker 5: a pretty high profile moment because everybody's been off the
- 15:34Speaker 5: it's the last scheduled primetime game, I think because everything
- 15:38Speaker 5: else is TVD. So to me, that kind of shows, hey,
- 15:41Speaker 5: we want the Jags and the Cowboys in primetime. That's
- 15:45Speaker 5: gonna be a sexy game. And duff you know all
- 15:47Speaker 5: about sexy games.
- 15:48Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I know a lot about it. I know
- 15:50Speaker 3: a lot about them. But for me, I kind of
- 15:53Speaker 3: look at that game. I think just before it's the
- 15:55Speaker 3: Houston game in Houston, where you know, by that point
- 15:58Speaker 3: right now, we'll have I hope we have a chance
- 16:00Speaker 3: to really lock up our division, and uh, that's going
- 16:04Speaker 3: to be a key. I know we play Indianapolis later on,
- 16:06Speaker 3: so after the Dallas game, I believe so. Uh, but
- 16:09Speaker 3: but that's going to be a huge I think, uh,
- 16:12Speaker 3: you know, a contest for us and certainly will determine
- 16:15Speaker 3: a lot of where we're going to go with the
- 16:16Speaker 3: postseason wise.
- 16:17Speaker 5: Yeah, that has the feel to be the game, the
- 16:19Speaker 5: most important game of the year for that for me.
- 16:20Speaker 1: I went and we too.
- 16:21Speaker 2: I went with Denver early on obviously. But you know,
- 16:23Speaker 2: last year the Jaguars took them by surprise. They didn't
- 16:27Speaker 2: just win the game, but they dominated the game. And
- 16:30Speaker 2: now you're going in there in week two and the
- 16:32Speaker 2: Broncos are going to expect to be an AFC power again,
- 16:35Speaker 2: but you won't. You won't sneak up on them, and
- 16:37Speaker 2: they're going to be absolutely looking at you.
- 16:39Speaker 1: And and we know that their.
- 16:41Speaker 2: Coaching staff, John Can, you can grind on things. So
- 16:45Speaker 2: there's probably gonna be a little of.
- 16:46Speaker 3: That going right, no doubt about it.
- 16:48Speaker 1: But it was like commentary about small market. No, no, no, no, oh,
- 16:51Speaker 1: that'll come back.
- 16:52Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's that's fresh. Now that's all going to
- 16:54Speaker 3: be fresh, and blood's going to be in the water
- 16:55Speaker 3: for that. But let me say this to you what
- 16:57Speaker 3: they did do last year going out and playing who
- 17:00Speaker 3: was hot as they could be, as hot as a
- 17:02Speaker 3: team as there wasn't a league when we played them
- 17:04Speaker 3: at that time, and like you said, didn't just beat them,
- 17:06Speaker 3: beat them pretty darn good there. That was a huge,
- 17:09Speaker 3: huge statement that I know resonated with that ball club
- 17:12Speaker 3: and certainly is part of the development building blocks for
- 17:15Speaker 3: our team.
- 17:16Speaker 5: On As I said last Yember, I rarely used the
- 17:19Speaker 5: phrase statement game because.
- 17:23Speaker 4: I just usually see it as a cliche. It's too
- 17:25Speaker 4: easy to fall back on.
- 17:27Speaker 5: In the last five ten years, there's never been a
- 17:29Speaker 5: statement game for this franchise like that. It was the
- 17:31Speaker 5: game that showed I think these players, everybody in this building, oh,
- 17:35Speaker 5: what we've hoped was real is really real. They showed
- 17:39Speaker 5: the league that too, and I think that's the game
- 17:41Speaker 5: overall this franchise carries into this year saying, hey, we
- 17:46Speaker 5: do belong.
- 17:47Speaker 4: It's what allows them to walk with their chest out
- 17:49Speaker 4: a little bit well.
- 17:49Speaker 2: And I just I love that environment. If I can't
- 17:51Speaker 2: be at home, I'd like to be in Denver. I
- 17:52Speaker 2: just think it's one of the best places to play
- 17:54Speaker 2: in the league. And you know, Sean Payton is going
- 17:55Speaker 2: to try.
