August 6, 2025 • 61 mins
Football has returned to Duval! The “Touchdown Jaguars Podcast!” kicks off the preseason with a comprehensive look at training camp developments and what to expect when the Jaguars face the Pittsburgh Steelers in their first preseason game at EverBank Stadium.
Host James Johnson dives into the unofficial depth chart released by the team, highlighting several key position battles worth monitoring. The potential offensive line competition between veteran Ezra Cleveland and rookie Wyatt Milum at left guard promises to be one of the more intriguing storylines, with Milum set to likely get significant snaps against Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, the running backs room features a fascinating competition with Tank Bigsby appearing to lead Travis Etienne for first-team reps, though both are expected to play significant roles in Liam Coen's offense. Seventh-round pick LeQuint Allen has impressed in pass protection, potentially earning him third-down opportunities ahead of fellow rookie Bhayshul Tuten, who is battling an injury.
The podcast features an exclusive interview with Jamal St. Cyr from News4Jax, who has attended all nine training camp sessions. St. Cyr provides invaluable insights on Trevor Lawrence's progression (including acing a 100-question offensive test), Travis Hunter's remarkable two-way ability, and the defensive tackle position emerging as the team's biggest concern with injuries to Arik Armstead and Maason Smith. He boldly predicts Hunter could potentially win both Offensive and Defensive Rookie of the Year honors based on his camp performance, noting veterans have been impressed by Hunter's mastery of both playbooks without the mental mistakes typically expected from rookies.
From Josh Allen and Travon Walker's dominance on the edge to under-the-radar players making pushes for roster spots, this episode provides everything Jaguars fans need to know as preseason football arrives. Subscribe now for weekly coverage throughout the 2024 season as the Jaguars look to fulfill their potential under a revamped coaching staff.
Link to Jamal’s Twitter account
James Johnson and Phil Barrera bring you the best and most up to date Jacksonville Jaguars news. "Touchdown Jaguars!" is a tribute to the prospective ownership group "Touchdown Jacksonville!" In 1991, the NFL announced plans to add two expansion teams and "Touchdown Jacksonville!" announced its bid for a team, and Jacksonville was ultimately chosen as one of five finalists. In November 1993, the NFL owners voted 26–2 in favor of awarding the 30th franchise to Jacksonville. James and Phil have been fans of the franchise ever since and have had the honor (and sometimes dishonor) of covering the team professionally since 2017. The rest as they say, is history.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the New York City City of the New York
City City of the Still runningand go.
(00:24):
That is right, go, go,touchdown.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Jacksonville.
A hundred and nine yardsIncredible Play action.
Portals Upstairs Wide open.
Tommy Bohannon.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Touchdown Jacksonville.
Looking for Jimmy in the endzone.
Touchdown Jaguars, touchdown,jaguars, touchdown.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Jaguars.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Welcome to the Touchdown Jaguars podcast.
Here are your hosts JamesJohnson and Phil Smith.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
All right, what's good everybody.
It's your boy, jay, here forthe Touchdown Jaguars podcast,
and man am I excited as footballis finally back, albeit
preseason football, but footballis finally back for us, the
people of Duval and JacksonvilleJaguars fans, and man am I
(01:31):
excited to be talking about itand to get back into the mix
consistently in the media worldfor the Jacksonville Jaguars.
As I previously mentioned, I amJ James Johnson from the
Touchdown Jaguars.
As I previously mentioned, I amJay James Johnson from the
Touchdown Jaguars podcast.
Normally, I'm joined by myco-host, phil Barrera.
He will be back next week.
(01:51):
He has some things to take careof, but we'll be back in the
mix as a duo consistently, weekin and week out, as football, as
I mentioned, is back.
The first preseason game for theJacksonville Jaguars will be on
the 9th August 9th,specifically on Saturday, as the
(02:15):
Jacksonville Jaguars will takeon the Pittsburgh Steelers at
home at Everbank Field orEverbank Stadium.
Should I say ever bank uh fieldor ever bank stadium?
Should I say uh for um, a gamein which normally and
traditionally, um, the startersdon't play a lot, and that's
probably going to be the casehere, even though liam cohen
(02:35):
hasn't spoken with the media.
But of course you know commonsense will tell you that.
You know they're probably notgoing to play the starters too
much.
They'll play it safe with themfor the first game.
They'll just allow them to getin, get their feet wet, maybe a
series or two, but as thepreseason progresses then you'll
probably see them in the mix alittle bit more.
(02:57):
And then maybe for that lastpreseason game, the third one,
who knows where they'll'll go,what route they'll go in terms
of that?
Um, but you know you'll seethem a decent amount of time.
Make sure everybody's healthy,get them off the field, let the
backups take over and then we'llbe there in the regular season.
(03:18):
So, all of that said, I can'twait to talk about, uh, some
preseason football that's comingup.
Can't wait to talk about somepreseason football that's coming
up.
Today's episode, we actually hada guest.
We had Jamal St Sear, which Ihad.
That interview I put it on theback end of today's episode,
which is episode 116.
And, with that being the case,I won't really talk too much.
(03:43):
In the intro of this podcast.
I will discuss one topic andthen we'll get into the
interview on the topic that I'lldiscuss.
And I felt, like you know, wedid need to at least address
this because it is the preseasonright.
The depth chart came out, theunofficial depth chart, so I
will be talking about a fewthings and I won't really go
deep into it because we have theinterview, but we'll be talking
(04:16):
about a few things to look forwhen looking at that depth chart
, to look forward to in week oneor preseason week one's game.
All right, so, as you alreadyknow, there was already the week
zero game, technically for theHall of Fame game, which was the
Lions and the Chargers, to getstarted for the preseason.
The Chargers won a game 34 toseven, so a real lopsided one.
There.
(04:36):
I don't think the startersreally played.
I watched most of most of thatgame.
Of that game.
Yeah, the starters didn'treally play, but, um, still, you
know it gave us a football fixto get us in the door and get us
ready for the rest of thepreseason games, for preseason
week one.
Before we get into the podcastand the content itself, of
(04:57):
course, I want to plug all ourhandles.
Let you know where you can findus.
Most notably, you can find uson twitter.
You can find me at sportsgrindunderscore don and phil at phil
the filipino.
On twitter, the touchdownjaguars podcast handle is at td
jaguars pod.
Of course, we have the websitetouchdown jaguars podcast, where
(05:20):
archived episodes and writtencontent is posted on, and you
can find this podcast on anymajor platform, whether it's
iTunes, whether it is Spotify,amazon Music, and if we aren't
on your favorite platform or amajor platform that you use, let
us know and we'll do our bestto get on there so we can give
(05:42):
you your weekly content for theJacksonville Jaguars.
Also, we have our TikTok page,which you know.
I've done a pretty decent job ofgetting videos up about every
week, or close to every week,somewhere in that ballpark.
New video will be coming up, ofcourse, with the first
preseason game, we'll have a newvideo coming up this week, the
(06:05):
first preseason game.
We'll have a new video comingup this week.
Please feel free to supportthat, because we are trying to
get in the mix for video contentand visual content as well, and
that will be our source fordoing that.
We also post the shorts onInstagram as well.
We'll have our link tree in thedescription where you can
follow all our major handles andstuff, so you will have no
issue with finding out where tofind our content, whether it's
(06:28):
on TikTok, whether it's theaudio format, whatever the case
may be written format.
