May 20, 2025 • 29 mins
Kainani Stevens, John Oehser, and Brian Sexton are live with Jags A.M. to share first impressions of OTAs. The crew dives into the chemistry developing between Quarterback Trevor Lawrence and the wide receiver group. They take a look at the schedule and highlight some intriguing matchups to keep an eye on. Jaguars Head Coach Liam Coen, Quarterback Trevor Lawrence and Offensive Coordinator Grant Udinski recapped their experience at the first OTA practice in a press conference yesterday. Kai, John and Brian share top takeaways from their comments.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:17):
Welcome to Dagdam.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm kind of honest. Stephen Spriin, Sexton and John Oser
are with me today as we get ready to talk
to you about OTA's the unofficial kind of start to
the offseason workouts, and that's our big thing Number one
OTAs Brian, we kind of make fun of this time
of year sometimes, but with a new regime coming in,
this is really important. And we saw pretty great turnout
from the players yesterday. I don't want to say it
was one hundred percent, but I think only a couple
(00:39):
of faces were missing, and seeing everybody buy in this
early is really good to see.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Well, listen to all of the players from the quarterback
going down talk about the energy with this young staff
and the newness that comes with it, and they're.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
All obviously revitalized by the fact.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
That they finished four and thirteen last year, and anything
would be better than that. I'll tell you what I
was most interested in was when you look at the
roster that they hand out to the members of the
media by offensive line, there weren't tackles or guards or center.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
It was all ol right.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
And so that's interesting because we've been into OTA's in
the last couple of years we knew there was maybe
a competition between Cam Robinson and Walker Little at left tackle,
but you here's Ezra Cleveland and they signed Mitch Morse
last year. You kind of knew who it was and
where they were going to be. John, It's fascinating to
see it all jumbled up and not really have any
(01:30):
delineations of who's where or when. Even the coach said
it's going to go rep to rep from time to time.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Yeah, and I think that's definitely the plan. I think
some of the guys that we assume will start in
the offensive line probably will wind up starting, but they
have to earn it. I'm gonna take the needle and
put it back on the first song. And we've heard
this record before around here about OTAs with the regime change.
I don't necessarily think that OTAs are always vital for
(01:58):
every veteran on the team, But with the regime change
and with a new offense, and with Trevor Lawrence talking
on Monday about he's still learning this, well, guess what
if he's still learning it, everybody else surround him needs
to be learning it with him. So while we really
can't evaluate this or shouldn't evaluate it for you know,
we don't know, based on an Ota price, who's going
(02:19):
to start, but it is incredibly important for the players
to be learning and to be absorbing the culture what's
going on around here.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Good point, John, John Big thing number two is QB one, which.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
We talked about Trevor.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
We haven't seen him working with a lot of these
new players. I've seen him working out in the off season,
but now with the rookies here, everybody's here working with
QB one, and Trevor talked a little bit about what
he did with rehabbing through the off season.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
Not a ton obviously, just getting back into throwing. You know,
I went for a solid three and a half plus
months without throwing, just with the shoulder deal, and so
starting to throw a little bit for OTA's and then
working into it.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
I feel really good now.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
I feel like my arm's back in shape, feel like
I'm getting sharper and sharper every day.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
John Wey saw Trevor out there. He's working learning a
new system, but also a lot of new players he's
got to work with, both on the line and the
wide receiving group.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
He's got to get used to. Yeah, and I think
particularly key, obviously is the wide receiver group, which I
know we'll talk about as a show goes on. They're
really fast, they're much quicker, they seem much more athletic
than maybe any group this team has had here going
back to the nineties. So there is a crucial element
of getting on the same page with those guys. But
(03:29):
I think the biggest storyline for Trevor Lawrence is the footwork,
and not necessarily that he needed to improve the basics.
Dramatically said there was some work he did there, but
Brian getting his footwork right for this offense, it's fascinating.
He talked about, he talked about several times this offseason
how the footwork dictates where he's going with the ball
(03:51):
and those things need to be muscle memory. If that's
the case, and it is, then every rep is crucial
as he tries to get this offense where it's second
nature by the regular season, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
And there was some conversation on the sidelines yesterday because
he threw a couple of passes that got tipped and intercepted.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
And he overthrew one.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Listen, he alone is just coming back from all the
time he missed last year. Let alone all of the
new players, like you mentioned guy. But what we don't
know is how much he's going to progress from day
to day because we're not out there every day, right
So he may have struggled a little bit yesterday just
getting into the rhythm of things with people, but he
may have a much better day today. I think when
you look at the body of work, you can't look
(04:30):
at OTAs separate from training camp. It's going to be
how he works his way through this new system and
getting himself back into football shape all the way up
to the start of the regular season. I think that's
the best way to evaluate him. And you know, Johnny
kept saying yesterday that this offense keeps giving you answers.
He didn't elaborate. We didn't have enough time to really
dive into that. I'll be interested to find out more
(04:51):
what that means as we get into this thing with him.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Our final big thing today is going to be expectations.
As we talk about OTA's head coach Liam Cohen talked
about what he thinks is important this time of year.
Speaker 6 (05:02):
Are we going to catch every ball and throw every
ball out here in the first day at Phase three?
I would assume not but more in terms of the operation,
the communication. Are we understanding what we're trying to get
accomplished out of the calls. It's a learning phase, not
necessarily a competitive phase.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
And do you want to be cleaner? Absolutely?
Speaker 6 (05:21):
Do you want it to look perfect, yes, we all do.
That's just not the reality at this phase this time,
in this phase, ran I.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Love some brutal honesty, which is fair the first day
out there, obviously not one hundred percent, not what you'd
expect to see at a practice in November. But it's
the little things that are important this time of year, right, communication, hustle,
getting your conditioning together. That's all little things when you
look at it. But in this grand scheme it's going
to play a big factor coming up in a couple
of months.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Well.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
And obviously he understands what they're trying to do and
expects that the players will get better from meeting the
meeting in practice to practice, so that by the time
they get out of OTAs and into mini camp and
did the start of the training camp then to the
start of the regular season, they'll get closer to where
he wants to go. The thing I really enjoyed about
him yesterday was just the candidates that you mentioned, but
(06:05):
just the transparency.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
He gets it.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
He knows that people are going to talk about what
the quarterback did yesterday or what the defense did. Having
a couple of interceptions off the two starting well, the
starting and the backup quarterback both through a couple yesterday,
He's not gonna let that bother him. He's not gonna
let that become the storyline.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
I'm going to move the needle back to the start
of the record again, right and look, it's the first
practice of OTA's unpadded work with a new system, a
new offensive system, a new defensive system, new players in
that system, new coordinators however you slice it, and a
quarterback who didn't throw for three and a half months
this offseason. No unit is ahead of the other unit
(06:44):
at this point because they're not competing like that. They
are trying to learn what's going on and trying to
be as ready as possible for training camp. You don't
want all the interceptions, but to think you weren't going
to have any on day one was a little.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Selly here on jag Zam. The schedule released last week.