- 17:56Speaker 1: To make it a statement game, no doubt for his team.
- 17:58Speaker 2: All Right, we've got statements to make next when we
- 18:01Speaker 2: go into the Ozone mailbank, you're on jags Am stay
- 18:03Speaker 2: with us?
- 18:16Speaker 1: Is it Fritchy sud You know the John created that.
- 18:24Speaker 1: That's John's voice.
- 18:26Speaker 4: I think it's fantastic voice.
- 18:28Speaker 2: That the music John sings the two it's all about
- 18:32Speaker 2: John's all about the Ozone. So let's get into it
- 18:34Speaker 2: and get Mark's perspective on these questions as well. And
- 18:37Speaker 2: we will start with Sean from Oakley, who has a
- 18:40Speaker 2: thought about the stretch of schedule where the Jaguars will
- 18:43Speaker 2: be home or part of me away from home for
- 18:46Speaker 2: a very long time. Between weeks three and twelve, there's
- 18:49Speaker 2: only one home game in Jacksonville. The reason why, obviously,
- 18:52Speaker 2: is they wanted that, don't Mark Lamping talked about it
- 18:55Speaker 2: early in the spring, having a window where the construction
- 18:58Speaker 2: crew could get back into the day and get some
- 19:01Speaker 2: things done because they're out for most of the ball John.
- 19:04Speaker 5: Yeah, And I think it's tough if you're not following
- 19:08Speaker 5: super closely and listening closely to everything that's said.
- 19:11Speaker 4: It's it's tough to understand that.
- 19:13Speaker 5: But basically, the only way that they could get any
- 19:18Speaker 5: home games here this year and not have two years
- 19:21Speaker 5: away from the stadium was to have the construction timing
- 19:24Speaker 5: work to make twenty twenty eight possible, and they believe that.
- 19:29Speaker 4: You know, that five.
- 19:30Speaker 5: Week window in twenty twenty six was necessary to set
- 19:35Speaker 5: up the construction for twenty seven into twenty eight, and
- 19:39Speaker 5: I probably botched the information, but somewhere in the spirit
- 19:42Speaker 5: that your bet, so yeah, it's it's not a great
- 19:48Speaker 5: thing to have one home game in an eight week
- 19:53Speaker 5: or six week span, but it was the alternative essentially
- 19:58Speaker 5: to having none.
- 19:59Speaker 4: So that's why it happened.
- 20:01Speaker 5: And again, Duff, this team was so good on the
- 20:05Speaker 5: road last year. To me, bad teams struggle with circumstance.
- 20:11Speaker 5: Good teams can typically play through that kind of thing.
- 20:13Speaker 5: I don't think they'll have.
- 20:15Speaker 4: A huge issue without being able to.
- 20:17Speaker 3: Play here, nor do I. And this team showed a
- 20:19Speaker 3: lot of maturity last year and how they handled that schedule,
- 20:22Speaker 3: and you know, really a lot of times the away
- 20:24Speaker 3: games get the chance for your team to be together,
- 20:27Speaker 3: and there's a word used bonding and all those type
- 20:30Speaker 3: of things that go on. And I found that our
- 20:33Speaker 3: focus and our attention to detail and as I said,
- 20:37Speaker 3: team unity, if you will, was better when we were
- 20:40Speaker 3: on the road time after time, and so in a
- 20:42Speaker 3: lot of ways, you take this team currently with the
- 20:44Speaker 3: attitude they have, the maturity I mentioned that they've got,
- 20:47Speaker 3: they'll take this as an advantage right now and you'll
- 20:49Speaker 3: see them come out of it with production.
- 20:51Speaker 2: We also, I do think this is an opportunity to
- 20:53Speaker 2: get ready for twenty twenty seven when every week is
- 20:55Speaker 2: going to seem like an away game because you're going
- 20:57Speaker 2: to be getting on a bus and driving to Orlando.
- 20:59Speaker 2: So there's some hardship through these two years of the stadium,
- 21:02Speaker 2: and at least, as John you said, you're getting games
- 21:05Speaker 2: here this year and not every game for two years
- 21:07Speaker 2: out of the market.