We make sure that we have thatall posted and we will make sure
we'll have it posted in thedescription for this show, so
we'll get into it.
I don't want to make thispodcast too long because we have
the interview, as I mentioned,with Jamal St Sarah from News
for Jacks, who has been to campevery day and breaking out
(06:51):
pretty much or giving you aglimpse of every play, whether
it's 11 on 11, 7 on 7, whateverthe case may be.
But I digress from my point thethings I will be looking for in
preseason game week one, afterseeing this unofficial depth
chart, if you haven't seen it,go to our Twitter page to touch
(07:12):
down.
Jaguars Twitter page is ourmost recent post, or it will be
one our most recent post, soit'll be near the top and you
can look at it and makeassessments for yourself as well
.
And you can look at it and makeassessments for yourself as
well.
But, all of that said, I gotabout six things I'll be looking
at Again.
I won't go too deep into thembecause I don't want to make
this long.
(07:34):
Three things on defense andthree things on offense.
And the first thing we'll startwith that caught my eye when I
was looking at the depth chartand it's not a shock necessarily
, depth chart.
And it's not a shocknecessarily, um, but um, ezra
Cleveland is in the mix or onthe depth chart as the uh, left
guard starter at left guard.
And um, that being said, as weall know, we drafted Wyatt
(07:58):
Millam from West Virginia, thirdround pick, who a lot of people
are high on and want to see asa starter.
But of course, you know, aswe're being a veteran, and a
veteran is making a decentamount of money, it's kind of
not a shock that he is thestarter, at least for now.
So the one thing I'll be lookingfor is does Wyatt close that
(08:20):
gap that there is between himand Ezra, that gap that there is
between him and Ezra?
Now a lot of people feel likehe'll more so be the starter in
year two, in his sophomoreseason.
But I wouldn't mind seeing himbecause of the physicality he's
added or he will add, should Isay, to the mix.
I wouldn't mind seeing him inthe starting lineup because I
(08:42):
think he would help the run gamein a phenomenal way, in a
bigger way than Ezra Clevelandwould.
Now, as I mentioned, thestarters won't really play a lot
, so Ezra won't see a lot ofsnaps, right?
But that also means that WyattMillum gets the opportunity and
(09:03):
he'll have.
You know, this will be a gamewhere he gets or receives more
snaps than Ezra.
He'll have a lot of film to putout there to see if he can
close that gap and you know Iwould like to see him take
advantage of it.
I do want to see him show andshowcase that physicality that
we saw from him in West Virginia, that physicality that we saw
(09:24):
from him in West Virginia.
You know I would like to seehim be the lead cause for some
big time runs, for the backup,running backs and the running
game in general.
And I want to see him put somepressure on Ezra Cleveland, who
you know I think is a littleoverrated, honestly.
You know he gets praise fromthe metric people like PFF and
(09:46):
um.
You know he gets a lot ofpraise on Twitter and I'm not
saying by any means that he is aa bad guard, but I think he is
a little bit overrated.
Um, pff would argue that he's alittle underrated.
I think they actually put himon like they're all underrated
team, where they take like aunderrated player from all 32
teams and, um, you know, theyput them all on this list.
(10:09):
But just, you know, I don't seesomebody who can move people
off the ball like you would wantfor this scheme, and he hasn't
been available as much as youwould like either as well.
So there is that.
So, all of that said, I kind ofwant to see um the rookie in
the mix as quick as possible,but you can't rush these things
(10:31):
when it come to rookies, right,um, and if he's not ready, then
you certainly don't want him outthere.
But if he's close to even beingready, right, you know, you can
put him out there, let himdevelop throughout the season
and then by the end of theseason, you got a prospect or a
player that's much, much betterthan Ezra Cleveland.
You know if you want to look atit from that standpoint, but I
(10:52):
will be watching the rookie tosee if he can close that gap and
see if he displays thatphysicality that we saw from him
when he was in college.
Saw from him when he was incollege.
The next thing that we'll belooking at is Travis Hunter, who
(11:13):
is the most popular player onthis team.
In my interview with Jamal, forsome stupid reason, I said that
he's not and that he would bethe second and third.
I wasn't even thinking, andI've even said it on this
podcast in the past, and he'sundoubtedly the most popular
player on the team.
So I don't even know what I wasthinking there, but I digress
from my point.
But I want to see the usage ofTravis Hunter.
He is listed on the depth chartas a wide receiver one, so
(11:36):
obviously he'll, you know, takethe field with the starters in
that regard, with Deami Brownand Brian Thomas.
So those will be your startingtrio of receivers, but as a
cornerback he's pretty much asecond stringer, because they
have Tyson Campbell and theyhave Jordan Lewis as the number
two.
But I think you know, likeJordan Lewis, jordan Lewis will
(11:58):
see a lot of snaps in the slot.
So he's like your startingnickel, which you know.
You see a lot of nickel thesedays.
No, duh, that goes withoutsaying.
You see a lot of nickel thesedays.
No, duh, that goes withoutsaying.
Um, but I said all of that tosay this in terms of boundary
corners.
Um, what you could maybe belooking at, just based on the
depth chart, is maybe Tyson andJarrion Jones who had a great
(12:21):
rookie season last year, by theway, um, and maybe Jordan Lewis
in that slot, or, if not, youcan see Tyson and you can see
Jordan Lewis playing on theboundary as a starter, because
they do have some injuries there.
They had to make a sign in, infact, this week, a young man who
I have to pull up his name herereal quick Levi Wallace,
(12:44):
veteran, who's 30, 31 years old,and I think he previously
played for the Bengals, if I'mnot mistaken.
But yeah, they signed LeviWallace because they have some
injuries there.
So that's why this conversationabout the cornerback position
is coming up.
Is, you know, how do they useTravis Hunter?
(13:04):
How many snaps does he receivethere?
Does he receive snaps there asa number one?
And if not and he's with thesecond stringers how long do
they keep him out there too?
That's another thing.
You got to kind of weigh howlong you want him out there in
terms of you know, but if he'sgoing to be a big part of this
(13:27):
offensive defense at a four, youwant to put him out there too
long.
Obviously, even though he's atwo way player and you know,
being that he's a two way player, that would say that he needs
to be out there a decent amountand he's playing in his first
game, he's a rookie, he'sinexperienced.
That would also say he needs hegets out there or receives out
there as a cornerback, and withwhat group, you know, first
(13:54):
string, second string, and howlong.
You know.
Me personally, I would get himout there, probably with the
second team corners, but also Iwouldn't let him play like a
full quarter, if that at all,just just for precautionary
reasons.
Down the road, that preseasonsecond game, yeah, you know, and
(14:16):
especially you want to get hisconditioning, or you want to see
where his conditioning is,which we everything that we've
seen in the case that hiscondition it is there and where
it needs to be.
But in that second game iswhere you probably more so want
to see him take more snaps, um,than he would in that that first
game.
But yeah, you just kind of wantto get his feet wet in that
(14:38):
first game and you want toprotect him for precautionary
reasons in that first gamebecause you know, make no
mistake about it, he's going toplay a big role for us in the
regular season, so you want toprotect him for that reason.
So that's one thing I will belooking for, um.
The next thing is, of course andwe discussed this actually in
(14:58):
the interview with jamal I didum that running back room and
the competition there, of coursetank bigs being traps, atn are
battling for the number one spotand, granted that they will be
battling for that spot atop thedepth chart, you would think
they're not going to see a lotof snaps here, right?
