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OPPOSITION TERRITORY: Jacksonville Jaguars · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

0:25
Speaker 1: Welcome to opposition territory.
0:26
Speaker 2: Here at the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest
0:29
Speaker 2: running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world, over
0:32
Speaker 2: thirteen years strong. We got a great discussion coming your
0:35
Speaker 2: way as we dive into the Jacksonville Jaguars and their
0:40
Speaker 2: off season. Joining us this week, we have from Bigcatcountry
0:45
Speaker 2: dot Com over at Espnation. You know, we love our
0:47
Speaker 2: Spnation sites. Got a lot of great folks at ESP
0:50
Speaker 2: Nation that jumps on this podcast, and he's making his debut. Folks,
0:54
Speaker 2: we have the one and only Travis Holmes, my friend.
0:57
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for jumping on here to dive into
0:59
Speaker 2: some offseason talk.
1:02
Speaker 3: No, I mean thank you for having me.
1:03
Speaker 4: It's not often that I feel a nervous coming onto
1:05
Speaker 4: the pod, but it's nervous.
1:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:09
Speaker 4: You're always nervous when it's the first time on the pod.
1:12
Speaker 4: Every pod that I'm on these days, it's always feels
1:14
Speaker 4: like I'm a fifteenth time guest or something along those lines.
1:17
Speaker 4: So thank you for having me.
1:18
Speaker 1: You guys do it.
1:19
Speaker 2: You are absolutely welcome. You guys do a great job
1:21
Speaker 2: a Big Cat Country. Honestly, like I mentioned to you
1:24
Speaker 2: before I hit the record button, you know, We love
1:25
Speaker 2: our Espianation sites here follow a lot of Espienation sites
1:29
Speaker 2: have a lot of guests from Espenation. You all do
1:32
Speaker 2: a great job. It's one of the reasons why I
1:33
Speaker 2: wanted to bring you on. And you know, I've been
1:36
Speaker 2: following your content specifically as it proteins to this Jacksonville
1:40
Speaker 2: Jaguars team, and it's a team that I have always
1:43
Speaker 2: found fascinating in all honesty, and I've told some other
1:46
Speaker 2: friends this who've jumped on the pod before. I feel
1:48
Speaker 2: like the Jaguars are sometimes my AFC team that I
1:51
Speaker 2: just secretly root for. I remember when they came into
1:54
Speaker 2: being during the nineteen nineties, and I just it was
1:58
Speaker 2: one of those new things in football, those new teams,
2:01
Speaker 2: the new logo back in the day, where you're like,
2:03
Speaker 2: you know what, I'm gonna follow this team. I'm gonna
2:05
Speaker 2: kind of root for him. You know, they're not going
2:07
Speaker 2: to overtake my Eagles, but what a root for the Jaguars.
2:10
Speaker 2: And it's just amazing how last season went for this team.
2:14
Speaker 2: They were thirteen and four last year. It's just fascinating
2:16
Speaker 2: to see where this team is heading because they're no
2:20
Speaker 2: longer rebuilding. I mean, they are trying to make a
2:22
Speaker 2: jump from divisional winner to become a legit Super Bowl
2:26
Speaker 2: contender here under a remarkable here with a year with
2:30
Speaker 2: their new head coach, new GM and Jim Gladstone, And
2:34
Speaker 2: I guess the big question here is, Travis are are
2:37
Speaker 2: they poised to take that next step? So let's start
2:41
Speaker 2: with this offseason here. So how would you grade what
2:45
Speaker 2: Gladstone has done and what the front office has done
2:48
Speaker 2: during this offseason?
2:50
Speaker 1: And why? What would that grade be and why?
2:53
Speaker 4: So this is this is a fun conversation, especially on
2:56
Speaker 4: the backdrop of the consensus board conversations that swept through
2:59
Speaker 4: the n following the Jaguars drafts following the San Francisco forty.
3:04
Speaker 3: Nine Ers draft.
3:04
Speaker 4: Who got a little bit of that the run of
3:06
Speaker 4: that conversation. Also, it's hard to grade these guys because
3:11
Speaker 4: they're following that Rams blueprint where they generally don't have
3:15
Speaker 4: first round picks, they normally like to trade them away.
3:18
Speaker 4: The Jaguars are kind of following that same vibe. You're
3:20
Speaker 4: talking about a draft class which honestly just went off
3:24
Speaker 4: the rails at the end of the second round into
3:27
Speaker 4: the third round. And I'm not just talking about the Jaguars.
3:29
Speaker 4: You can look at the Chicago Bears, you can look
3:31
Speaker 4: at so many like Washington Commanders, you can look at
3:34
Speaker 4: so many different teams where it kind of got wild
3:38
Speaker 4: as the end of the second round, early third round,
3:41
Speaker 4: and it's like, all right, so it's not just the Jaguars,
3:44
Speaker 4: but the Jaguars are going to take a run of
3:45
Speaker 4: that conversation because they didn't have a first round draft, right,
3:50
Speaker 4: So then it becomes all right, so how do you
3:52
Speaker 4: create this class without having a play a snap on
3:55
Speaker 4: the field. You don't know what's going to come out
3:57
Speaker 4: of it, right, And you also know that they're generally
4:00
Speaker 4: that organization that's going to kind of go left when
4:03
Speaker 4: the rest of the league is going right in that
4:05
Speaker 4: Rams blueprint. Yes, yes, yes, So because of that, I'm
4:08
Speaker 4: automatically just giving them grading on a curve, and I
4:11
Speaker 4: acknowledge that I am giving them giving them the sea. Basically,
4:16
Speaker 4: this is me, this is me being the Vegas actuaries.