We're going to go over all of the dates with
you coming up after the break. Jag Zam brought to
you by Fresh from Florida. It's always in season.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
This this school, that, this school. Welcome back to jag Zam.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
We're gonna go over some of the schedule for you
and do a little this or that in relation to that.
So this came out last week on Wednesday, and now
we finally know where and when they're going to be playing.
We knew the opponents already, but that first five games
of the schedule is not going to be an easy set.
I think we've talked about this obviously. We did a
schedule release show. We talked a little bit about this,
but I figured for our jag Zam fans we'll recap
(07:47):
a little bit. But for me, if you can go
two and three here, I'm fine with that. This is
pretty tough out of the gate, including a primetime matchup
against the Chiefs here at home, which will should be
a great game if nothing else except to have Monday
night football back, which is always fun. John is the
first game against the Panthers. Is that a must win game?
(08:07):
I know you love call things must win.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
No, it's not.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Because it's week one and if you say you must
win it. If you win the last sixteen, you look
pretty silly saying that was a must win game. But
for energy, for belief, yeah, I think it's important only
because if you believe that twenty four results will translate
(08:35):
into twenty five, then this is a really tough start.
That's usually not the way it works. But that's all
we have to sort of gauge it on right now.
If you lose to Carolina, now you're looking at a
Bengals team that thinks it's going to compete for the
Super Bowl. The Texans are your big rival in the division.
You've got the Chiefs, who look, you can play really
well against Patrick Mahomes and not win. And then the
(08:56):
forty nine ers. You can't believe they're gonna be six
and eleven again, so must win. No, but you better
win a couple of these. And that looks like the
one that's the most gettable.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
I'll take the other side of the coin. From an
emotional side. You remember what it fell around here last
year when they were one and.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Four, not great, and it felt like they were out
of it, you know, And there are still players in
the locker room who remember that. Despite the fact that
there's a lot of new faces, both on the coaching
staff and next to them in other lockers. One in
four would be a disastrous start to this season, not
because you couldn't overcome it, because recently they didn't, and
it would it would be like the negative muscle memory, like,
(09:34):
oh boy, here we go again.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
What's really changed?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
So from that perspective, yeah, beating Carolina here on opening
day seems like a really important game.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
And part of that too. Look, we're used to this
team struggling because it lost the last or five of
the last six and twenty three and four and thirteen
last year, so we're sort of tend to look at
the schedule with that sort of feeling. Still, these guys
don't believe they're going to be that team. So if
(10:03):
you're not that team, then that schedule at the top
is just a difficult schedule.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
But after Kansas City, if you're one in four, that's
not good. They're still going to believe that they're not
that team. That's right, right, I mean I don't I.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Think a little bit at this time we were all
a little Dilall listen here.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
The other thing is you don't know, you don't know
who comes into the season banged up, right, What if
one of those receivers gets hurt in Cincinnati and training
campan isn't full speed. You know, what if the offensive
line that they've rebuilt in Houston isn't there. We're judging
them based on last season's results, and we're projecting that
the Niners won't be as bad as they were last year,
which seems fair to project, but we don't know where
(10:43):
they're going to be. So yes, it looks on face
value like a very challenging schedule, but there's a lot of.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Unknowns there are, and it's important for us to remember too,
as much as we remember how things didn't feel great
last season. I feel like almost half this roster is
different at this point, so they'll feel a little bit
differently going into this as well. So let's look at
that next chunk of games, week six through ten. I
believe obviously they're heading to London during that stretch, and
then there's a bye week. How important is it around
(11:09):
the bye to have a winning record be five hundred?
Are you looking at it that way, Brian? Are you
kind of just looking at it as a whole.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
I'm looking at it as a whole because you can
grab some momentum over the final six games of the season.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
But let's put it this way.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
You want to be around five hundred at the worst,
because you've got these trips to the West Coast interspersed there,
You've got some challenge as you come off Kansas City.
You know, you've got a game against Seattle, who's been
a pretty good team consistently for the last decade. And
we know about the Rams in London, and then you
come home. You got to go to Vegas and that'll
be a different team under Pete Carroll. And then you're
at Houston. So two and three gives you a chance.
(11:47):
With these four games, maybe you could go three and
one and take advantage of that and find yourself at
five and five, five to four, right, I mean, that
would be ideal. When you look at the will stretch
of the season.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
The question is do you have to be five hundred
to buy you know? I do you have to be
three and four, four and three? I think you need
to be three and four, you know, I think at
least because it's easy to say, well, you know, you
can be two and five and come back from look
what they did in twenty two. But remember how historic
and what heavy lift got to run the table for you,
(12:22):
and you had to have a team come way back
to you. You can't count on a late season dramatic run.
So I do think you have to tread water with
what if the schedule is indeed difficult. I think you
have to tread water and be five and five, six
and six ish and then have a chance to sort
of reel some teams back in with what looks like
a more manageable late season schedule.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
And we're also assuming that this team is gonna we
are assuming that this team is going to struggle a
little bit early.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
New coach, some new players. Maybe they don't.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
Maybe they don't, that'd be great.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Let's look at our third section, or a third chunk,
which is games eleven through fourteen. I think, as we mentioned,
there's those West Coast trips interspersed there some tough road matchups.
When you looked at this schedule as a whole, Brian,
what was the toughest road games on there?
Speaker 3 (13:12):
I think going to San Francisco. I mean, even though
they were six and eleven, we know the quality of
that team, and that's a place that the Jaguars have
never fared well against a team that they've never fared
well with. That one is the one that stands out,
is the biggest West Coast trip, you know. But when
you look, you see the one against the Cardinals. That's
a sneaky good team. Because the quarterback will be healthy
(13:33):
this year second half of the season. I think that
Cardinals game is going to be a pivotal one for them.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Yeah, it feels like that you guys about road games,
but that Chargers game here at home. Chargers feel like
a team that's going to push Kansas City this year.
I agree with Brian, and San Francisco feels like the
toughest one coming up in this final stretch. Denver with
Sean Payton feeling like he's got that thing go, and
(14:01):
it just feels like they're going to be contending and
it's gonna be a game that matters to the Broncos late.
So I would go with that one as well.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
I agree with you, John, when I look at that
schedule and I see Denver in December, knowing what they
did late in the season last year. You have an
experience head coach of a rookie quarterback kind of coming together.
We'll see what a sophomore campaign looks like but for
me cool, if it's a game, it'll be a big
game Meeta way, I think just in terms of the
Jaguars on the road that'll be for us. I think
it'll mean.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Something that's always a great environment too.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Absolutely all right, So let's here on Jagsam. Coming up
in a little bit, we're gonna go over OTA's. You'll
hear from head coach and your quarterback.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
Move the freight.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Move the freight, Magellan Transport. But the coolest office space
in Jacksonville. You can check things out at Magellanlogistics dot com.