(15:19):
Not in this game, because they,you know they're penciled in as
the starters probably start a1a and 1b and then whoever kind
of separates themselves in thatsecond game when you play the
starters, more would be thestarter, but it's not a lot that
we need to see from them inthis particular game.
(15:40):
We can address that later, butI want to more.
So see what's going on on thatback end of the depth chart.
Basial Tootin is out with ahamstring injury.
I don't think he's returned yet, so he hasn't been practicing.
I think he's been off to theside, but they've been
protecting him, rightfully so,because hamstring injuries are
tricky and you don't want tore-aggravate it and get him out
there too soon.
(16:00):
But that leaves an opportunity.
He likely I mean you would feellike they probably will be
precaution, take precaution,take precaution with him and
keep him out of this game.
That leaves an opportunity forthe other running backs on his
roster and LaQuinn Allen andJaquinden Jackson, who Jamal put
on my radar and you knowJaquinden Jackson was saying, or
(16:21):
Jamal St Cyr was saying, thatJaquinden Jackson is a guy that
they've been kind of given moreand more snaps throughout
practice because they areimpressed by him and they kind
of want to see what he offers.
And you know, if he's a guythat can make this team on a
final 53 and he's a guy, he's alittle bit bigger of a guy at
the running back position, sohe's a physical force for this
(16:43):
team and you know he's one ofthose guys that can wear on a
defense over time.
So we'll see, um, what heoffers.
He'll be a guy that we watch,uh, under the radar name to
watch and, and you know, see ifhe starts to force their hand to
make them consider keeping himon a 53 man roster.
(17:03):
But I'm also wanting to seeLaquint Allen, who I'm the
bigger fan of.
When you talk about the runningbacks that they drafted this
year and LaQuint Allen is a guywho you know, I've said it, you
know when.
Trav ZTN is probably gone nextyear I don't think he'll be gone
this year, but next year.
I think LaQuint Allen is a guythey're looking at to replace
(17:25):
him.
He's a little bit more physicalthan people maybe have known
him to be between the tackles.
And also Jamal, pointing outsomething important as well
LaQuint Allen helps this team inthe regard of when they put him
out there, even though he's arookie.
He helps them in the regard ofpass protection and they like
that and that that, for thatreason, that'll get him on the
(17:46):
field more than Basial Totooting also.
So that'll be something towatch in this preseason game.
But in a nutshell, how doesallen and jackson, how do they
make the most of their snaps?
Because they will get a lot ofsnaps, make no mistake about it
in this game and probably thetwo games afterwards, for the
simple fact of what I mentionedum, they're down, one running
(18:06):
back tooting is down, and alsoto um, etn and Bixby are being
looked at as number one.
So they won't see the field alot, you would think.
So that leaves a grandopportunity for these two young
men to make some noise and makethe most of their snaps, kind of
like I was saying with WyattMillam.
So the next thing is somethingI talked about with Jamal in the
(18:30):
interview, which you will hear.
But just to kind of give alittle preview and spoiler of
one question I asked, I askedwhat is the biggest concern
after nine practices on his team, and he agrees with me that
it's defensive tackle.
So how do the defensive tackleslook?
(18:50):
Because they're down two men.
They had to make some signings,as a matter of fact today to
add at least one defensivetackle, and I will pull that up
here on my tablet real quick, sobear with me.
Yeah, they signed a young manthat previously played with the
Buffalo Bills and Austin Jackson, or Austin Johnson, excuse me,
(19:14):
because they are down twodefensive tackles.
As I said, mason Smith was puton the PUP list to start camp
and he hasn't returned yet.
It doesn't feel, and I'm not adoctor and I don't know exactly
what's going on it doesn't feellike it's a long-term thing with
him, uh.
(19:35):
but also, in addition to that,eric armstead has been out of
practice with a back injury, sothey're down their top two guys
there.
And um, devon hamilton has beenreceiving a lot of snaps,
according to Jamal, and TylerLacey has been receiving a lot
of snaps in terms of you knowthem being the starters there.
(19:57):
So at least you know, for campthey have been, because
obviously the two people, theaforementioned people that I
mentioned, have been out and ithas forced them to play Hamilton
and Lacey a little bit more so.
With that being said, althoughthe starters won't pay, although
the starters won't play a lot,I do and I will be interested to
(20:20):
see how Lacey and Hamilton look, because you know, this
defensive tackle position isstarting to become a concern.
Now, look, if we are week twoor week three into the season,
the preseason, and Armstead andMason Smith are still not there,
then we might be in sometrouble, but it's not time to
(20:43):
hit the panic button just yet.
But, that being said, I do wantto see at least you know, if
Lacey and Hamilton have to see asignificant amount of snaps how
they are looking.
And then I also want to seewhere the backups are, because
obviously, you know, we alreadyare starting in a situation
where there are injuries there.
How does you know JordanJefferson look?
(21:03):
How does some of these otherbackups on there, like Keevy
Rose look and Eli Mostert?
You know, maybe one of theseundrafted guys can step up and
help us in terms of alleviatingthose concerns at the defensive
tackle position?
Or even Austin Johnson, who wejust picked up.
(21:24):
How does he look?
You know, maybe he could be along-term answer for us.
Um, granted the injuries we'reenduring and could endure in the
season, all right.
So next up, I kind of alreadymentioned this, um when I was
mentioning travis hunter.
But how does jerry and joneslook?
Um, does he continue hisprogress from last year?
He looked great last year as arookie won't really touch on
(21:45):
this because we already talkedabout it a little bit, but he
looked great as a rookie lastyear.
He really wants to play on theoutside more.
This is his grand opportunityto do so, with the injury going
on to Buster Brown, who may notbe back by the regular season,
and the signing of the young manI mentioned earlier off of off
(22:07):
a free agency could be anindication of that.
So this could be Jerry andJones's grand opportunity to
basically show what he can doand, um, you know, just kind of
distance himself from Brownwhile Brown is out, um, in terms
of winning that boundary cornerposition.
Um, also, too, man, like he'sbeen looking good in practice.
(22:29):
He had the one-handedinterception that they
highlighted on their um on thejaguars twitter page feel free
to check that out but, um, it'sbeen a lot of good things said
about how he's performed and hehas really taken this
opportunity on the outside andreally ran with it from
(22:49):
everything you hear, read andsee.
Lastly, on the official depthchart, yazeera Abdullah was
named as the number onelinebacker on there, which, you
know, it's probably like forthat like hybrid Sam linebacker
role, which kind of fits hisbody type.
So just kind of, you know won'treally go deep into this, but
(23:10):
just want to see how he faresand how he looks with the
starters.
Again, he'll be looking atlimited snaps, um, but how does
he look with the starters?
Uh, because it feels like, youknow, when trent drafted him, he
didn't really fit the mold of atrent balky guy, which was okay
, because it's like hey, youknow, trent.
You, trent is consideringdifferent prospects than he
normally considers, but alsowith that, he didn't really fit
(23:34):
the scheme and have a place withthe last regime and it feels
like, with Anthony Campanilecoming into the mix, this is a
better fit for him.
And, yeah, I just want to seehow he fares in terms of when
he's with the starters and, youknow, has he made a jump from
last year to this year?
Because he's still a relativelyyoung.
(23:55):
You know what?
He's in his second, third yeara relatively young player.