4:18
Speaker 4: When I say you're basically going to be in over
4:21
Speaker 4: under eight and a half, I'm basically saying I don't
4:23
Speaker 4: know where it's going to land. I'm basically saying, hey,
4:28
Speaker 4: I believe in the coaching staff, and from that perspective,
4:30
Speaker 4: I think that they're always going to be an a
4:32
Speaker 4: eight plus organization because Liam Cohen, Heath Farlwell, the special
4:37
Speaker 4: teams coordinator, Anthony Campanelli. You have to believe in those
4:40
Speaker 4: guys develop whoever they bring into the locker room, because
4:44
Speaker 4: they're just that good in that twenty twenty five seasons, Yeah,
4:48
Speaker 4: changing up how they do things in the middle of
4:50
Speaker 4: the season after the bye week, after having some struggles
4:53
Speaker 4: early on, like they were great early struggles at the
4:56
Speaker 4: bye incredible at the end of the season because they
4:59
Speaker 4: switched up so many things. You based on that. Have
5:01
Speaker 4: to believe in the coaching staff. Yeah, well, if you
5:04
Speaker 4: believe in the coaching staff, then you kind of have
5:06
Speaker 4: to believe in the general manager because you know, the
5:08
Speaker 4: coaches have to have their thumbs on the scale.
5:11
Speaker 3: As far as the players and the traits that they're
5:12
Speaker 3: bringing in the doors.
5:14
Speaker 4: So it's almost like James Gladstone Jimmy Stones as we
5:17
Speaker 4: call them Jimmy Stones.
5:18
Speaker 3: It.
5:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's almost like he gets I won't call it
5:22
Speaker 4: a pass, but he gets an early pass. While you
5:25
Speaker 4: can't see games played to say this is going to
5:28
Speaker 4: be a plus or minus, and you just kind of
5:30
Speaker 4: have to say, hey man, it's going to be a
5:32
Speaker 4: C just based on us not knowing where this is
5:35
Speaker 4: going to go, and we're going to trust you that
5:37
Speaker 4: you're going to develop whatever it is.
5:38
Speaker 2: Absolutely well, I think every NFL team, and I don't think,
5:42
Speaker 2: I know every NFL team has a roadmap, a roadmap
5:44
Speaker 2: of where this next season is going to go, a
5:47
Speaker 2: roadmap of where this team may be two to three
5:50
Speaker 2: years perhaps down the road as well. And there's so
5:53
Speaker 2: much that does go into team building, including free agency.
5:57
Speaker 2: So look, off season free agency is always a way
6:02
Speaker 2: for NFL teams to really just kind of plug in
6:04
Speaker 2: those holes that really need and plugging even finding depth
6:08
Speaker 2: at times. We see the Philadelphia Eagles do that consistently.
6:12
Speaker 2: Green Bay Packers another team that does that as well.
6:15
Speaker 2: Some teams overshoot and they pay just massive contracts. We've
6:18
Speaker 2: seen that over the years with the Washington Commanders time
6:20
Speaker 2: and time again. I have loved seeing that because they
6:23
Speaker 2: did just take some resources and throw them away. Absolutely
6:27
Speaker 2: love that. You know, some teams are more conservative too,
6:30
Speaker 2: and the Jaguars, you know, they really did not go
6:32
Speaker 2: crazy in free agency this year. So I mean how
6:35
Speaker 2: do you look at players and talent like running back
6:38
Speaker 2: Chris Rodriguez, who's coming in, what he's going to mean
6:41
Speaker 2: for the running game. You have Montark Brown staying with
6:44
Speaker 2: the team for another three years. What are your assessments
6:48
Speaker 2: of the Jags their free agency acquisitions and what it
6:51
Speaker 2: really means for the future here.
6:54
Speaker 4: Well, the Jaguars are in a really odd or yeah,
6:58
Speaker 4: that's just in a really interesting situation because they have
7:00
Speaker 4: so much dead cap still left onto their books from
7:05
Speaker 4: the last.
7:07
Speaker 3: Year of Trenton Balky.
7:08
Speaker 4: They they shed up the Tyson Campbell contract when they
7:12
Speaker 4: sent him to Cleveland, they shed the Gabe Davis contract,
7:16
Speaker 4: and immediately once you know, the new coach got into
7:18
Speaker 4: the locker room, they got off of the the Greg
7:24
Speaker 4: Newsom contract after he was traded from Tyson Campbell was
7:28
Speaker 4: still again, well, it's an additional ill or an additional
7:32
Speaker 4: penalty from that Tyson Campbell contract because again they made
7:35
Speaker 4: that trade basically because Greg Newsom was on the last
7:38
Speaker 4: year of his contract.
7:39
Speaker 3: They knew after the end of the season they can
7:40
Speaker 3: get off that risk.
7:42
Speaker 4: It was still another penalty of that Tyson Campbell contract.
7:46
Speaker 3: Basically, so all of.
7:47
Speaker 4: That combined you're over fifty million dollars in dead cap
7:50
Speaker 4: on your cap right now. So the Jaguars were going
7:53
Speaker 4: to be quiet in this free agency cycle simply because
7:56
Speaker 4: they didn't. It's not to say they didn't have the money.