Back here on jags AM, OTAs are underway and we
got to hear from head coach. Got to hear from
the quarterbacks the first time in a while, so it
was nice to get their perspective of Obviously, Trevor Lawrence
(15:01):
mentioned he hasn't been throwing for a couple of months
due to that shoulder surgery. Now he's back out there,
fully active with his teammates, but also learning a new system,
which he talked a little bit about yesterday.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
I really like it. You know, it has a lot
of answers. You know, it's it's it's great. I mean,
it puts a lot of the players you have to
know your stuff, but it gives you all the answers.
You know, you're not I don't feel like you're stuck
in a play that's uh not set up for success.
You know, gives us a lot of answers. And uh
we changed the presentation a lot and make a lot
of things look the same. You know, there's there's a
whole lot of without going into too much detail, you know,
(15:33):
there's a lot of things that I like about it.
And it's definitely unlike any system that I've learned before.
So it's been cool to learn and just pick the
coach's brain and try to get it down as fast
as possible.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
John, that was your question to Trevor Lawrence, and he
said he likes that it has a lot of answers
for him, kind of talking about that new system for
him making things available to him. What did you take
from his answer?
Speaker 4 (15:59):
No, Core on first day of OTA is going to
stand up and say this system stinks. But I do
think it's a storyline to follow in terms of what
this system gives the quarterback easily, meaning the footwork all
ties into making the decisions easy and making the quarterback
(16:20):
have to think. Let's quarterback always has to think, But
it's about taking as many making as many decisions, feel
like muscle memory, based on the footwork, based on the routine,
based on the pattern. So I think that's really what
he's talking about liking, and it's going to be interesting
to see how quarterback friendly because I think that's what
(16:42):
I think that's the word they're looking for with this.
It's supposed to make it easy to make decisions.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Back there, Well, I'm going to take the needle and
move it forward a song. Okay, okay, well only in
the sense that the running game I think is going
to be the key to making the quarterbacks life easy.
I know the footwork is going to become a story,
and we're focused on Trevor Is he comes back from
the shoulder injury, and I think we have plenty of
new viewers, Travis Hunter fans who come on who may
not know it was the non throwing shoulder for him,
(17:09):
So it's not like he wasn't throwing because it was
the throwing shoulder. It's the non throwing shoulder. But I
think that the running back position is as interesting as
any and we won't talk about it early in OTAs,
we'll talk about it more when they're actually in pads
in training camp. But as he kept talking about answers
and answers and answers, I think the ability to convert
(17:30):
on third down and shorts, which they haven't done, will
give him as many answers as anything because it will
keep the defense guessing.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
Yeah, if the running game can get him in better,
not only converting more second and fives as opposed to
second and eight, it'll be key for him. So how
the offensive line fares is going to be key for
him and for everybody this year.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
You read between the lines a little bit too when
he says having plays where he feels like they're set
up for success, where maybe some other times we talk
about those third and longs, a lot of the first
couple plays maybe weren't setting them up for success in
past regimes. So we'll definitely see some changes alteration there.
So I think everybody's looking forward to kind of seeing
what they do there. Trevor Lawrence also finally got to
(18:14):
work with Travis Hunter. Right, We've been talking about that
for a while. Travis Hunter have mostly been focusing on
offense thus far, and Trevor talked a little bit about
what he's seen from himself.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Far, I got a lot of juice. He can run
all day, a lot of energy.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
I love it. Good energy, always just dapping guys up,
just bringing juice every day. And like I said, high
motor can just go. It's like a kid just runs
around all day. He doesn't get tired. It seems like
so you can't have enough of that. And then as
far as just talent, I mean kind of speaks for
his self, ball skills, run after the catch, he's very explosive.
She didn't realize how exposive he was in and out
of cuts. You know, he's impressive to watch. And we've
(18:48):
gotten to connect a couple of times, just so lo'ly
gonna keep getting better and better. You know, we've only
worked together for a couple of days now, so we
got some time to really dial in on the details.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Brian, you have to imagine he's excited to have then
new weapon like that.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yeah, I just thought though he was asked the question,
if I was asked the question to answer it, I
would have said, absolutely, the guy is fast, he's explosive.
But did you see number seven out there today? Because
there were a couple of plays throws to Brian Thomas
Junior where he caught the ball and accelerated up the field.
I've never I've never seen a receiver since Jimmy Smith
(19:21):
do that in Jacksonville. The explosion is how much better
Brian Thomas is poised to be this year, and obviously
having Travis Hunter on the other side will help him
because they won't be able.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
To key on him.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
But for all of the things that Travis Hunter is
advertised to bring to Jacksonville, he is showing those on
the field. It's just that Brian Thomas Junior was the
most impressive guy on the field yesterday.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
Yeah, he BTJ feels like a great player who's about
to make that second year jump. He was very good
as a rookie, but he looks like a guy who
all of a sudden is out there going, oh, this
is what I can do. You know, and knew it
last year, but now I was seeing everything. I thought.
(20:04):
The most interesting quote from Trevor when he was talking
about Travis Hunter was how quick he is in and
out of breaks. That sometimes can be where fast receivers
don't translate to the NFL, because you have to be
able to get open. I don't know how good Travis
Hunter is going to be in terms of numbers this year.
I don't know what his stats are going to look like.
(20:25):
But if he can scare defenses on a play to
play basis, which I think he will, and score eight touchdowns,
and even if he's not a polished route runner, which
I don't expect him to be yet, if his playmaking
and his dynamic talent, quickness, all that stuff make plays
that coordinators when they're writing down had a game plan.
(20:47):
If they're writing down seven, twelve and five, who's Dianny Brown. Well, then,
all of a sudden, for the first time in a
long time around here, you've got a bunch of guys
that scare defensive coordinators. Travis Hunter willquably scared them more
than anybody.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
And we should probably point out that Brown showed it
is the first time we got to look at him,
showed his explosion is yesterday and his speed as well.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
I was impressed with what he was doing yesterday. For me,
not that I had little expectations for him, but just
to kind of see them all out there, and especially
Brian Thomas Junior. We talk about He's quickly gotten to
that point where John, You've covered players like this before
that are dynamic. You see them do crazy things and
you just expected. At this point, it's not even oh,
that's amazing, it's like, well, yeah, he's amazing, Like of
course he's doing that.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Yeah, And this team hasn't had that level of blue
chip enough. I would say Jalen athletically Jayalen Ramsey was
that guy. There's been others, Jimmy Smith back in the day,
Fred Taylor, in the history of the franchise, there has
been that, but maybe at the receiver position, which has
become the rock star position. This feels like the first
(21:49):
Jaguars rock star since Jimmy Smith.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
I just I see him move, and he just moves differently, right.