- 21:08Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 21:08Speaker 5: Good road performance is also in my experience for teams
- 21:11Speaker 5: that are good at it, it becomes a habit because
- 21:13Speaker 5: you know how to navigate it, and it almost becomes
- 21:16Speaker 5: muscle memory for these guys.
- 21:17Speaker 4: Okay, now I've got to focus here. I gotta do this.
- 21:20Speaker 5: So usually good road teams continue that if the core
- 21:24Speaker 5: of the team stays together.
- 21:25Speaker 3: Yeah, you take advantage of it. You making an advantage
- 21:28Speaker 3: for yourselves and that this is what we've got. We
- 21:31Speaker 3: can't change it. Let's make it a positive. Let's make
- 21:33Speaker 3: it an advantage.
- 21:34Speaker 2: Up next is Cooper's mom, who's Cooper from Jacksonville, and
- 21:38Speaker 2: she is not a fan of a divisional opponent, especially
- 21:43Speaker 2: the Texans, which would become such defeated rival in the
- 21:47Speaker 2: recent past. But you're not a fan of this going
- 21:50Speaker 2: to London.
- 21:51Speaker 5: Yeah, Look, they've played, but the two or thirteen times
- 21:53Speaker 5: in London, you gotta play somebody over there. So the
- 21:58Speaker 5: thing to always remember about the stuff Most of the
- 22:01Speaker 5: emails I get complaining about London are why did the league.
- 22:04Speaker 4: Do X to us? Like it's a like it's a
- 22:07Speaker 4: villain situation.
- 22:09Speaker 5: Well, the Jaguars don't see London that way, and the
- 22:13Speaker 5: league doesn't either, meaning they want they have wanted to
- 22:17Speaker 5: play in London. So from the league's perspective, they're looking
- 22:20Speaker 5: at thirty two games when they schedule. This is a
- 22:22Speaker 5: home game and this is the one they put there.
- 22:24Speaker 5: They're not saying, you know, bad Jaguars. You know, it's
- 22:27Speaker 5: not that fans take it that way, because some fans
- 22:31Speaker 5: don't want to lose any home games to that. That's
- 22:34Speaker 5: not the world we live in.
- 22:35Speaker 4: So look.
- 22:39Speaker 5: When where you're put just as many people get upset
- 22:44Speaker 5: if it's the other way. If all the home if
- 22:48Speaker 5: all the division games are here, just as many people
- 22:50Speaker 5: it's like, well I want to see something different, So
- 22:52Speaker 5: you can't please everybody.
- 22:54Speaker 1: I do think it's worth noting that the owners are.
- 22:56Speaker 2: Going to talk about it at the meetings this month in
- 22:58Speaker 2: Orlando about by sending team's ability to protect home games.
- 23:02Speaker 2: In other words, the league is saying that those games
- 23:04Speaker 2: are ours and we're going to put the games that
- 23:06Speaker 2: matter the most to their international efforts over. So it's
- 23:09Speaker 2: not just the Jaguars and their fans that can feel
- 23:12Speaker 2: slided when a game that they wanted here was moved
- 23:14Speaker 2: a lot in. Every team in the league is losing
- 23:17Speaker 2: their ability to protect games because the league is saying,
- 23:20Speaker 2: we want to make sure that we're promoting the game internationally,
- 23:23Speaker 2: and that means taking some premiere games over. By the way,
- 23:26Speaker 2: the fact that the Texans Jaguars game has fallen apartment falling,
- 23:29Speaker 2: has risen from wherever it was to that level that
- 23:34Speaker 2: they want to put it in London tells you something.
- 23:36Speaker 5: Yeah, if you look at it way way back, they
- 23:38Speaker 5: only put preseason games over there. Yeah, when they first
- 23:41Speaker 5: started the International series, most of the games felt like, Okay,
- 23:44Speaker 5: we're going to put that one there because we don't
- 23:46Speaker 5: really want the other ones over here. If you look
- 23:48Speaker 5: at this year's schedule of international games, the premiere games,
- 23:50Speaker 5: so at Jaggs, Philly, Jags, Houston, there's others they're putting
- 23:54Speaker 5: season openers over there. The league's not going to listen
- 23:58Speaker 5: to teams on this forever.