7:58
Speaker 4: You always have the Saints have us. If the Saints
8:01
Speaker 4: have taught us anything, the money always exists when you
8:04
Speaker 4: have actuaries and accountants in the room.
8:06
Speaker 2: And with the Philadelphia Eagles too, where there's a will,
8:08
Speaker 2: there's a way.
8:10
Speaker 3: I've got an owner that pays to pay some real money.
8:13
Speaker 3: Though that's different.
8:13
Speaker 4: Like that is, say that money every year and you
8:15
Speaker 4: can make it happen right up front.
8:17
Speaker 1: Yep.
8:19
Speaker 3: For the Jaguars, it was a different situation.
8:21
Speaker 4: When you really do want to watch the books, you
8:23
Speaker 4: want to clean the books to kind of truly start
8:26
Speaker 4: trash in twenty twenty seven, that means you were guaranteed
8:30
Speaker 4: or nearly guaranteed to be pretty quiet as far as
8:33
Speaker 4: this twenty twenty six free agency cycle. So that was
8:36
Speaker 4: a no known kind of walking in the fact that
8:39
Speaker 4: they even did re sign Monteric Brown, and the fact
8:42
Speaker 4: that they did it did at least bring in an
8:44
Speaker 4: additional running back in Chris Rodriguez. After losing Travis Etn
8:48
Speaker 4: and free agency, that was still something even though it
8:51
Speaker 4: wasn't this the huge thing that most of the Jasonville
8:54
Speaker 4: Jaguars to do, of all devout as we call them
8:57
Speaker 4: on the podcast, would have preferred. It was a no
9:00
Speaker 4: known with them playing the comp pick formula. You know,
9:03
Speaker 4: they're trying to get the three picks next year in
9:05
Speaker 4: the draft by not messing that up, so you're your
9:09
Speaker 4: additions are always going to be a little bit minimal,
9:11
Speaker 4: just not to screw with that formula. But overall, it
9:15
Speaker 4: was a great signing to keep Monterret Brown in the
9:17
Speaker 4: room because that cornerback room has now gone from a
9:20
Speaker 4: true weakness in twenty twenty five and it was if
9:23
Speaker 4: you watch the Jaguars games, it was absolutely a weakness,
9:26
Speaker 4: maybe even the defensive weakness, to now truly being a strength.
9:30
Speaker 4: You got Travis Hunter, you got Montery Brown. You have
9:34
Speaker 4: three to four safety options that you can play right
9:38
Speaker 4: now with Antonio Johnson, Allen Murray, Caleb Branson, Jalen Husky.
9:42
Speaker 4: I just drafted and I'm just like oooh yeah, all right,
9:46
Speaker 4: so Anthony Kapanelli.
9:47
Speaker 3: Good, look, whatever you want to do, you can do it.
9:50
Speaker 4: But I didn't name Jarry and Jones and Jordan Lewis
9:53
Speaker 4: two top slot options. You can You're dying defense is
9:56
Speaker 4: going to be incredible life. So from that perspective, you
9:59
Speaker 4: made a weakness in to us strength by subtraction and
10:01
Speaker 4: just saying, Travis Hunter, you're going to be a full
10:03
Speaker 4: time cornerback while playing a little bit probably maybe fifty
10:07
Speaker 4: percent or something like that at wide receiver snaps. It's
10:10
Speaker 4: a good situation for the Jaguars, despite the fact that
10:13
Speaker 4: they did lose an all Pro talent at linebacker and
10:16
Speaker 4: a Pro Bowl caliber running back as far as Travis
10:19
Speaker 4: et and is concerned.
10:20
Speaker 3: So it's the best you could probably hope for.
10:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, moving over to the NFL draft here. The
10:26
Speaker 2: draft I thought was pretty interesting for the Jags because
10:30
Speaker 2: they didn't have a first round pick, as you had
10:32
Speaker 2: mentioned earlier, you're waiting around for that second round what
10:35
Speaker 2: are they going to do? But they did have four
10:37
Speaker 2: total picks in the top one hundred. I think there's
10:40
Speaker 2: something to be said for that. They went with their
10:43
Speaker 2: very first pick in the draft, tight end Nate Borkag. Yeah,
10:47
Speaker 2: borkis j I screw up names constantly on here. It's ridiculous,
10:51
Speaker 2: but in the second round he's their first pick. I
10:55
Speaker 2: thought it was a really interesting pick. They also picked
10:57
Speaker 2: another tight end, and I believe in they're fit in
10:59
Speaker 2: with their fifth round pick as well.
11:01
Speaker 3: Got it.
11:02
Speaker 2: What were your overall assessments of the Jags draft this
11:05
Speaker 2: year as it really pertains to team building in the future.
11:09
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts here?
11:11
Speaker 4: Well, I will I will not pretend that this was
11:14
Speaker 4: not a surprise in some ways or also not a
11:18
Speaker 4: surprise in others. And when I say some the some
11:21
Speaker 4: ways that it was a surprise. We had CBS Sports
11:25
Speaker 4: Jp Acosta on the podcast the week before the draft
11:28
Speaker 4: kind of giving our generalized predictions and players that we
11:31
Speaker 4: thought might fit the team and things of that nature.
11:33
Speaker 4: Nate Brocature was at the top of that list as
11:35
Speaker 4: far as tight ends were concerned. We just didn't think
11:37
Speaker 4: he was going to be picked at pick fifty six.