I Mean I never watched Secretariat run, but you see
Secretariat running in some of these clips and you realize
he's completely different than everyone else. And all I think
of when I see Brian Thomas out there is the
guy is the Secretariat of wide receivers.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
I mean, he's as good as they can count.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Makes everything look really, really easy, which is enjoyable to
watch in terms of what things actually look like. As
a whole. As we mentioned, head coach wasn't overly impressed
with everything being on the button yesterday, but he did
say the defense looked good to him from what he saw.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
I actually thought they they did some really good things today.
I thought, just from a communications standpoint, punching the ball out,
doing it in the right way though, right we had
a couple guys just trying to be intentional about getting
the ball out and getting their hands on the football,
something that we're you know, actively trying to be intentional
about this whole offseason, and I thought the defensive staff
(22:47):
has done a great job of communicating that in the
meeting settings. Bringing it out to the practice field, I
thought that they did a nice job kind of setting
the line of scrimmage, playing with length on the D line,
and you know, the ball was out. I mean, the
ball is on the ground too many times for us offensively,
but hey, on the flip side of it, that's the
first time as a head coach you actually kind of
have to be very neutral in those moments where I'm
(23:09):
kind of ticked off that the ball is on the
ground from an offensive standpoint. But ultimately, man defense did
a nice job of getting the ball out that today
for us, your.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Offensive head coach had to rein it in a little bit.
He's like, well, I coached the defense too, so we're
happy to see that.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
John.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
At this time of the year, defense is always, you know,
by nature position, it's a little more reactionary, so there
always feels like they're ahead of the offense. But we
don't talk a ton about the defensive side of the football.
But obviously new coordinators, there some new key players, and
then Eric Armstead switching back to his original position. There's
gonna be a lot of changes we see there as well.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
Yeah, it's really hard to analyze defense well during the
offseason because the pass rush is different. You're not really
stopping the run. So much of defense in the NFL
is how you stopped throwing early downs in a real
life situation where you never get that you get to games.
(24:01):
So how good are they going to be? I don't know,
but I think they believe they have a chance to
be pretty good defensively because they believe strongly in their
two edge guys. They believe in Foyer Lucon and they
believe in Eric Armstead in the middle, and they believe
that out of that is going to be is going
to come a pretty good interior core for the first
time in a while. So it's good that they looked
(24:22):
good yesterday. Brian, I don't know what it means.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
Well, the secondary had a good day yesterday, right, I mean,
they got Trevor twice, They got Nick Mullens, the backup
quarterback twice. From what you can tell, they were moving
and they were communicating. And Eric Murray, the safety, the
veteran safety they signed, the ten year guy from Houston,
was in the middle of it all. So that's an
important signing because you're dramatically changing the back end of
(24:44):
the defense. As much as we talk about the offensive
line as a work in progress, and you're going to
figure out who goes where as training camp goes on.
Same thing in the secondary. You know, with Jordan Lewis,
you can play inside or outside where just Trump's hundred
fet into all of this. But they had a really
good day yesterday on the first day of OATES and
that's not a bad sign.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
I think Tyson Campbell and Travis Hunter are sort of
quietly huge stories. Meaning if Tyson is the cornerback that
you paid, which I don't know that he's been that yet.
But if he is, and the skill is there, the
raw material is there to do that, and if Travis
(25:22):
Hunter is impactful at corner, then all of a sudden,
what seems like a weakness might become a strength. And
as you said, Brian, that is really a story that
because we focus so much on offense, we probably haven't
talked about enough. But the secondary can't be what it
was last year.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
It was a huge liability of the secondary was and
obviously everything goes hand in hand pass rush and whatnot
leading into that, but we cannot see the explosive plays
they allowed last season to drag into this season. So
the secondary will definitely be a focus going into training
camp and getting that all established stable us here on
Jags am coming up. We'll tell you what's coming up
the rest of the week and what we've got going on.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
There's an energy on the Pridue field. I think that
starts with obviously Liam. He's a very energetic guy. He's passionate,
loves football, loves to be out here. I think that's
one thing I've noticed about him from the beginning is
a lot of energy and that trickles down to the staff,
right So I mean it's that. And then also the
players that we have a big variety of the guys
that they brought in and free agency, they all fit
(26:23):
what we're trying to do. And the I guess, the
culture and the energy and then even a guy like
Travis bringing in who's just full of energy and positive
and you know, a playmaker, all those things. It's cool
seeing it all come together, and it seems like everything's
well thought out about the type of people that are.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Here, not just the talent.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Things slowly coming together for the Jaguars. Obviously tons of
changes in the off season. We hear that culture word
a lot, John, but energy. You want to see the
buy in. I think more than anything, you'll figure out
what the team actually is as things go along. But
seeing this buy in this early, as we mentioned earlier,
huge turnout, probably only a couple of people missing. That's
good to see at this point.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Yeah, and not surprising. Players get it. They know that
this is a year to be here. Even the veteran guys,
they understand new regime. You want to be around it.
You want to know what to expect coming in. I
think Travis Hunter's presence for a team that you know
anytime you change regimes, you're automatically going to be changing
(27:21):
cultures because what happened last time didn't work, and what
else are you going to talk about? But Brian, I
do think Travis Hunter's confidence. There are certain guys who
never really believe that they're not the best player out
there and that their team shouldn't win, and that can
help when you're trying to turn around to mindset. I
(27:41):
think he does bring an element of that. Well.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Obviously, he has all the skills, right, I mean, he
can run forever, as you've heard, and he's so athletic,
and he's got great ball skills. But it's that energy level,
it's that personality. It's that confidence that he brings that
sets him apart. There are lots of great athletes. It's
the ability to step onto the field to know you
belong and know you belong at the top of the
guys who are out there.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
And I think that'll I think that'll bleed over.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
I spent a little time with him, as I told
you guys in Green Bay, and have watched him out here.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
He's consistent.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
He's the same guy every time, whether you se him
in the hallway or on the practice field. That's important too,
because you guys know, there were some guys in the
locker room in recent years who weren't really consistent. You
want that consistency. They show up Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. They
the same guy, whether they won or they lost the
last week, that same sense of purpose, and it.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
Can give veterans a lift. A guy like this comes in.
You see him running constantly, and you're in your fifth
year and you're not playing two positions. You're like, gosh,
I can't be tired. I mean, this kid's still running,
and that enthusiasm can give veterans sort of a second win,
the second life.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Well, he expects to win, right, We've talked about that.
I mean, he's a guy who has only known success.
You see the trophies that he had last year, he
won all of them. That expectation of excellence is something
we haven't had enough of around here. And first round
pick one of the most popular players in the league,
already social media phenomenon. It's nice that you have that
(29:06):
caliber of a player, with that caliber of expectation.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Trophy sometimes, Yeah, everybody gave out the participation one team.