- 24:00Speaker 2: A load zone question for today, and it comes from
- 24:02Speaker 2: Nick from London and he wants to talk about the area.
- 24:07Speaker 5: Fact to John Well, there was certainly respect within this schedule.
- 24:13Speaker 5: I sometimes ball could respect questions because then I can't
- 24:17Speaker 5: really quantify what it means. But if you think that,
- 24:20Speaker 5: if you believe respect is national television, then there's a
- 24:23Speaker 5: lot of respect there. Because there's the five that we've
- 24:25Speaker 5: already talked about, the prime time or the international morning games.
- 24:30Speaker 5: Then there's also Denver is gonna be shown to most
- 24:34Speaker 5: of the country. I can't imagine it won't be New
- 24:36Speaker 5: England early in the season. Is that one o'clock slot
- 24:39Speaker 5: that is shown. I would expect that to be shown
- 24:42Speaker 5: to eighty five nine percent of the country.
- 24:44Speaker 4: So that's seven that there's no way Denver Jack you know,
- 24:48Speaker 4: first place, first place, first place, first place, those.
- 24:50Speaker 5: Are gonna be premium games the end, I would expect
- 24:55Speaker 5: that Texans game at one o'clock late in the season.
- 24:58Speaker 5: That's gonna be a big entry and maybe one of
- 25:01Speaker 5: the last two at your tvd uh.
- 25:04Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 25:05Speaker 5: And here's the thing with respect games, they also become
- 25:11Speaker 5: hard games.
- 25:12Speaker 4: So you want to respect you got it?
- 25:14Speaker 2: How did you up be tough as a coach when
- 25:17Speaker 2: you would get the primetime games? Listen, John and I joke,
- 25:20Speaker 2: although we kind of need it, there's nothing like a
- 25:22Speaker 2: one o'clock game, right, I mean, it keeps you, it
- 25:24Speaker 2: keeps your schedule consistent. The primetime games are fun, don't
- 25:27Speaker 2: get me wrong. We enjoy covering them as well. But
- 25:30Speaker 2: if you've got a schedule full of one o'clock games,
- 25:32Speaker 2: you're happy.
- 25:32Speaker 1: Because you're consistent.
- 25:33Speaker 3: Right, you love it?
- 25:35Speaker 1: But but but how did you approach it when you
- 25:37Speaker 1: were coaching?
- 25:38Speaker 3: Well, again, i'd love the one o'clock games such like
- 25:41Speaker 3: you're talking about, because again, you're trying to get this
- 25:43Speaker 3: game done, graded and then move on to the next game,
- 25:46Speaker 3: so you're you can play in your schedule. You want
- 25:49Speaker 3: to be as productive as you can. There's no changes
- 25:51Speaker 3: in it right.
- 25:51Speaker 1: Now, feel like you're chasing your correct well, and.
- 25:53Speaker 3: When you get some of these other primetime games, you
- 25:55Speaker 3: know that, jeez, Peter, you know you've got to start ahead.
- 25:58Speaker 3: You might even start the game on Monday of the
- 26:01Speaker 3: next game. When you're playing Monday night. You got to
- 26:03Speaker 3: be careful not to put all this conflicting data in
- 26:06Speaker 3: your head. So that oh I thought was this game,
- 26:08Speaker 3: it was that game. In other words, they're going to
- 26:10Speaker 3: run screen right now, they don't run them know it's
- 26:11Speaker 3: the next team. So I mean, you can get confused.
- 26:13Speaker 3: But the exposure that you get for your players as coaches,
- 26:17Speaker 3: you want these guys work very, very hard. You want
- 26:20Speaker 3: them to be the top show in town if you will,
- 26:23Speaker 3: and have all of America looking at it. I've been
- 26:25Speaker 3: with some clubs where we didn't have that early on
- 26:27Speaker 3: because they didn't have as many of those games. So
- 26:29Speaker 3: any exposures a plus for your team.