11:40
Speaker 4: It was more one of those pick eighty one eighty
11:42
Speaker 4: eight range we're talking to. Small difference, but it is
11:45
Speaker 4: a difference nevertheless. Yeah, so then that happens and Albert
11:49
Speaker 4: Regis I actually did predict that the Jaguars were going
11:51
Speaker 4: to select him also, so that was one of the ones.
11:54
Speaker 4: That was one of my feathers in the caps that
11:55
Speaker 4: actually won me the Jaguars media. I forget what it
11:59
Speaker 4: was like a draft petition. They take the most correct
12:02
Speaker 4: picks for the Jaguars. I got Albert Regis, I got
12:04
Speaker 4: a man, you're pregnant.
12:05
Speaker 1: Oh nice, nice job.
12:08
Speaker 4: So I was like, all right, cool, that was a
12:10
Speaker 4: good thing. But also it was an odd draft, like
12:13
Speaker 4: I said earlier, just because of the chaotic nature of
12:16
Speaker 4: everything starting in that second round kind of where guys went.
12:19
Speaker 4: The picks were right, but where they went was weird. Yeah,
12:22
Speaker 4: And it made it so that if you were to
12:24
Speaker 4: tell me that the Jacksonville Jaguars walking out of that
12:26
Speaker 4: draft class with and man, you were pregnant at pick
12:29
Speaker 4: fifty six, I'd be like, whoa, that's a great situation
12:34
Speaker 4: because people were talking about him sneaking into the end
12:36
Speaker 4: of the first round going into the draft.
12:38
Speaker 3: And if you were to.
12:39
Speaker 4: Tell me, hey, right, then they got Albert Regis at
12:41
Speaker 4: pick eighty one and Nate broker Torette pick eighty eight.
12:45
Speaker 4: I'm looking at that draft buss like, all right, that's
12:47
Speaker 4: not that's so you're getting more physical, you're getting better
12:50
Speaker 4: in the trenches. I can see the vision blah blah blah,
12:53
Speaker 4: but you switched the order up and everybody loses their
12:55
Speaker 4: mind and it's the same three guys. So that's where
13:00
Speaker 4: I'm kind of landing with the draft.
13:01
Speaker 3: Flass.
13:01
Speaker 4: I like the players, and I mean, if you want
13:04
Speaker 4: to be specific, I love the idea of a manual
13:07
Speaker 4: pregnant because if he being so physical, so dominant in
13:10
Speaker 4: the run game, I think that he's going to compete
13:13
Speaker 4: with Patrick McCarry at right guard and truly be able
13:16
Speaker 4: to give the Jaguars an opportunity to run more man
13:18
Speaker 4: gap because they ran almost let's say, I don't have
13:21
Speaker 4: the exact numbers in front of me, but I remember
13:23
Speaker 4: Travis et In was closer to a fifty to fifty
13:26
Speaker 4: split where base y'all too was closer to seventy percent zone.
13:30
Speaker 4: So when I'm looking at it from that perspective, and
13:31
Speaker 4: I know they brought in Chris Rodriguez, he's a downhill
13:34
Speaker 4: type of guy. You want to be able to do
13:36
Speaker 4: more of that, but you need some security on that
13:38
Speaker 4: right guard spot where Patrick McCarry was dealing with a
13:41
Speaker 4: lot of injuries last year. So that makes me feel
13:44
Speaker 4: a little bit more confident on that interior O line.
13:47
Speaker 4: Just that selection in and of itself. Then you get
13:50
Speaker 4: Nate Brocatcher and Tannerkozil, two tight ends. You can run
13:54
Speaker 4: more twelve, you can run more thirteen personnel. You have
13:58
Speaker 4: an offensive head coach, he's going to want to do
14:01
Speaker 4: his things like the Sean McVay guys, And like the
14:04
Speaker 4: Jaguars played against the Seattle Seahawse and the Rams in
14:06
Speaker 4: weeks six and seven of the season, and they destroyed
14:10
Speaker 4: Jacksonville in both games, running mostly twelve and thirteen personnel,
14:13
Speaker 4: and both of those games in back to back weeks.
14:16
Speaker 4: From that point on last year, I said Jacksonville is
14:19
Speaker 4: going to invest in tight end next year because they
14:21
Speaker 4: just they tried to do the same thing late in
14:22
Speaker 4: the season and they struggled doing it. Yeah, it was
14:25
Speaker 4: a no known that, not that he's necessarily going to
14:28
Speaker 4: follow Sean McVay, because I don't think it was necessarily that.
14:31
Speaker 3: It was just kind of one of those things.
14:32
Speaker 4: This is the same tree the teacher just taught you
14:34
Speaker 4: in person how to destroy your defense doing this thing.
14:40
Speaker 3: Yeah.
14:40
Speaker 2: See the evolution, I mean, it's the evolution of the
14:42
Speaker 2: offensive structure in the NFL as well.
14:45
Speaker 1: That's what we're seeing.
14:47
Speaker 4: Defenses are getting lighter. You got these strong staateties that's
14:49
Speaker 4: two twenty. And the biggest thing that's keeping the you know,
14:53
Speaker 4: the tight ends off of those guys is the fact that,
14:56
Speaker 4: well you have these, if you have a dominant defensive line,
14:59
Speaker 4: it's your only of keeping those guys clean. Because if
15:01
Speaker 4: you can get a tight end who's actually good at
15:04
Speaker 4: blocking on your two to twenty safety, you're gonna be
15:07
Speaker 4: running for years.