There we go, I got that one.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
We'd love to see it all right. OTAs continue next week,
we'll be back out there with them, and then we'll
be back here with you on jags aam next week
as well
Welcome to Dagdam.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm kind of honest. Stephen Spriin, Sexton and John Oser
are with me today as we get ready to talk
to you about OTA's the unofficial kind of start to
the offseason workouts, and that's our big thing Number one
OTAs Brian, we kind of make fun of this time
of year sometimes, but with a new regime coming in,
this is really important. And we saw pretty great turnout
from the players yesterday. I don't want to say it
was one hundred percent, but I think only a couple
(00:39):
of faces were missing, and seeing everybody buy in this
early is really good to see.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Well, listen to all of the players from the quarterback
going down talk about the energy with this young staff
and the newness that comes with it, and they're.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
All obviously revitalized by the fact.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
That they finished four and thirteen last year, and anything
would be better than that. I'll tell you what I
was most interested in was when you look at the
roster that they hand out to the members of the
media by offensive line, there weren't tackles or guards or center.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
It was all ol right.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
And so that's interesting because we've been into OTA's in
the last couple of years we knew there was maybe
a competition between Cam Robinson and Walker Little at left tackle,
but you here's Ezra Cleveland and they signed Mitch Morse
last year. You kind of knew who it was and
where they were going to be. John, It's fascinating to
see it all jumbled up and not really have any
(01:30):
delineations of who's where or when. Even the coach said
it's going to go rep to rep from time to time.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Yeah, and I think that's definitely the plan. I think
some of the guys that we assume will start in
the offensive line probably will wind up starting, but they
have to earn it. I'm gonna take the needle and
put it back on the first song. And we've heard
this record before around here about OTAs with the regime change.
I don't necessarily think that OTAs are always vital for
(01:58):
every veteran on the team, But with the regime change
and with a new offense, and with Trevor Lawrence talking
on Monday about he's still learning this, well, guess what
if he's still learning it, everybody else surround him needs
to be learning it with him. So while we really
can't evaluate this or shouldn't evaluate it for you know,
we don't know, based on an Ota price, who's going
(02:19):
to start, but it is incredibly important for the players
to be learning and to be absorbing the culture what's
going on around here.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Good point, John, John Big thing number two is QB one, which.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
We talked about Trevor.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
We haven't seen him working with a lot of these
new players. I've seen him working out in the off season,
but now with the rookies here, everybody's here working with
QB one, and Trevor talked a little bit about what
he did with rehabbing through the off season.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
Not a ton obviously, just getting back into throwing. You know,
I went for a solid three and a half plus
months without throwing, just with the shoulder deal, and so
starting to throw a little bit for OTA's and then
working into it.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
I feel really good now.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
I feel like my arm's back in shape, feel like
I'm getting sharper and sharper every day.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
John Wey saw Trevor out there. He's working learning a
new system, but also a lot of new players he's
got to work with, both on the line and the
wide receiving group.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
He's got to get used to. Yeah, and I think
particularly key, obviously is the wide receiver group, which I
know we'll talk about as a show goes on. They're
really fast, they're much quicker, they seem much more athletic
than maybe any group this team has had here going
back to the nineties. So there is a crucial element
of getting on the same page with those guys. But
(03:29):
I think the biggest storyline for Trevor Lawrence is the footwork,
and not necessarily that he needed to improve the basics.
Dramatically said there was some work he did there, but
Brian getting his footwork right for this offense, it's fascinating.
He talked about, he talked about several times this offseason
how the footwork dictates where he's going with the ball
(03:51):
and those things need to be muscle memory. If that's
the case, and it is, then every rep is crucial
as he tries to get this offense where it's second
nature by the regular season, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
And there was some conversation on the sidelines yesterday because
he threw a couple of passes that got tipped and intercepted.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
And he overthrew one.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Listen, he alone is just coming back from all the
time he missed last year. Let alone all of the
new players, like you mentioned guy. But what we don't
know is how much he's going to progress from day
to day because we're not out there every day, right
So he may have struggled a little bit yesterday just
getting into the rhythm of things with people, but he
may have a much better day today. I think when
you look at the body of work, you can't look
(04:30):
at OTAs separate from training camp. It's going to be
how he works his way through this new system and
getting himself back into football shape all the way up
to the start of the regular season. I think that's
the best way to evaluate him. And you know, Johnny
kept saying yesterday that this offense keeps giving you answers.
He didn't elaborate. We didn't have enough time to really
dive into that. I'll be interested to find out more
(04:51):
what that means as we get into this thing with him.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Our final big thing today is going to be expectations.
As we talk about OTA's head coach Liam Cohen talked
about what he thinks is important this time of year.
Speaker 6 (05:02):
Are we going to catch every ball and throw every
ball out here in the first day at Phase three?
I would assume not but more in terms of the operation,
the communication. Are we understanding what we're trying to get
accomplished out of the calls. It's a learning phase, not
necessarily a competitive phase.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
And do you want to be cleaner? Absolutely?
Speaker 6 (05:21):
Do you want it to look perfect, yes, we all do.
That's just not the reality at this phase this time,
in this phase, ran I.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Love some brutal honesty, which is fair the first day
out there, obviously not one hundred percent, not what you'd
expect to see at a practice in November. But it's
the little things that are important this time of year, right, communication, hustle,
getting your conditioning together. That's all little things when you
look at it. But in this grand scheme it's going
to play a big factor coming up in a couple
of months.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Well.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
And obviously he understands what they're trying to do and
expects that the players will get better from meeting the
meeting in practice to practice, so that by the time
they get out of OTAs and into mini camp and
did the start of the training camp then to the
start of the regular season, they'll get closer to where
he wants to go. The thing I really enjoyed about
him yesterday was just the candidates that you mentioned, but
(06:05):
just the transparency.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
He gets it.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
He knows that people are going to talk about what
the quarterback did yesterday or what the defense did. Having
a couple of interceptions off the two starting well, the
starting and the backup quarterback both through a couple yesterday,
He's not gonna let that bother him. He's not gonna
let that become the storyline.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
I'm going to move the needle back to the start
of the record again, right and look, it's the first
practice of OTA's unpadded work with a new system, a
new offensive system, a new defensive system, new players in
that system, new coordinators however you slice it, and a
quarterback who didn't throw for three and a half months
this offseason. No unit is ahead of the other unit
(06:44):
at this point because they're not competing like that. They
are trying to learn what's going on and trying to
be as ready as possible for training camp. You don't
want all the interceptions, but to think you weren't going
to have any on day one was a little.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Selly here on jag Zam. The schedule released last week.