So, all of that said, those arethe things I'll be looking at.
Feel free to comment on some ofthe things you all will be
looking for in the comments or,you know, shoot us some
questions.
If you have some things that Ididn't address in terms of what
(24:15):
I'll be looking at, you canshoot us some questions on
Twitter and, yeah, we'll be morethan happy to answer them to
the best of our ability.
All of that said, we'll getright into this interview with
Jamal St Cyr from News 4 Jax,who has been at training camp
for every session, all ninesessions, and, yeah, I hope you
all enjoy it as we discuss whathe has been seeing at training
(24:37):
camp in 2025 for theJacksonville Jaguars.
All right, ladies and gentlemen,welcome to Touchdown Jaguars.
As promised, we have a guestthis week and we have a guest
(25:00):
who has had his boots on theground there on the field, so
somebody who's been watching theaction up closely um, more than
even myself I call one day, butour guest has been there every
day of the week giving you abreakdown of every play,
literally on his timeline, ofevery like play 7 on 7, 11 on 11
(25:20):
, you name it.
He's been there.
Uh, ladies and gentlemen, uh,welcome, jamal saint, seer of
news for jacks to the podcasthere, as we have a bunch of
questions here.
Man, as I mentioned, phil'sgoing to miss out on this one,
but he'll join me on the nextepisode, everybody, so we'll
link up with him later.
(25:40):
But, jamal, man, first andforemost, man, welcome to the
show.
And how are you doing, man?
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Hey, appreciate you having me on man.
Yeah, look, football's a blast.
Uh, busy time getting totraining camp.
Uh, it'll be fun when theseason gets here.
You know, preseason footballcan be fun and not fun at the
same time.
But yeah that's there.
So I appreciate you having meon and always happy to talk some
jags man yeah, yeah, I um Iwent Sunday.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
I was in town for Sunday.
Okay, it was pretty hot.
I was in the shade, though Isee you and Demetrius on all of
them.
Y'all were out in the heat.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
It be cooking.
It has been hot.
I was leaving the station theytalking about you know, it's the
heat, extreme heat warning.
I was like, yeah, what you wantme to do, yeah, yeah.
So I, it's all.
Good, look a little sun ain'tgonna hurt me too bad, I'll go
stand out in the sun and so Ican see what I can see.
They all they're always saying,well, you don't stand in the
(26:40):
shade.
I'm like, well, we only got tobe out here a couple hours.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
It's fine, that's true, go get it done yeah, man,
it reminds me I don't miss thosedays of high school football.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Man, I'm telling you, I remember in college like
because I played collegefootball at clark atlanta, and
there was some of them summerdays where, like they'd be
talking about this wet ballthermometer and heat and stuff,
and I could think of some ofthem summer workouts, where we
were out there and I'm watchingthe heat come off the turf and
I'm like I can see the heat.
I know there's gotta be too hotto be out here like there is no
(27:10):
way I'm supposed to be able tosee heat coming off this ground
and be out here at the same time.
So now, whenever they talkabout stuff like that, I'm just
like man, there's no way.
We were supposed to be outthere, no way.
But you know, look, that's partof it.
You go through that.
The heat grind.
Uh, make you a little stronger,you'll be all right right
bill's character bill's right,go on now but yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
So my first question.
I don't really like to startwith the basic stuff, but I mean
I will, uh, because everybodywants to know.
Man, um, how has trevorlawrence looked?
Um, the day I went again thatwas sunday.
Uh, it wasn't his best day, butit sounds like since then he's
like turned it on, like,especially when you look at the
scrimmage too.
I think a lot of people arehigh on that experience alone,
(27:55):
like the fans that got to see it.
But how has he been in totalityin terms of camp for you?
Speaker 1 (28:03):
look, I think trevor has gotten better day by day,
which is literally what you wantto see.
I think today, which is whatsunday, um, that we're recording
this.
I think this might have beentrevor's one of trevor's best
practices, honestly, um, eventhe incomplete passes that were
there I mean, man was, he waslayering it between two and
three guys just overreach, likeputting the ball right where he
(28:25):
wanted to be able to put it.
Um, have there been some playsthat he wants back?
Sure, I mean, over the courseof camp he's thrown 300
conceptions to this pointthrough nine practices.
But and there's a but only oneof them was really his fault and
it was really a play where heshould have thrown it away.
That was during the scrimmage.
They were in the red zone.
He tried to force somethingthat wasn't there probably
(28:45):
should have been a throwaway.
Um, the other two were off tips.
One was tipped at the line andyou know how those tip drill can
go and one came today andliterally it went through.
Travis Hunter's hands gottipped and ended up in the in
the savings hand.
So I mean tip drill kind ofplays where that goes on the
quarterback stack sheet.
But that's not reallynecessarily his fault, um, but I
think Trevor is in a good spot.
(29:07):
Um, I think one of the mostimpressive things that we've
gotten from Trevor so farthrough training camp didn't
happen on the field.
So right before camp kicked off, all the quarterbacks took a
test, 100-question test.
He had 45 seconds to answereach test or each question and
they said Trevor scored thehighest out of the group and he
(29:28):
got an A on the test.
Nick Mullins was second.
I think Wolford was third.
But the reason that's impressiveis because, keep in mind, nick
Mullins and John Wolford haveboth been in this offense for
years.
At this point Wolford was inthe offense in Tampa and in LA
basically the same offense.
Nick Mullins was in the offensein Minnesota.
So these guys have more time ontask than Trevor, but Trevor
(29:55):
able to score higher than themon the off, on the on the test.
That just shows you the workhe's put in and the command of
this offense he has.
Um, look, I think the sky's thelimit for him this year.
I really think this is going tooverall.
By the time we get to the endof the season people are going
to say this was the bestsupporting cast that he's had
around him since he's been inthe NFL to go with, uh, some
some pretty good numbers that Ithink he's going to end up
putting up.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
I think he's really been stacking some good days and
I think he's in a good spotyeah, as you mentioned, that's
what you like to hear isprogression throughout the
period, throughout the process,and also, too, as you that, yeah
, the test like we hear so muchabout testing in general, like
with the combine and stuff Likesometimes we just don't really
put a lot of thought into it.
But yeah, when you break itdown from that perspective, that
(30:35):
Wofford has been in thisoffense, nick Mullins has up in
Minnesota with the Vikings.
Yeah, that is pretty impressivethat he was able to outscore
them and you know we we need bigthings out of him going into um
year what is it?
Year five?
Uh, yeah, yeah, it's been thatquick.
(30:56):
Good, I lost track.
Year five for him, man, uh, butyeah.
My next question is the secondmost popular play on the field
right, travis hunter um.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
He's the second most popular player might be btj no,
I think travis is the mostpopular player on the field dude
yeah, yeah, good point.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
I mean I can't go on tiktok without like they'll put
they'll literally put him in myalgorithm, like it's like I
wouldn't even look for travis Ithink he is the your most
popular jaguars player and hehasn't played a down yet.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
But OK, yeah, what you got on Travis.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
But yeah, man.
So could you talk about how helooked?
He looked great.
Sunday when I went he had apick and almost got two more,
like he almost got one to endpractice on Cephas and he almost
jumped Walford for one, no,mullins, mullins for one, no,
mullins, mullins for one and Iforgot who he was covering.
(31:53):
But how has he looked sinceMonday?