15:07
Speaker 3: You're gonna be running for days.
15:09
Speaker 4: So that's been the whole chest mess between the offensive
15:11
Speaker 4: coordinators in this case, the head coach who calls plays,
15:15
Speaker 4: and the defensive coordinators. So now the offenses are yewning
15:18
Speaker 4: when the defenses are yaning, and we're gonna keep going
15:21
Speaker 4: back and forth and seeing what that's gonna look like.
15:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, I gotta tell you it is.
15:25
Speaker 2: It's gonna be fascinating to see how these new tight
15:28
Speaker 2: ends are integrated into this offense this coming season. And again, folks,
15:35
Speaker 2: we are talking to Travis Holmes here from Big Cat Country.
15:39
Speaker 2: As I hit my microphone there, I'm a professional. As
15:41
Speaker 2: you'd all know. We are gonna be taking a break
15:45
Speaker 2: here and when we get back, we're gonna dive into
15:47
Speaker 2: more Jags talk specifically some strengths and weaknesses of the team,
15:52
Speaker 2: but you know also where Trevor Lawrence is at and
15:56
Speaker 2: what young players could really become a national face and star.
16:00
Speaker 1: Stick with us. We're going to be right back, all right.
16:04
Speaker 2: We are back with our good buddy Travis Holmes from
16:07
Speaker 2: Bigcatcountry dot Com. Travis, before uh we went to break,
16:14
Speaker 2: I forgot to ask where everybody can find you out
16:16
Speaker 2: there on the interwebs. I know if you're watching on
16:18
Speaker 2: YouTube at Travis D. Holmes on the Twitter slash x.
16:22
Speaker 2: But if there's any other promos you want to get out,
16:24
Speaker 2: let folks know where they can connect with you.
16:26
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, I mean obviously it's bitcatcuntry dot com. We're
16:28
Speaker 4: always going to tell you promote local journalism. Don't get
16:32
Speaker 4: your news from the the aggregate accounts or the national
16:37
Speaker 4: media who they're just taking our information and repackaging a
16:40
Speaker 4: lot of ways people who are local on the ground. Yep,
16:42
Speaker 4: Bigcat Country dot Com for all of my written material
16:45
Speaker 4: with the team, Gus Low, Dylan Si, all of those guys,
16:50
Speaker 4: but also the Doball Dive podcast with myself and Kyle
16:53
Speaker 4: the Student of the game Nash when we talk about.
16:56
Speaker 3: Everything Jacksonville Jaguars related.
16:58
Speaker 4: Yes, talk about the talk more of the rumors that
17:01
Speaker 4: we don't really get into on the media side and
17:04
Speaker 4: kind of just chop it up with the fans and
17:06
Speaker 4: kind of talk about this stuff.
17:07
Speaker 3: Want to talk about a little bit more fun stuff.
17:08
Speaker 3: It's a little bit more fun.
17:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that's kind of what it comes down to
17:11
Speaker 4: when we have three pods a week there at minimum nice.
17:14
Speaker 4: So yeah, Travis Dales and all the socials and you
17:16
Speaker 4: pretty much called it out, So there you go.
17:18
Speaker 1: There you go.
17:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, we always want to talk fun stuff on our
17:21
Speaker 2: podcast for sure. And I gotta tell you what was
17:24
Speaker 2: really fun this past season was watching Trevor Lawrence having
17:28
Speaker 2: a really nice year. Obviously the team wants him to
17:32
Speaker 2: build upon that two part question here for you, Travis,
17:37
Speaker 2: has Trevor Lawrence really entered that next tier of possible
17:42
Speaker 2: and potential elite status where we can kind of put
17:45
Speaker 2: him in the same category as Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes.
17:49
Speaker 2: That's first, and then to the follow up with that
17:52
Speaker 2: is what type of development, what's the next step in
17:54
Speaker 2: his development? Whether it's you know, fewer turnovers enhanced leadership
17:59
Speaker 2: that you're open to see from Trevor Lawrence here. So
18:02
Speaker 2: let's go with the first one here, Where has has
18:04
Speaker 2: he entered that elite status? Possibly at this point.
18:08
Speaker 4: If you were to ask the rest of the Jacksonville
18:10
Speaker 4: Jaguars fan base if he's entered that status, they will
18:13
Speaker 4: tell you undoubtedly yes. Okay, if you were to ask me,
18:17
Speaker 4: who is a full, no entire life Jacksonville Jaguars fan
18:23
Speaker 4: covering the team in the media side for five the
18:25
Speaker 4: last five years, a.
18:27
Speaker 3: Little bit of that.
18:27
Speaker 4: Duval County PTSD will call it still built in into
18:32
Speaker 4: the memory bank that I'm not I remember twenty twenty two,
18:36
Speaker 4: twenty twenty three injured season, you know, the up and down,
18:40
Speaker 4: great seven games sample sizes up.
18:43
Speaker 3: And then yeah, the roller coaster. Yeah, because Pepper's farm remembers.
18:48
Speaker 4: It is really interesting to trying to say I'm guaranteeing
18:54
Speaker 4: that I think he's there. I think he's shown the
18:56
Speaker 4: promise absolutely, but is he there? I would need to
19:00
Speaker 4: see it for at minimum a full season start to
19:04
Speaker 4: finish to truly land there. I see a great coach
19:08
Speaker 4: who puts him in a great position. I see a
19:10
Speaker 4: quarterback who went throughout an entire offseason unable to throw
19:13
Speaker 4: the ball because he was coming back from surgery and
19:15
Speaker 4: still learning a new NFL offense. I see a Jacksonville
19:18
Speaker 4: Jaguars team who has yet to make the playoffs two
19:21
Speaker 4: years straights back.