We're going to go over all of the dates with
you coming up after the break. Jag Zam brought to
you by Fresh from Florida. It's always in season.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
This this school, that, this school. Welcome back to jag Zam.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
We're gonna go over some of the schedule for you
and do a little this or that in relation to that.
So this came out last week on Wednesday, and now
we finally know where and when they're going to be playing.
We knew the opponents already, but that first five games
of the schedule is not going to be an easy set.
I think we've talked about this obviously. We did a
schedule release show. We talked a little bit about this,
but I figured for our jag Zam fans we'll recap
(07:47):
a little bit. But for me, if you can go
two and three here, I'm fine with that. This is
pretty tough out of the gate, including a primetime matchup
against the Chiefs here at home, which will should be
a great game if nothing else except to have Monday
night football back, which is always fun. John is the
first game against the Panthers. Is that a must win game?
(08:07):
I know you love call things must win.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
No, it's not.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Because it's week one and if you say you must
win it. If you win the last sixteen, you look
pretty silly saying that was a must win game. But
for energy, for belief, yeah, I think it's important only
because if you believe that twenty four results will translate
(08:35):
into twenty five, then this is a really tough start.
That's usually not the way it works. But that's all
we have to sort of gauge it on right now.
If you lose to Carolina, now you're looking at a
Bengals team that thinks it's going to compete for the
Super Bowl. The Texans are your big rival in the division.
You've got the Chiefs, who look, you can play really
well against Patrick Mahomes and not win. And then the
(08:56):
forty nine ers. You can't believe they're gonna be six
and eleven again, so must win. No, but you better
win a couple of these. And that looks like the
one that's the most gettable.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
I'll take the other side of the coin. From an
emotional side. You remember what it fell around here last
year when they were one and.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Four, not great, and it felt like they were out
of it, you know, And there are still players in
the locker room who remember that. Despite the fact that
there's a lot of new faces, both on the coaching
staff and next to them in other lockers. One in
four would be a disastrous start to this season, not
because you couldn't overcome it, because recently they didn't, and
it would it would be like the negative muscle memory, like,
(09:34):
oh boy, here we go again.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
What's really changed?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
So from that perspective, yeah, beating Carolina here on opening
day seems like a really important game.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
And part of that too. Look, we're used to this
team struggling because it lost the last or five of
the last six and twenty three and four and thirteen
last year, so we're sort of tend to look at
the schedule with that sort of feeling. Still, these guys
don't believe they're going to be that team. So if
(10:03):
you're not that team, then that schedule at the top
is just a difficult schedule.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
But after Kansas City, if you're one in four, that's
not good. They're still going to believe that they're not
that team. That's right, right, I mean I don't I.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Think a little bit at this time we were all
a little Dilall listen here.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
The other thing is you don't know, you don't know
who comes into the season banged up, right, What if
one of those receivers gets hurt in Cincinnati and training
campan isn't full speed. You know, what if the offensive
line that they've rebuilt in Houston isn't there. We're judging
them based on last season's results, and we're projecting that
the Niners won't be as bad as they were last year,
which seems fair to project, but we don't know where
(10:43):
they're going to be. So yes, it looks on face
value like a very challenging schedule, but there's a lot of.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Unknowns there are, and it's important for us to remember too,
as much as we remember how things didn't feel great
last season. I feel like almost half this roster is
different at this point, so they'll feel a little bit
differently going into this as well. So let's look at
that next chunk of games, week six through ten. I
believe obviously they're heading to London during that stretch, and
then there's a bye week. How important is it around
(11:09):
the bye to have a winning record be five hundred?
Are you looking at it that way, Brian? Are you
kind of just looking at it as a whole.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
I'm looking at it as a whole because you can
grab some momentum over the final six games of the season.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
But let's put it this way.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
You want to be around five hundred at the worst,
because you've got these trips to the West Coast interspersed there,
You've got some challenge as you come off Kansas City.
You know, you've got a game against Seattle, who's been
a pretty good team consistently for the last decade. And
we know about the Rams in London, and then you
come home. You got to go to Vegas and that'll
be a different team under Pete Carroll. And then you're
at Houston. So two and three gives you a chance.
(11:47):
With these four games, maybe you could go three and
one and take advantage of that and find yourself at
five and five, five to four, right, I mean, that
would be ideal. When you look at the will stretch
of the season.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
The question is do you have to be five hundred
to buy you know? I do you have to be
three and four, four and three? I think you need
to be three and four, you know, I think at
least because it's easy to say, well, you know, you
can be two and five and come back from look
what they did in twenty two. But remember how historic
and what heavy lift got to run the table for you,
(12:22):
and you had to have a team come way back
to you. You can't count on a late season dramatic run.
So I do think you have to tread water with
what if the schedule is indeed difficult. I think you
have to tread water and be five and five, six
and six ish and then have a chance to sort
of reel some teams back in with what looks like
a more manageable late season schedule.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
And we're also assuming that this team is gonna we
are assuming that this team is going to struggle a
little bit early.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
New coach, some new players. Maybe they don't.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
Maybe they don't, that'd be great.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Let's look at our third section, or a third chunk,
which is games eleven through fourteen. I think, as we mentioned,
there's those West Coast trips interspersed there some tough road matchups.
When you looked at this schedule as a whole, Brian,
what was the toughest road games on there?
Speaker 3 (13:12):
I think going to San Francisco. I mean, even though
they were six and eleven, we know the quality of
that team, and that's a place that the Jaguars have
never fared well against a team that they've never fared
well with. That one is the one that stands out,
is the biggest West Coast trip, you know. But when
you look, you see the one against the Cardinals. That's
a sneaky good team. Because the quarterback will be healthy
(13:33):
this year second half of the season. I think that
Cardinals game is going to be a pivotal one for them.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Yeah, it feels like that you guys about road games,
but that Chargers game here at home. Chargers feel like
a team that's going to push Kansas City this year.
I agree with Brian, and San Francisco feels like the
toughest one coming up in this final stretch. Denver with
Sean Payton feeling like he's got that thing go, and
(14:01):
it just feels like they're going to be contending and
it's gonna be a game that matters to the Broncos late.
So I would go with that one as well.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
I agree with you, John, when I look at that
schedule and I see Denver in December, knowing what they
did late in the season last year. You have an
experience head coach of a rookie quarterback kind of coming together.
We'll see what a sophomore campaign looks like but for
me cool, if it's a game, it'll be a big
game Meeta way, I think just in terms of the
Jaguars on the road that'll be for us. I think
it'll mean.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Something that's always a great environment too.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Absolutely all right, So let's here on Jagsam. Coming up
in a little bit, we're gonna go over OTA's. You'll
hear from head coach and your quarterback.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
Move the freight.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Move the freight, Magellan Transport. But the coolest office space
in Jacksonville. You can check things out at Magellanlogistics dot com.