And also, too, like, how do youthink they'll go about this
plan of utilizing him in termsof weighing his snaps on offense
and defense and what have you,and just in general in terms of
how you think they'll utilizehim?
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Look, I think they've done a lot of research.
My expectation is he's going toplay a lot on both sides of the
football, because that's what Ithink they believe he can do.
So I think he's going to play alot of snaps.
Are there going to be somewhere they try and manage it?
Yeah, but I think he's going toplay a lot of snaps, um, are
there going to be some wherethey try and manage it?
Yeah, but I I think he's goingto play a lot of football on
offense and defense for thisteam and I think he's going to
(32:36):
be a really good player.
He is explosive.
The way he can contort his bodyto play the football in the air
, um, it's impressive.
Uh, it's impressive, it'sdifferent.
There's not a whole lot of guysthat can do that exact same
thing or that have the ballskills that he has.
If it's in his range, you neverfeel like a ball is something
(32:56):
that he can't.
You know can't pull in.
Those sorts of acrobatics arewhat make him special on offense
and defense.
You know, because he's stickyin coverage.
You know, because he's stickyin coverage, but it's that
ability.
Where any football that's inhis vicinity, he's a danger to
go up and get.
It is what makes him able to betruly special at corner, and I
(33:28):
mean that same explosiveness asa wide receiver and his ability
to make moves in space and makepeople miss is something that is
going to make him dangerous onthe Jaguars offense.
So look I I I think my hot takegoing into the season, as I
think Travis is going to winoffensive and defensive rookie
of the year and I think he'sgoing to have that sort of
season and I think he's going tobe really impactful for this
team.
I've seen nothing from Travisto change my expectations of him
going into the year.
(33:48):
I have been nothing butimpressed the way he I mean he
is impressive dude.
You watch him at corner and Ithink he just has natural
ability to play as a cornerbackin the NFL.
And then you watch him at widereceiver and you can see why
they want to put the football inthis guy's hands.
So I think he's going to beimpactful and, as long as he can
stay healthy, I think theJaguars are going to use this
(34:09):
guy and he's going to beeverything that everyone expects
him to be out there on thefootball field yeah, yeah,
that's what I saw sunday manlike it felt like nothing was
out of range for him, right,like at all.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Um, even even when, like they had, you know you
could tell the quarterback mighthave had a little bit of a jump
on him by the time the ball isto the receiver.
Travis is there because ofacrobatics and length too.
You know he's a little longerthan people.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Give him for two length, yeah he's got long arms
and I mean here's one of theimpressive things one of his
teammates are.
You know I've been trying toask the guys you know about
seeing him on offense and seeinghim on the defense and one of
the guys that's a veteran player, uh, who's been around a while
with this defense and beenaround the nfl.
He said one of the things thatimpressed him the most about
(35:00):
Travis is that he expected himto make mistakes because he's
trying to learn an offense andlearn a defense.
But he said, as far as he couldsee, that hadn't been the case.
He said, on defense, he knowsTravis has gotten out there and
always known his assignment andhadn't been blowing coverages or
making mistakes.
As far as he could tell.
On offense it had been the samething where Travis wasn't out
(35:20):
there running the wrong routesor confused on what to do.
Travis's ability to grasp all ofthe information and do the work
in the classroom whilesplitting time between two rooms
, that's probably like somethingthat he doesn't get enough
credit for.
When you've got a veteran NFLplayer saying like, hey, when
(35:40):
we're in the installation phaseand early in camp and through
the off season, you know itwouldn't be surprising if you
see a rookie that's trying tolearn offense and defense,
making mistakes, but this guysaying I haven't seen it, I
haven't seen him make thosemistakes.
That's what's impressive iswhere he's able to grasp all
(36:00):
that and do the work, and beforepractice he's worked if he's.
If it's an offensive day forhim, he's working with the
defensive coaches, If it's adefensive day, he's working with
the wide receiver coach.
So where he's always gettingthat extra work so that way he
knows what he needs to do.
I think that's something thatwe're not going to focus on,
because you're going to alwaysfocus on what he does on the
(36:21):
field and what's trulyimpressive about it.
But the way he was able tolearn it and really retain the
information and I mean play themental part of the game, that's
that's just as impressive, ifnot more impressive.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Absolutely.
Yeah, I agree, I agree and Ithink what, what helps him too
and a lot of people this goesover a lot of people's head
because you just don't reallythink about it, but what helps
him is some of the reason he'sable to jump these balls on on
defense is because he plays onthe opposite side, right and
like he and like I don't thinkI'll even go this far, I don't
(36:57):
think it'll be something that wejust see, because he knows the
Jaguars playbook, he knows aboutplaying receiver in general.
I think this is going totranslate into, when he's
playing, other people who havecompletely, totally different
offensive playbooks than us, andI think we'll see that.
And that's why you getpredictions like the one you
have of people saying that he'llbe defensive rookie of the year
(37:21):
or offensive rookie of the yearor both.
And, by the way, you heard ithere, folks, jamal just told you
to go book it now.
Go ahead, go to Hard Rock Cafewherever, put him in for
offensive and defensive rookieof the year, for offensive and
defensive rookie of the year.
No, I'm just playing there, butI think, like I think that's
(37:44):
going to really factor into him,at the very least, being the
defensive rookie of the year isbecause he understands, like,
the concepts of receivers andwhat they're trying to do, and
they've even mentioned this inlike interviews, where he would
go and tell his quarterbackslike I think it was maybe Shador
or somebody you know um, whatthe cornerbacks on the opposite
end were trying to achieve.
(38:05):
You know what I'm saying andlike how to how to hit him, and
then you add in his acrobaticability, as you mentioned, and
like just nothing being out ofhis range, and you got a very
dangerous player and I I toohave been nothing short of
impressed with him like heliterally could have had three
interceptions into the onepractice.
I went to three.
So, uh, yeah, man, I can't waitto see him in action.
(38:27):
Um, we'll go back to theoffensive side, right?
And um, I want to ask aboutthat running back competition.
Obviously, like you're going togo with your most experienced
guys between Bigsby and ETN.
Those are the front runners,right?
of that room, from what you'veseen, who do you think is
(38:49):
leading the way?
Because Bigsby, again, goingback to Sunday, he was with the
ones when I went and it soundslike he's continued to be with
the ones, at least, which youmight not have to put a lot into
that, but it seems likeBigsby's been rolling with the
ones and etn has been rollingwith the as of late.
But what do you make of thatrunning back uh competition?
(39:11):
How do you think it'll shakeout?
And also, like, what you thinkof the back end guys, because I
really I'm a big uh laquintallen fan and I saw some things
out of him Sunday which that'swhat I saw, like it translated
from what I saw from him on filmand I think, like you know,
like wow it.
You know it'll take him a whileto get where he needs to get.
(39:31):
I think he is ETN's replacementin the waiting, even over uh
Basial Tootin and I will see intime.
We'll tell on that ultimately,but I think when etn is no
longer there, I think they mightlook to him to be the
replacement of etn.
We'll see, but yeah, what'syour thoughts on that room in
general?
Speaker 1 (39:51):
um, I think it starts and ends.
I look I've been on the tankbigsby train for this thing as
rb1 for a while.
I think tanks thanks your guy.
I think tank's going to leadthis team in touches uh, not
touches but maybe carries.
Um, I think travis etn, as ofright now, still going to be
heavily involved.