19:22
Speaker 3: Going back to nineteen ninety nine.
19:24
Speaker 4: I see all these things packaged up, and I see
19:28
Speaker 4: a quarterback who I think I believe in, but I'm
19:31
Speaker 4: not one hundred percent sure. And I'm okay saying I'm
19:33
Speaker 4: still walking that line for him to make, for him
19:37
Speaker 4: to prove it to me on the field. So I
19:40
Speaker 4: don't think he's in that elite tier yet. Because when
19:44
Speaker 4: you are in that elite tier, I feel like there's
19:46
Speaker 4: one part of the game that they're still not on
19:48
Speaker 4: the same page on. And I'm not going to say
19:50
Speaker 4: that's necessarily a Trevor Lawrence issue, but I am going
19:53
Speaker 4: to say it's involving Trevor Lawrence as the quarterback, and
19:55
Speaker 4: that's the deep ball.
19:57
Speaker 3: Josh Allen, they give you those deep balls.
20:00
Speaker 4: Patrick Mahomes, he's good, but he at least is giving
20:03
Speaker 4: those guys those opportunities that you want to getasting the
20:05
Speaker 4: appearances you're going to do like you're going to make
20:08
Speaker 4: the right you want to put those players up in
20:10
Speaker 4: the air and give those guys an opportunity. I think
20:12
Speaker 4: that's the one area where Trevor Lawrence is still not
20:16
Speaker 4: giving me exactly what I want to see from him
20:18
Speaker 4: as far as that's concerned. And I'm not talking twenty
20:20
Speaker 4: yards down the field, right, I'm talking thirty plus yards
20:23
Speaker 4: those kinds of hero balls. If you're in the fantasy
20:25
Speaker 4: football community, that's what That's the only piece that I'm
20:28
Speaker 4: looking for. And you could also attribute some of that
20:30
Speaker 4: to Brian Thomas junior struggles in this twenty twenty five season,
20:33
Speaker 4: So I'm okay acknowledging that, but I just want to
20:35
Speaker 4: point out to the fan base, like, Hey, when we
20:39
Speaker 4: see the Jaguars play against the Buffalo Bills in the
20:41
Speaker 4: playoffs and they shade the safety a Brian Thomas Junior
20:43
Speaker 4: side and they don't even try it to go deep
20:45
Speaker 4: on these guys.
20:46
Speaker 3: You have to attack them and make them come out
20:49
Speaker 3: of that too high shell.
20:50
Speaker 4: Look, if you have those few opportunities, you have to
20:53
Speaker 4: at least give it a shot. If you're not, I'm
20:55
Speaker 4: looking at the quarterback like that's one of those things
20:59
Speaker 4: elite quarterbacks.
21:00
Speaker 3: Miss true, That's why I want to see that maturation.
21:03
Speaker 2: There you go, that's that's the next step in Trevor
21:05
Speaker 2: Lawrence's development, right there, folks, And and I guess you
21:08
Speaker 2: know we can now move into the part of the
21:11
Speaker 2: conversation and another another two part question we're going to
21:14
Speaker 2: start off with. After dissecting this offseason thus far and
21:18
Speaker 2: what the Jags front office has done along with the
21:21
Speaker 2: coaching staff, let's talk about the strengths and the weaknesses.
21:24
Speaker 2: What is the biggest strength on this team heading into
21:27
Speaker 2: this coming season here, Travis.
21:29
Speaker 4: I mean, it was the biggest strength last year, and
21:31
Speaker 4: I don't think it's even arguable to anybody who watched
21:33
Speaker 4: the Jasonville Jaguars games. They ended the season first in
21:36
Speaker 4: the league and stopping the run on defense, and folks,
21:40
Speaker 4: even the Buffalo Bills media and fans were talking about
21:43
Speaker 4: it the week of the playoffs.
21:44
Speaker 3: Like, well, they're overrated. They didn't play anybody. They played
21:47
Speaker 3: this team.
21:47
Speaker 4: They played Jonathan Saylor, but they you know, the quarterback
21:50
Speaker 4: got hurt in the first game. And then they leave
21:53
Speaker 4: that Buffalo Bills game like, oh they're they're good.
21:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're very good.
21:58
Speaker 1: They are good.
21:59
Speaker 3: They are are that good.
22:01
Speaker 4: I forget what Buffalo ended with that game rushing, but
22:04
Speaker 4: it wasn't great. They won despite not being able to
22:07
Speaker 4: run the ball and being this this elite run team.
22:10
Speaker 3: So that's where the Jaguars are going to be.
22:12
Speaker 4: Their biggest strength is stopping the run, and all they
22:14
Speaker 4: did was add to that by bringing in Albert Regis,
22:17
Speaker 4: whose strength is again stopping the run. So and even
22:21
Speaker 4: in losing their middle linebacker Devin Lloyd, that wasn't his strength.
22:25
Speaker 4: His strength was not in stopping the run. His strength
22:28
Speaker 4: was actually in the passing game. So I don't see
22:30
Speaker 4: them taking a step back there. It's just going to
22:32
Speaker 4: be maybe they're not a top team in the league.