Back here on jags AM, OTAs are underway and we
got to hear from head coach. Got to hear from
the quarterbacks the first time in a while, so it
was nice to get their perspective of Obviously, Trevor Lawrence
(15:01):
mentioned he hasn't been throwing for a couple of months
due to that shoulder surgery. Now he's back out there,
fully active with his teammates, but also learning a new system,
which he talked a little bit about yesterday.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
I really like it. You know, it has a lot
of answers. You know, it's it's it's great. I mean,
it puts a lot of the players you have to
know your stuff, but it gives you all the answers.
You know, you're not I don't feel like you're stuck
in a play that's uh not set up for success.
You know, gives us a lot of answers. And uh
we changed the presentation a lot and make a lot
of things look the same. You know, there's there's a
whole lot of without going into too much detail, you know,
(15:33):
there's a lot of things that I like about it.
And it's definitely unlike any system that I've learned before.
So it's been cool to learn and just pick the
coach's brain and try to get it down as fast
as possible.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
John, that was your question to Trevor Lawrence, and he
said he likes that it has a lot of answers
for him, kind of talking about that new system for
him making things available to him. What did you take
from his answer?
Speaker 4 (15:59):
No, Core on first day of OTA is going to
stand up and say this system stinks. But I do
think it's a storyline to follow in terms of what
this system gives the quarterback easily, meaning the footwork all
ties into making the decisions easy and making the quarterback
(16:20):
have to think. Let's quarterback always has to think, But
it's about taking as many making as many decisions, feel
like muscle memory, based on the footwork, based on the routine,
based on the pattern. So I think that's really what
he's talking about liking, and it's going to be interesting
to see how quarterback friendly because I think that's what
(16:42):
I think that's the word they're looking for with this.
It's supposed to make it easy to make decisions.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Back there, Well, I'm going to take the needle and
move it forward a song. Okay, okay, well only in
the sense that the running game I think is going
to be the key to making the quarterbacks life easy.
I know the footwork is going to become a story,
and we're focused on Trevor Is he comes back from
the shoulder injury, and I think we have plenty of
new viewers, Travis Hunter fans who come on who may
not know it was the non throwing shoulder for him,
(17:09):
So it's not like he wasn't throwing because it was
the throwing shoulder. It's the non throwing shoulder. But I
think that the running back position is as interesting as
any and we won't talk about it early in OTAs,
we'll talk about it more when they're actually in pads
in training camp. But as he kept talking about answers
and answers and answers, I think the ability to convert
(17:30):
on third down and shorts, which they haven't done, will
give him as many answers as anything because it will
keep the defense guessing.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
Yeah, if the running game can get him in better,
not only converting more second and fives as opposed to
second and eight, it'll be key for him. So how
the offensive line fares is going to be key for
him and for everybody this year.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
You read between the lines a little bit too when
he says having plays where he feels like they're set
up for success, where maybe some other times we talk
about those third and longs, a lot of the first
couple plays maybe weren't setting them up for success in
past regimes. So we'll definitely see some changes alteration there.
So I think everybody's looking forward to kind of seeing
what they do there. Trevor Lawrence also finally got to
(18:14):
work with Travis Hunter. Right, We've been talking about that
for a while. Travis Hunter have mostly been focusing on
offense thus far, and Trevor talked a little bit about
what he's seen from himself.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Far, I got a lot of juice. He can run
all day, a lot of energy.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
I love it. Good energy, always just dapping guys up,
just bringing juice every day. And like I said, high
motor can just go. It's like a kid just runs
around all day. He doesn't get tired. It seems like
so you can't have enough of that. And then as
far as just talent, I mean kind of speaks for
his self, ball skills, run after the catch, he's very explosive.
She didn't realize how exposive he was in and out
of cuts. You know, he's impressive to watch. And we've
(18:48):
gotten to connect a couple of times, just so lo'ly
gonna keep getting better and better. You know, we've only
worked together for a couple of days now, so we
got some time to really dial in on the details.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Brian, you have to imagine he's excited to have then
new weapon like that.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yeah, I just thought though he was asked the question,
if I was asked the question to answer it, I
would have said, absolutely, the guy is fast, he's explosive.
But did you see number seven out there today? Because
there were a couple of plays throws to Brian Thomas
Junior where he caught the ball and accelerated up the field.
I've never I've never seen a receiver since Jimmy Smith
(19:21):
do that in Jacksonville. The explosion is how much better
Brian Thomas is poised to be this year, and obviously
having Travis Hunter on the other side will help him
because they won't be able.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
To key on him.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
But for all of the things that Travis Hunter is
advertised to bring to Jacksonville, he is showing those on
the field. It's just that Brian Thomas Junior was the
most impressive guy on the field yesterday.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
Yeah, he BTJ feels like a great player who's about
to make that second year jump. He was very good
as a rookie, but he looks like a guy who
all of a sudden is out there going, oh, this
is what I can do. You know, and knew it
last year, but now I was seeing everything. I thought.
(20:04):
The most interesting quote from Trevor when he was talking
about Travis Hunter was how quick he is in and
out of breaks. That sometimes can be where fast receivers
don't translate to the NFL, because you have to be
able to get open. I don't know how good Travis
Hunter is going to be in terms of numbers this year.
I don't know what his stats are going to look like.
(20:25):
But if he can scare defenses on a play to
play basis, which I think he will, and score eight touchdowns,
and even if he's not a polished route runner, which
I don't expect him to be yet, if his playmaking
and his dynamic talent, quickness, all that stuff make plays
that coordinators when they're writing down had a game plan.
(20:47):
If they're writing down seven, twelve and five, who's Dianny Brown. Well, then,
all of a sudden, for the first time in a
long time around here, you've got a bunch of guys
that scare defensive coordinators. Travis Hunter willquably scared them more
than anybody.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
And we should probably point out that Brown showed it
is the first time we got to look at him,
showed his explosion is yesterday and his speed as well.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
I was impressed with what he was doing yesterday. For me,
not that I had little expectations for him, but just
to kind of see them all out there, and especially
Brian Thomas Junior. We talk about He's quickly gotten to
that point where John, You've covered players like this before
that are dynamic. You see them do crazy things and
you just expected. At this point, it's not even oh,
that's amazing, it's like, well, yeah, he's amazing, Like of
course he's doing that.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Yeah, And this team hasn't had that level of blue
chip enough. I would say Jalen athletically Jayalen Ramsey was
that guy. There's been others, Jimmy Smith back in the day,
Fred Taylor, in the history of the franchise, there has
been that, but maybe at the receiver position, which has
become the rock star position. This feels like the first
(21:49):
Jaguars rock star since Jimmy Smith.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
I just I see him move, and he just moves differently, right.