Uh, but I think if you, if we,if today was week one, it
(40:14):
wouldn't surprise me if tankended the game with 12 carries
and tra Etienne ended it withsix carries, but he also
sprinkled in four or fivecatches, if that makes sense.
I think about what Liam Cohendid last year in Tampa and he
had Bucky Irving and RashadWhite.
Both of them were heavilyinvolved in the offense.
I think Tank is your BuckyIrving and I think Travis
(40:36):
Etienne is playing the RashadWhite role.
They were both used differentlyin the offense.
They both were utilized heavilyand I think that is where we're
at right now.
As far as Basial Tootin goes,he's a little banged up, but man
, when he's had a hamstringinjury, but when he gets the
ball and decides it's time to go, he is explosive.
(40:56):
You can see the vision.
No doubt I mean he's made JackKaiser missing space a couple of
times during practice and Imean these are nasty moves and
right now they're not evenplaying full contact.
So for him to make somebodymiss like that like he's cooking
so Tootin' is just an explosiveguy.
I can see the vision for it,but I just I really feel like
(41:18):
this year is going to end upbeing a redshirt year for him.
To an extent.
I my expectations.
I think LaQuin Allen is goingto play more than facial tootin
this season unless somethingchanges and everything is in
flux right now.
I think I'm with you.
I've been a LaQuin Allen fan.
They grabbed him in the seventhround and I immediately started
(41:39):
saying his pass blockingability is going to get him on
the field as a rookie and as ofright now.
I'm still standing firm on that.
I think he's going to play.
If you think back to last yearwith the Jaguars, you saw
Dearness Johnson play in a lotof big passing situations
because they looked at thatveteran and said he is my best
pass blocker and pass catchingrunning back on the team.
(42:01):
I think LaQuinn Allenimmediately steps into a similar
role with this team where whenthey're in mandatory, we know
they're going to pass.
They need a running back whocan block and possibly go out
and catch something.
I think that's where LaQuinnAllen is going to play.
I think he's going to be up, butsince we talked about the rest
of the running back room, I'mjust going to throw out a guy
that's been impressivethroughout practice so far,
jaquinden Jackson.
(42:22):
I'm going to tell you right nowI did.
I've done two 53 man rosters sofar and I didn't have him on
either one of them.
But I'm waiting until thisfirst preseason game to see this
dude in the pads go againstanother team that has to tackle
him.
He's like 240 pounds, 236.
And he runs tough.
And if in the game he startsplowing through people the way
(42:43):
he's kind of looked duringpractice, oh no man, we might be
having a whole differentconversation here in a week or
two, because this dude mightforce somebody's hand to figure
out how to get him on thisroster.
Because Jackson looks like aload and they've given him
enough touches that they'retrying to get a look at him, and
so we'll see what happens.
Preseason obviously changesstuff, but man jackson looks
(43:03):
like a load that they might betrying to figure out.
Can we keep five or who do wegot to get rid of, so that way
we can keep four.
So, um, we'll see what happens,but I think the running back
room is is overall in prettygood shape.
They got enough guys and Ithink liam cohen wants to have
this thing as a committee, andthere that's a position where
there's a lot of injuries andthere's reason to be excited
(43:24):
about guys that are farther downthe depth chart.
You can be excited about LaquanAllen, for real.
I mean he had some big playswhen they started running.
He was running tough and didn'tback down.
I mean he let Ventrell Millerhave it a couple of times the
first day.
They put on pads and you know,foye Aluokun was getting his
(43:46):
face and they were going backand forth and the rookie didn't
back down.
Uh, so the defense was going athim and Allen showed up,
jackson has shown up, we I thinkwe saw Tank Bigsby get a heavy
workload last year and boy wasrolling and we know what Teravis
Etienne can do when he gets insome space and, uh, I think this
offense is designed to getthose running backs in space
one-on-one and that's why theserunning backs are going to love
it.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
Yeah, yeah, and you kind of mentioned something too
with ETN.
That I think a lot of peoplearen't realizing is that when
you look at him and Bigsby, doit really matter who's taking
the majority of the snaps,Because both of them, to me, are
very good fits for the offenseanyway.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
We're going to see a ton of two running back snaps,
man right, exactly.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
So like, do it really matter?
Is it like, is it really andthat's why I don't like why the
national media is bringing somuch attention to the etn thing
and like, oh, they'll trade forthem?
It's like, do you all not knowthe kind of usage your number
two will get in this offense?
Okay, not just as carries, asyou mentioned mentioned, but
catches right as well.
And you look at the runningback committee they had in Tampa
(44:47):
Bay, as you mentioned, and yeah, like you can definitely see a
place for Etienne in this systemwhere he's a good fit.
Like I've never seen him as amisfit, you know, and I don't
think anybody's making theargument that he's a misfit, but
what I'm saying is he has toomany qualities that can help
this offense look like what itlooked like in Tampa Bay for
(45:08):
them to trade.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
Barring something crazy, he's going to be used Now
.
The one thing I asked Travisthis a couple of weeks ago is
this is the most time he spentout lining up outside of the
backfield in his career.
He said, oh yeah, becausethey're going to line him up at
wide receiver.
There's going to be motions.
They'll move them around,they'll get them the ball on jet
sweeps.
He'll move back into thebackfield Travis is going to.
(45:30):
The crazy part is if you thinkback to when urban Meyer was the
coach and they drafted TravisETN and urban's thing was he
wanted Travis to be thisoffensive weapon and I remember
going out to training camp andthey were lining them up at wide
receiver and stuff.
To an extent we're kind of goingfull circle back to that um,
even though he's less he's notTravis by no means as being a
(45:53):
wide receiver this year but he'sgoing to line up a ton outside
the backfield where you're goingto get to the line of scrimmage
and people are going to belooking to see where one's lined
up at um and then where helines up at probably is not
where he'll be when they snapthe ball because they're going
to put him in motion and movehim around.
Tank, on the other hand, isgoing to play your more
traditional running back roleand line up in the backfield a
(46:13):
lot and they're going to use himdownhill and let him do his
thing.
So different, different role,different strokes for different
folks, you know what I mean.
Like they're going to playthese guys to their strengths
and they're going to get touchesand they're going to find a way
to make it work in space.
So it's tough to call onerunning back, one running back
to that.
They're really different rolesin this offense, the way he sees
(46:34):
it, you know, and and Cohen'svision, you need guys who can
move around and do differentthings, and Tank might not fit
the role that Travis is going tofit.
Where Travis might not fit therole that Tank is going to fit,
and that's what makes it perfect.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
Right, right, right, no, that makes a ton of sense.
It makes a ton of sense.
So, yeah, we will.
This is more so a generalquestion, and you kind of
mentioned the running back room.
You mentioned Jackson, youngman named Jackson I think is his
last name Now who is like asurprise in terms of you know
(47:18):
somebody who showed up in campthat flashed a little bit more
than you expected or that youdidn't kind of see coming For me
I can't really say a personbecause, like a lot of people
will point to Cephas, but I kindof expected that for him, like
I thought he was draftable lastyear.
But is there somebody like thatthat fits that for you?
Speaker 1 (47:32):
I'm sitting here looking at the roster in front
of me.
I mentioned Jaquinden Jacksonwho, once the pads come on, big
boy, he's really flash.
He's a physical runner.
He's a little bit moreexplosive than maybe I gave him
credit for At receiver.
Yeah, I think Cephas hasstacked some really good days.