22:34
Speaker 4: Maybe they're top three in the league, okay, Q, which
22:36
Speaker 4: is fantastic.
22:37
Speaker 1: Absolutely nobody complain that.
22:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, the biggest question is probably attributing to that big tours,
22:46
Speaker 4: that biggest weakness, it's still there.
22:47
Speaker 1: Let's do biggest weakness.
22:48
Speaker 4: Yeah, whether or not you're going to be able to
22:51
Speaker 4: get some interior pass rush, because that really comes down
22:54
Speaker 4: to your defensive tackle play Eric Armstead, who was the
23:00
Speaker 4: vast majority of your pass rush, your interior pass rush
23:03
Speaker 4: in the twenty twenty five season falls off a cliff
23:06
Speaker 4: after week I think it was week six after his injury,
23:10
Speaker 4: and from that point on he basically disappeared as far
23:12
Speaker 4: as his pressure rate, as far as his sacks, like
23:14
Speaker 4: I think he had a half sack the rest of
23:16
Speaker 4: the season after being top three in the league, and
23:18
Speaker 4: sacks for the defensive tackles early on. So it was like,
23:21
Speaker 4: oh man, you can't have you know, two top fifteen
23:24
Speaker 4: tape paid defensive ends. And they're generally buying as far
23:28
Speaker 4: as their production as far as we're looking at the
23:30
Speaker 4: pressures and everything else, but they just can't get They're
23:33
Speaker 4: just running the loop over and over and over and
23:36
Speaker 4: the quarterbacks is stepping up in the pocket. Davon Hamilton
23:39
Speaker 4: is a run stopper, which helps for that number one
23:42
Speaker 4: ranked run stopping defense, but he doesn't give you much
23:44
Speaker 4: of anything rushing the passer. So what do you do
23:47
Speaker 4: when Eric armsteat falls off a cliff. Devon Hamilton, your
23:50
Speaker 4: other defensive tackle doesn't give you much.
23:53
Speaker 3: You're stuck. So that's their biggest.
23:55
Speaker 4: Weakness and unfortunately they didn't bring in a prototypical, you know,
23:59
Speaker 4: pass ru rush or designated pass rushing option that three technique.
24:03
Speaker 4: So you're kind of figuring out, are do they believe in,
24:05
Speaker 4: you know, Albert Regis to be the guy he didn't
24:09
Speaker 4: show himself to be in college. Are you just leaning
24:11
Speaker 4: on the traits there? I don't know what the plan
24:14
Speaker 4: is there, but that's the concern at least for Anthony
24:16
Speaker 4: Kapanelli's defense.
24:17
Speaker 2: Tappanelli's defense is absolutely gonna need to get that aspect
24:20
Speaker 2: of this team figured out for sure. But Travis, Man,
24:24
Speaker 2: before I let you go here in a great conversation
24:27
Speaker 2: that we're having here, I wish I could talk to
24:28
Speaker 2: you for another hour here. But as we're closing things
24:31
Speaker 2: out here, as we're looking to this upcoming season and
24:35
Speaker 2: what the Jaguars are going to do on the field,
24:37
Speaker 2: aside from Trevor Lawrence, which young player do you think
24:42
Speaker 2: could really become a national face and star of this team?
24:47
Speaker 1: What are you thinking here?
24:48
Speaker 3: This feels like such a cheating question. Man.
24:52
Speaker 4: We have Trevor Lawrence on the team aside for it,
24:55
Speaker 4: of course, aside well, of course.
24:57
Speaker 3: But no.
24:57
Speaker 4: But the cheating part of this is because they have
25:00
Speaker 4: Travis Hunter on the team, the first generational two way
25:04
Speaker 4: player in the modern NFL, and you're like, well, uh.
25:09
Speaker 3: That's obviously the answer.
25:10
Speaker 4: He's probably going to be one of your favorites for
25:12
Speaker 4: Comeback Player of the Year if you're not talking about
25:13
Speaker 4: a quarterback of some sort. So yeah, it's freaking Travis Hunter,
25:17
Speaker 4: but probably already a national face. And at that, especially
25:22
Speaker 4: if you have kids and on TikTok on YouTube, come on, like,
25:25
Speaker 4: this dude's already national. So if I'm not cheating and
25:28
Speaker 4: saying the guy who plays on both sides of the
25:31
Speaker 4: ball loves the fish and has an immense TikTok following, yes,
25:36
Speaker 4: and you're probably saying someone like you know what, Actually
25:41
Speaker 4: I almost said something that I don't know that I
25:43
Speaker 4: necessarily believe this is going to get interested.
25:45
Speaker 3: In them, Okay, because the Jaguars are in the weird spot. No, no,
25:49
Speaker 3: they are.
25:49
Speaker 4: They are like most of the high profile positions that
25:52
Speaker 4: you name quarterback, well that's Trevor Larrence. They're good there
25:57
Speaker 4: the high visibility positions. Why ever, you've got Brian Thomas Junior.
26:02
Speaker 4: But I don't think that that's that's that's a question
26:05
Speaker 4: mark right now, just someone you saw in that twenty
26:06
Speaker 4: twenty five season and whether he's going to be able
26:09
Speaker 4: to play more, you know, run more option routes and
26:12
Speaker 4: actually cash the ball and not be uneasy running across
26:15
Speaker 4: the middle, all those things that happened on film last year. Right, So,
26:19
Speaker 4: I don't know if that's actually going to be true.