- 26:31Speaker 2: You look at the Chiefs who have been a primetime
- 26:33Speaker 2: darling in the Homes year, and I think the Rams
- 26:35Speaker 2: this year have six.
- 26:36Speaker 1: Or seven primetime game.
- 26:38Speaker 4: And can wear you out. Yeah, but you better get
- 26:40Speaker 4: used to it.
- 26:41Speaker 1: If you're good, you're going to be there.
- 26:42Speaker 5: There's only one thing better than seventeen one o'clock games.
- 26:45Speaker 5: It's seventeen one o'clock home game. I'm with that's my
- 26:48Speaker 5: dream schedule someday before I get this business, I'm going
- 26:51Speaker 5: to get seventeen.
- 26:53Speaker 3: I pray that you do.
- 26:55Speaker 2: All Right, We're going to come back and talk hair
- 26:56Speaker 2: again if you can believe it, as we wrap up
- 26:58Speaker 2: another edition of Jags.
- 27:00Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a look. It's something very big that is building.
- 27:15Speaker 1: And I'm not talking about the stadium. They've been putting that.
- 27:17Speaker 2: If you can see that piece that's on the ground,
- 27:19Speaker 2: they've been putting that together for weeks and I'm wondering
- 27:22Speaker 2: how in the world that one crane is going to
- 27:24Speaker 2: pick that up. And I keep asking people what is that?
- 27:27Speaker 2: Someone today said, it's part of the stadium.
- 27:29Speaker 3: Yeah, it looks like a conrector set or something.
- 27:33Speaker 4: Like lega.
- 27:35Speaker 2: Well you're old enough to remember tinker toys, Yeah, director set. Yeah,
- 27:39Speaker 2: it's pretty cool. If you haven't had a chance to
- 27:41Speaker 2: just drive by right on base or or Bay Drive,
- 27:43Speaker 2: Bay Street, drive by and just just travel a slow
- 27:47Speaker 2: and take a look at all that's going on around here,
- 27:49Speaker 2: it's pretty exciting.
- 27:50Speaker 4: Then twenty seven is gonna be unbelievable. Oh yeah, yeah,
- 27:53Speaker 4: that work for that eighteen month, it's amazing to watch
- 27:59Speaker 4: it real.
- 27:59Speaker 3: Yeah, you want to see progress. This is progress, man,
- 28:01Speaker 3: and it's moving every day twenty four to seven.
- 28:04Speaker 2: You know, I get out and speak to rotary clubs,
- 28:06Speaker 2: did you know Bartrum and Ponovidra and people that don't
- 28:09Speaker 2: work downtown, and they ask what's going on?
- 28:11Speaker 1: I said, just get in the car and drive.
- 28:13Speaker 2: You know, the office building is open, the four Seasons
- 28:15Speaker 2: is coming along, and the construction on the stadium is
- 28:18Speaker 2: just awe inspiring. Speaking of all inspiring, the haircut video,
- 28:23Speaker 2: which when I first hearded the concept, I went, how
- 28:25Speaker 2: are you going to do that? But the Trevor Lawrence
- 28:27Speaker 2: schedule released video was brilliant and it was pulled the
- 28:30Speaker 2: hoff to the point that people were questioning whether or
- 28:33Speaker 2: not it was real, which I thought was remarkable that
- 28:37Speaker 2: he would get his haircut for this, So I thought, listen,
- 28:40Speaker 2: he'd get a better haircut than that. No offense to
- 28:43Speaker 2: the people who did it, but he'd probably get a
- 28:44Speaker 2: sharper haircut. So I went looking and the behind the
- 28:49Speaker 2: scenes stuff is just awesome, Brian.
- 28:52Speaker 3: Let me tell you right now. Until just a few
- 28:54Speaker 3: minutes ago, I thought it was really so I'm still
- 28:56Speaker 3: one of those guys that's in the believers category. For sure.