I Mean I never watched Secretariat run, but you see
Secretariat running in some of these clips and you realize
he's completely different than everyone else. And all I think
of when I see Brian Thomas out there is the
guy is the Secretariat of wide receivers.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
I mean, he's as good as they can count.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Makes everything look really, really easy, which is enjoyable to
watch in terms of what things actually look like. As
a whole. As we mentioned, head coach wasn't overly impressed
with everything being on the button yesterday, but he did
say the defense looked good to him from what he saw.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
I actually thought they they did some really good things today.
I thought, just from a communications standpoint, punching the ball out,
doing it in the right way though, right we had
a couple guys just trying to be intentional about getting
the ball out and getting their hands on the football,
something that we're you know, actively trying to be intentional
about this whole offseason, and I thought the defensive staff
(22:47):
has done a great job of communicating that in the
meeting settings. Bringing it out to the practice field, I
thought that they did a nice job kind of setting
the line of scrimmage, playing with length on the D line,
and you know, the ball was out. I mean, the
ball is on the ground too many times for us offensively,
but hey, on the flip side of it, that's the
first time as a head coach you actually kind of
have to be very neutral in those moments where I'm
(23:09):
kind of ticked off that the ball is on the
ground from an offensive standpoint. But ultimately, man defense did
a nice job of getting the ball out that today
for us, your.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Offensive head coach had to rein it in a little bit.
He's like, well, I coached the defense too, so we're
happy to see that.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
John.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
At this time of the year, defense is always, you know,
by nature position, it's a little more reactionary, so there
always feels like they're ahead of the offense. But we
don't talk a ton about the defensive side of the football.
But obviously new coordinators, there some new key players, and
then Eric Armstead switching back to his original position. There's
gonna be a lot of changes we see there as well.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
Yeah, it's really hard to analyze defense well during the
offseason because the pass rush is different. You're not really
stopping the run. So much of defense in the NFL
is how you stopped throwing early downs in a real
life situation where you never get that you get to games.
(24:01):
So how good are they going to be? I don't know,
but I think they believe they have a chance to
be pretty good defensively because they believe strongly in their
two edge guys. They believe in Foyer Lucon and they
believe in Eric Armstead in the middle, and they believe
that out of that is going to be is going
to come a pretty good interior core for the first
time in a while. So it's good that they looked
(24:22):
good yesterday. Brian, I don't know what it means.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
Well, the secondary had a good day yesterday, right, I mean,
they got Trevor twice, They got Nick Mullens, the backup
quarterback twice. From what you can tell, they were moving
and they were communicating. And Eric Murray, the safety, the
veteran safety they signed, the ten year guy from Houston,
was in the middle of it all. So that's an
important signing because you're dramatically changing the back end of
(24:44):
the defense. As much as we talk about the offensive
line as a work in progress, and you're going to
figure out who goes where as training camp goes on.
Same thing in the secondary. You know, with Jordan Lewis,
you can play inside or outside where just Trump's hundred
fet into all of this. But they had a really
good day yesterday on the first day of OATES and
that's not a bad sign.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
I think Tyson Campbell and Travis Hunter are sort of
quietly huge stories. Meaning if Tyson is the cornerback that
you paid, which I don't know that he's been that yet.
But if he is, and the skill is there, the
raw material is there to do that, and if Travis
(25:22):
Hunter is impactful at corner, then all of a sudden,
what seems like a weakness might become a strength. And
as you said, Brian, that is really a story that
because we focus so much on offense, we probably haven't
talked about enough. But the secondary can't be what it
was last year.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
It was a huge liability of the secondary was and
obviously everything goes hand in hand pass rush and whatnot
leading into that, but we cannot see the explosive plays
they allowed last season to drag into this season. So
the secondary will definitely be a focus going into training
camp and getting that all established stable us here on
Jags am coming up. We'll tell you what's coming up
the rest of the week and what we've got going on.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
There's an energy on the Pridue field. I think that
starts with obviously Liam. He's a very energetic guy. He's passionate,
loves football, loves to be out here. I think that's
one thing I've noticed about him from the beginning is
a lot of energy and that trickles down to the staff,
right So I mean it's that. And then also the
players that we have a big variety of the guys
that they brought in and free agency, they all fit
(26:23):
what we're trying to do. And the I guess, the
culture and the energy and then even a guy like
Travis bringing in who's just full of energy and positive
and you know, a playmaker, all those things. It's cool
seeing it all come together, and it seems like everything's
well thought out about the type of people that are.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Here, not just the talent.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Things slowly coming together for the Jaguars. Obviously tons of
changes in the off season. We hear that culture word
a lot, John, but energy. You want to see the
buy in. I think more than anything, you'll figure out
what the team actually is as things go along. But
seeing this buy in this early, as we mentioned earlier,
huge turnout, probably only a couple of people missing. That's
good to see at this point.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Yeah, and not surprising. Players get it. They know that
this is a year to be here. Even the veteran guys,
they understand new regime. You want to be around it.
You want to know what to expect coming in. I
think Travis Hunter's presence for a team that you know
anytime you change regimes, you're automatically going to be changing
(27:21):
cultures because what happened last time didn't work, and what
else are you going to talk about? But Brian, I
do think Travis Hunter's confidence. There are certain guys who
never really believe that they're not the best player out
there and that their team shouldn't win, and that can
help when you're trying to turn around to mindset. I
(27:41):
think he does bring an element of that. Well.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Obviously, he has all the skills, right, I mean, he
can run forever, as you've heard, and he's so athletic,
and he's got great ball skills. But it's that energy level,
it's that personality. It's that confidence that he brings that
sets him apart. There are lots of great athletes. It's
the ability to step onto the field to know you
belong and know you belong at the top of the
guys who are out there.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
And I think that'll I think that'll bleed over.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
I spent a little time with him, as I told
you guys in Green Bay, and have watched him out here.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
He's consistent.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
He's the same guy every time, whether you se him
in the hallway or on the practice field. That's important too,
because you guys know, there were some guys in the
locker room in recent years who weren't really consistent. You
want that consistency. They show up Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. They
the same guy, whether they won or they lost the
last week, that same sense of purpose, and it.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
Can give veterans a lift. A guy like this comes in.
You see him running constantly, and you're in your fifth
year and you're not playing two positions. You're like, gosh,
I can't be tired. I mean, this kid's still running,
and that enthusiasm can give veterans sort of a second win,
the second life.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Well, he expects to win, right, We've talked about that.
I mean, he's a guy who has only known success.
You see the trophies that he had last year, he
won all of them. That expectation of excellence is something
we haven't had enough of around here. And first round
pick one of the most popular players in the league,
already social media phenomenon. It's nice that you have that
(29:06):
caliber of a player, with that caliber of expectation.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Trophy sometimes, Yeah, everybody gave out the participation one team.
There we go, I got that one.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
We'd love to see it all right. OTAs continue next week,
we'll be back out there with them, and then we'll
be back here with you on jags aam next week
as well
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