26:22
Speaker 4: And you got the running back position, maybe braysh'all Suton.
26:24
Speaker 4: The fantasy football community loves him and I but I
26:29
Speaker 4: have my personal biases, my personal opinion that they're going
26:31
Speaker 4: to have a lot of split that field duties like
26:35
Speaker 4: one A one B with him and Chris Rodriguez. I think,
26:37
Speaker 4: I think is going to truly be your first run,
26:39
Speaker 4: first down, maybe even first and second down running back,
26:43
Speaker 4: which limits the ceiling for base y'all Tuton. And on
26:46
Speaker 4: the defensive side of things, your past rushers are for
26:48
Speaker 4: the most part, a little bit older. You got Trevalon
26:50
Speaker 4: Walker who's now in his second contract. You got Josh
26:52
Speaker 4: Haines Allen who's in the middle of his second contract.
26:55
Speaker 4: These aren't young guys. Where am I naming someone that's
26:59
Speaker 4: like again, it comes back to if it's not Travis Hunter. Oh,
27:03
Speaker 4: this is a weird situation where I don't know who
27:05
Speaker 4: there really is that can just be that guy as
27:08
Speaker 4: far as a young national face. Yeah, because everywhere else
27:11
Speaker 4: is either on their second contract or they're simply guys
27:13
Speaker 4: who aren't playing high profile positions.
27:15
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
27:17
Speaker 4: So unfortunately, that's my long winded way of saying, the
27:20
Speaker 4: guy that was a national face when they drafted him,
27:22
Speaker 4: it is probably going to be the national face because
27:24
Speaker 4: he's coming back from injury.
27:25
Speaker 3: Travis Hunter fishing Master.
27:26
Speaker 2: There we go, Travis Hunter can be a national star
27:30
Speaker 2: and it just should be here. We're going to actually
27:32
Speaker 2: change this here to say that Travis Hunter actually is
27:37
Speaker 2: a national star. I mean, of course he is. Why
27:40
Speaker 2: wouldn't he be at this point in his career with
27:43
Speaker 2: what he has done and what he will do in
27:47
Speaker 2: the future. I think for me, that draft and all
27:50
Speaker 2: the talk of cornerback percentage on the field between the
27:55
Speaker 2: offense defense, it was really remarkable to be living through
28:00
Speaker 2: that because we're not going to really see this seriously
28:03
Speaker 2: maybe once every fifteen years. Who knows, we may never
28:06
Speaker 2: see this again. And I think it's fascinating to see
28:09
Speaker 2: a talent like Travis Hunter doing what he's doing. I
28:12
Speaker 2: honestly think he should be getting more acclaim for the
28:15
Speaker 2: type of athlete that he is and the type of
28:17
Speaker 2: football player that he is, given what he's done for
28:21
Speaker 2: the game in his very young career so far. So
28:24
Speaker 2: I love your answer. Travis Hunter not only is a
28:26
Speaker 2: national star, he's going to be that face I think
28:28
Speaker 2: for the team for some years to come.
28:30
Speaker 4: The only thing I want to keep an eye on
28:33
Speaker 4: I out on, like in training camp and later early
28:36
Speaker 4: in the season, it was with him returning from injury,
28:39
Speaker 4: not if he's going to be as athletic as as
28:41
Speaker 4: we expect him to be. I do expect him to
28:43
Speaker 4: be as athletic as we all see, as explosive as
28:46
Speaker 4: we're all used to sing. My only thing is he's
28:49
Speaker 4: coming back from an LCL injury where he's not going
28:52
Speaker 4: to be playing much of the early parts of the
28:54
Speaker 4: off season, and I still question, like, are you going
28:57
Speaker 4: to have the endurance? Are you going to be able
29:00
Speaker 4: to have the wind pipes and everything else to play
29:03
Speaker 4: both sides like we.
29:04
Speaker 3: Were used to seeing you play.
29:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a different thing from saying I'm going to
29:08
Speaker 4: be in football shape. So I'm going to get an
29:10
Speaker 4: ironman football shape, something that we already thought was very
29:14
Speaker 4: difficult for anyone to do. And now you're coming back
29:16
Speaker 4: from a moderately big injury. Yeah, that changes the math
29:19
Speaker 4: a little bit for me.
29:20
Speaker 2: It does absolutely. Man, what a great conversation here, folks.
29:24
Speaker 2: He is Travis Holmes from Big Catcountry dot com. If
29:28
Speaker 2: you're on the Twitter slash x follow him great great
29:31
Speaker 2: follow at Travis D. Holmes and again head on over
29:34
Speaker 2: to Big Catcountry dot com and check out all they
29:37
Speaker 2: have going on over there. My friend, it was really
29:39
Speaker 2: great talking to you. I'm hoping you can come on
29:41
Speaker 2: and join us again, get into some Jaggs talk, some
29:44
Speaker 2: NFL talk.
29:44
Speaker 1: I'd love to have you back on the show.
29:45
Speaker 4: Man, Man, I appreciate it. No, thank you very much,
29:48
Speaker 4: and again I'm always willing to come back on. Just
29:51
Speaker 4: let me know whatever, Jeff, I'm here for it.
29:53
Speaker 2: That's gonna do it for us here on Opposition Territory
29:56
Speaker 2: this week. Please share our podcast with your friends and
29:59
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30:02
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30:09
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30:26
Speaker 1: Take care, we will catch you next time.