We saw it during practice.
I got to talk to him afterpractice last week and he said,
you know, he felt like he hadgood training camp practices a
(47:54):
year ago but his problem wasduring the preseason games he
didn't show up.
But his problem was during thepreseason games he didn't show
up.
So we've seen him stack thosegood practices and now his goal
is to stack some good preseasonoutings because he knows, you
know, showing up in the game isgoing to be big for him.
Another guy I still think EliPankle is a guy that is sneaky,
that could sneak onto the roster, but the receiver that's shown
(48:16):
up the most.
I think Parker Washington looksgreat.
I think Parker Washington looksgreat.
I think Parker Washington looksabsolutely fantastic for what
he's been rolling with and he'sstacked a whole lot of really
good days.
I think Parker's a guy who'sgoing to earn himself a role in
this offense.
And maybe the last guy is HunterLong.
I wasn't really sure what toexpect from Hunter just because
(48:38):
he hadn't gotten a whole lot ofplaying time with the Rams, but
Hunter Long has really shown upand I think started to solidify
himself as a good option at thattight end.
Two spot behind Brenton StrangeLong has made some big catches
today.
It was a big day for HunterLong showing up in space and
making a couple of really nicegrabs off the top shelf.
I think if we were starting todo a top five catches at camp, I
(49:01):
think Hunter Long's got two ofthe top five.
He's had some some really gooddays and made some really good
plays.
So I think that gives you acouple of guys on the defense.
I don't know that anybody onthe defense is necessarily
really shocked me like justshowing up.
That I just wasn't expecting.
Maybe Yasir Abdullah or TylerLacey guys that I think are
(49:23):
pushing for starting jobs rightnow that I wasn't necessarily
expecting.
I think Christian Braswell'shad some really good days
throughout training camp as aguy who might sneakily lock
himself into a 53-man spot, justto give you a couple guys there
.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
Okay, yeah.
So yeah, it's a lot of guysthat, like I said, um that you
mentioned there that I want tolike dig into a little bit more
and we'll see definitely like.
I think the pre-season willlike answer a lot of questions
as well, uh, so yeah, we'll lookinto that.
Um, my next question is um, sowe're in what camp?
(49:58):
Session number nine.
Speaker 1 (50:00):
Today was number nine Yep, nine practices down.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
All right.
Um, so my age is showing.
It was nine, I'm right.
Um, what do you think like isthe biggest need for this team
that you've like, that you'veassessed, because for me I had
concerns about the interiordefense and line.
Let me know.
You know you can when you,whenever you answer, let me know
(50:22):
if that's like still a concern.
Uh, but just from your eyes andyour standpoint, what do you
think is an area of concern?
Or not necessarily an area ofconcern, but somewhere that you
think they might need anaddition or that you know fans
might be want to be concernedabout?
Speaker 1 (50:40):
Look, I don't think there's any way around the
interior D-line at defensivetackle spot right now.
Eric Armstead's been banged upthroughout camp.
A lot of veteran rest days forhim, so the expectation of
moving him back to defensivetackle.
I think he'll be ready to gowhen the season gets here, but
just how ready?
Mason Smith, who is asecond-year guy who we're
(51:00):
expecting to take a big step,who talked about it during the
off season, feeling better,feeling stronger.
He's been banged up and he'smissed the start of camp.
So right now you're you'restarting defensive tackles, or
Devon Hamilton, who they feellike is playing some really good
football, and Tyler Lacey,who's a guy that I kind of had
on the bubble going into camp.
So I don't think there's anyway around it right now.
(51:21):
Defense attack was probably theweakest spot on the team.
Like I feel pretty good aboutsafety.
I think the corners and DBshave played really well.
Linebacker, you feel fine Ifyou went on the offense and you
were looking for a weakness.
I think the offensive line stillisn't like locked down.
I think there's still somequestion marks there.
But I also think that they'retrying to block guys like Josh
(51:42):
Hines Allen and Trayvon Walker,who I think are really good
football players.
So I think Walker little andAnton Harrison are being put
through the wood chipper day inand day out, as well as some of
those backup guys trying toblock them and hold up there.
So I think that's challenging ontheir part.
So I I think the biggest D,like the biggest question mark
right now has got to be rightthere on that, on that defensive
(52:05):
tackle spot, and maybe back uptight in, because hunter long
and johnny munt both justreturned to practice today.
Um, I already had questionmarks about depth, that tight
end going in, and then the twoof them being banged up left you
with like patrick herbert,who's an undrafted free agent,
along with a couple other guysthat you know.
You're just not sure whatyou're going to get if you do
end up with a spot where theyhad to be like your top backup
(52:27):
to Brenton Strange.
Speaker 2 (52:29):
OK, ok.
So in my last question, whichyou kind of led into it it's
funny you mentioned them.
It was so that edge rushergroup, yep.
It was so that edge rushergroup Yep.
(52:49):
You know, as I said, theinteriors are concerned to me,
but I would dare say that edgerusher group is top five.
Speaker 1 (52:51):
I mean, maybe I'm crazy for saying that in the
league.
It's one of the best duos inthe league, man.
Speaker 2 (52:55):
These dudes are brawn trees, right Right, no, they're
both.
I mean like wow, right right,no, they're both.
I mean like wow.
You know you could argue thattrayvon walker some people will
argue that the jag shouldn'thave taken him.
Number one overall, um, pairedwith josh allen and what he's
done for this team so far andthe steps he's made year by year
, it wasn't a bad pick.
You can't sit here and say itwas a terrible pick or anything
(53:15):
like that.
Um.
So, that being said, um, couldyou talk about the edge rusher
group as a whole because, like Isaid, I'm really high on the
group and even beyond those two.
Right, you have a veteran inthe one, smooth, who has pretty
much seen everything in thisleague and went and spent time
with the bills last year.
(53:36):
He's been with a team that youknow is known for winning and
you have um agba, who has madeplays.
Uh, he was making plays, likebefore the pads went on.
I don't know how he's fair withthe pads on, but veteran,
that's seen it all right.
Uh, you got the um the youngman, uh, dennis.
Um, I'm blanking on his lastname, but he's coming back.
(53:56):
He's a pass rusher specialist.
He was on um ir for a littlebit.
Yeah, gear that.
So he's a pass rusherspecialist.
He was on IR for a little bit.
Yeah, garrett, so he's a passrusher specialist.
You know, probably don't havethe size that those guys have,
but you know he's a guy that cancome in on third down and rush
the pass Rusher.
Can, you know, dip in and hecan be one of the twitchy guys
if you will.
But yeah, can you talk aboutthat group as a whole and your
(54:17):
thoughts on them?
Speaker 1 (54:21):
Look about that group as a whole and your thoughts on
them.
Look, I think josh and trayvonare due for big years.
I think both of them got todouble digit sacks last year
without much of an interior passrush.
To speak of um, moving ericarmstead inside permanently, I
think will boost that.
I think a second year for masonsmith who was coming on late
last season I think once he getshealthy we'll boost that.
So I think that edge group isin for a big dividend year Plus.
(54:45):
You mentioned Emmanuel Ogba.
I think he's one of theunderrated kind of off-season
acquisitions for the Jaguars.
They haven't had a third passrusher that you could really
rotate in and feel confident insince Arden Key left.
So adding him into the team Ithink is huge, just quietly for
when those guys do need aplayoff.