- 29:00Speaker 2: It got him a lot of attention, but again, the
- 29:02Speaker 2: finished product made me think, yeah, they had to fit
- 29:04Speaker 2: that around a you know, around the cosmetic side of it.
- 29:08Speaker 1: So I went looking for various haircuts.
- 29:10Speaker 2: This is one where they just switched haircuts between Mac
- 29:12Speaker 2: Jones and Trevor Lawrence and that one turned out to
- 29:16Speaker 2: be kind of funny.
- 29:17Speaker 1: But there are so many sporting.
- 29:19Speaker 2: The Donald Trump, that's right, and what you can do
- 29:23Speaker 2: with social media and AI today is quite honestly one
- 29:28Speaker 2: didn't he Yeah, this one just sort of popped up.
- 29:32Speaker 2: There's just so many variations on hair and if you're Trevor,
- 29:37Speaker 2: I guess you gotta have fun with this one. But
- 29:40Speaker 2: so many people are interested in your haircut that it
- 29:44Speaker 2: became a viral moment and the Jaguars played it so perfect.
- 29:49Speaker 5: Yeah, and look, sometimes athletes aren't aren't. What you see
- 29:56Speaker 5: is what you get. Trevor is and not every starting
- 30:00Speaker 5: quarterback in the NFL would have been a good sport
- 30:04Speaker 5: gotten on board with this, or hey, I want to
- 30:06Speaker 5: do that, you know, I don't want to look silly
- 30:08Speaker 5: or what you know.
- 30:09Speaker 4: I've been worried about that.
- 30:12Speaker 5: He's a good sport, he knows how to not take
- 30:16Speaker 5: himself too seriously in the right situations, knows how to engage.
- 30:22Speaker 5: I probably don't know as many people around town as
- 30:24Speaker 5: you do, Brian, but I know people who engage with
- 30:26Speaker 5: Trevor outside the building, and he is He's a first
- 30:30Speaker 5: class person. And this is another example of I guess
- 30:35Speaker 5: why he's.
- 30:35Speaker 4: The right guy to be the face of this franchise.
- 30:37Speaker 2: Before they drafted him, I thought he was the perfect
- 30:40Speaker 2: candidate to be a Jaguars quarterback, not just because he
- 30:42Speaker 2: was a good quarterback, but because of all of that.
- 30:44Speaker 2: A kid that grew up in the South, the kid
- 30:45Speaker 2: that played at Clemson, he was married right before he
- 30:49Speaker 2: even arrived here. Just this down to earth superstar quarterback.
- 30:54Speaker 2: Think about that for a minute. How many of them
- 30:56Speaker 2: you've encountered down to earth superstar quarterback? And John you
- 30:59Speaker 2: just knew Ridy very well, a really first class human
- 31:03Speaker 2: being who had fun with it.
- 31:04Speaker 1: And the Jaguars got a lot of mileage from that.
- 31:07Speaker 2: So kudos to everybody, the production team that did that,
- 31:09Speaker 2: the digital marketing team that made sure that it became viral,
- 31:13Speaker 2: and Trevor for taking the time.
- 31:15Speaker 3: Yeah, with that a dot A great team effort by everybody,
- 31:17Speaker 3: let by Trevor and how he handled them, the maturity
- 31:20Speaker 3: and as you said, the lack of ego involved. You
- 31:23Speaker 3: don't see that very often, but highly impressive by him.
- 31:26Speaker 4: You can grow your hair out into the cut. Oh
- 31:29Speaker 4: with you.
- 31:30Speaker 3: I'm thinking about that. In fact, I've been approach about that. Yes,
- 31:33Speaker 3: I will do it.
- 31:33Speaker 2: Next year's video will be Mark Duffner. Stay tuned for
- 31:36Speaker 2: that one. Duff thanks for joining us as always been.
- 31:38Speaker 1: Really appreciate it.
- 31:39Speaker 3: Thank you for having me for.
- 31:40Speaker 2: John O's you're Mark Duffner and our entire production crew.
- 31:42Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us for jags am right back here
- 31:45Speaker 2: next week. By the way, talking OTAs which open next Tuesday.
- 31:49Speaker 1: Have a great day.