You mentioned Smoot.
I think Smoot's going to playsome on the edge in that
(55:08):
rotation but I think he's goingto do his biggest damage
possibly on the interior andsome passing downs where they'll
slide him inside to go get thatpass rush on the inside.
We saw that from him once upona time back when he was with the
Jaguars and we've seen themkind of work it during camp so
far, a little bit too.
So my expectation is that we'llsee Smoot on the edge if needed
(55:28):
, but I think we're going to seehim as an interior rotation the
most, where maybe you do see atime like if it's third and long
, it wouldn't surprise me if yousee Josh Trayvon, dejuan Smoot
and Eric Armstead all lined updown there on the defensive
lines so they can really get inthat.
I mean, I guess previousdefensive coordinators call it
something like a NASCAR packageor whatever you want to,
(55:48):
whatever camp decides to call it, as they get after it.
But I think that edge group isreally strong.
And I think there's a guy youmentioned, dennis Geredak.
He just got healthy so I'm noteven going to venture to to
guess what he could possiblybring.
I know the people in Arizonawere really high on him.
But undrafted free agent DannyStrigow from Minnesota, um, he's
(56:12):
a guy who's made a couple ofplays and kind of flashed here
and there, um, and I know theywere really excited to get him
as an undrafted free agent.
James Leston likes to talk aboutguys that are intangibly rich
and this dude, I would say, ispretty intangibly rich.
He's kind of flashed throughout.
He's the undrafted free agentthat I think has caught my
(56:32):
attention the most on thatD-line edge group.
He played in the senior bowl.
He got the call the day beforeand just showed up and was
wrapping his hand just to getout there on the field.
He's a football player throughand through and I think he's a
guy who sneakily, might be ableto squeeze his way on this
roster.
We'll see, we'll see.
(56:52):
But Danny Strigow is a namethat that's at least worth
watching in that edge group.
Speaker 2 (56:58):
Yup, I remember the video um him literally like
talking, being on a hot mic, andthey were like uh, so do you
even know the players?
It was like nope, I'm justgonna go out here and do what I
do you know?
Speaker 1 (57:09):
so yeah, no, I'll definitely watch him.
Speaker 2 (57:12):
Um, and yeah, he was another guy, I think, like when
I did a review on the undraftedfree agents, like he felt
draftable too, like he shouldhave like maybe been a seventh
roundish pick, sixth round pick,um.
But yeah, man, nah, weappreciate all of that insight
and, um, if you will, before welet you go on about your day,
because we know you got to be onthe news tonight, all that good
(57:34):
stuff.
Uh, please feel free to plugyour handles and let everybody
know where they can find you andyour content.
Speaker 1 (57:41):
Well, I'm pretty much anywhere you want for social
media.
Just look for JSTCYRTV.
That's JSTCYRTV.
You can also check all my stuffdown over on news4jagscom Click
on that sports page.
Yeah, we've been cranking out abunch of stuff throughout
Jaguars training camp.
We'll keep it rollingthroughout the season For the
most part, man, I remembertrying to find stuff when I was
(58:03):
growing up.
I grew up in New Orleans tryingto find Saints stuff,
play-by-play and all that stuff.
So I try and create the contentthat I was looking for when I
was off scrolling trying tofollow the team.
So if somebody can dream it upand I can figure out a way to
pull it off, we'll do it.
So, um, yeah, this is this isall.
For the love of the game, man,I enjoy it.
(58:24):
Appreciate you having me onliterally anytime, man.
Speaker 2 (58:26):
Uh, you know where to find me Absolutely man, and we
appreciate what you do.
Man, um, definitely like eversince you've been there.
I think you've been at whatfive years now.
Speaker 1 (58:37):
Uh, going, going on.
Is this six, or?
Speaker 2 (58:40):
I guess I got there in 2019, so yeah yeah, man year
one for me we appreciate all thecontent you provided over the
years.
Uh, you always been nice to us.
Even when we, you know, visitedpress box, you always been nice
and, uh, everything, anythingwe needed, you've always been
more than willing to come on andspeak with us and answer any
(59:02):
questions.
So we appreciate it.
And yeah, man, we'll link upwith you, probably, if you can,
during the season, at some pointWe'll do a runaround again and
yeah, as always, man, weappreciate it here at the
Touchdown Jaguars podcast.
Speaker 1 (59:18):
Yeah, anytime, man, just give me a shout.
Except for Fridays.
Fridays are high schoolfootball nights for me, so
outside of that, yeah, we'llmake it work.
Speaker 2 (59:27):
Right, right, oh yeah , we won't bother you on the
Friday night lights.
Nah, I know how that is.
Yeah, yeah, man, appreciate youcoming on, man, man.
(59:52):
All right, folks.
So there you have it, ourinterview with jamal st seer.
Hope you all enjoyed that.
Um, for the outro here, I won'tmake it too long here again,
I'll just plug the handles andI'll let everybody go on about
their day of.
Of course, you can follow me atSports Grind underscore done on
Twitter.
Phil at Phil the Filipino, andhe will be back as we get into
the swing of things and we getinto actual football and
consistently making podcasts.
(01:00:12):
With the football seasonofficially starting, I can't
wait to have him back.
So shout outs to him,appreciate everything he does.
You can follow the website.
Touch him back, so shout outsto him and appreciate everything
he does.
You can follow the websitetouchdownjadwarscom.
Our Twitter handle for thepodcast is, of course,
tdjadwarspod.
Feel free to check out thewebsite and also don't forget to
(01:00:34):
check out our TikTok.
We are at TDJadwarsPod on thereas well and we'll link
everything in the descriptionfor you all to make it easy for
you to find.
So glad that football is back.
Can't wait to talk football.
We'll be having analysis andtweets going out during the game
and what have you?
We'll review the game in anepisode as well.
(01:00:55):
So fun things on the way forthe touchdown Jaguars podcast.
We'll have more guests on theway and all that good stuff.
But until the next episode,everybody take care of each
other and I am signing out.
Welcome to the New York City City of the New York
City City of the Still runningand go.
(00:24):
That is right, go, go,touchdown.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Jacksonville.
A hundred and nine yardsIncredible Play action.
Portals Upstairs Wide open.
Tommy Bohannon.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Touchdown Jacksonville.
Looking for Jimmy in the endzone.
Touchdown Jaguars, touchdown,jaguars, touchdown.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Jaguars.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Welcome to the Touchdown Jaguars podcast.
Here are your hosts JamesJohnson and Phil Smith.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
All right, what's good everybody.
It's your boy, jay, here forthe Touchdown Jaguars podcast,
and man am I excited as footballis finally back, albeit
preseason football, but footballis finally back for us, the
people of Duval and JacksonvilleJaguars fans, and man am I
(01:31):
excited to be talking about itand to get back into the mix
consistently in the media worldfor the Jacksonville Jaguars.
As I previously mentioned, I amJ James Johnson from the
Touchdown Jaguars.
As I previously mentioned, I amJay James Johnson from the
Touchdown Jaguars podcast.
Normally, I'm joined by myco-host, phil Barrera.
He will be back next week.
(01:51):
He has some things to take careof, but we'll be back in the
mix as a duo consistently, weekin and week out, as football, as
I mentioned, is back.
The first preseason game for theJacksonville Jaguars will be on
the 9th August 9th,specifically on Saturday, as the
(02:15):
Jacksonville Jaguars will takeon the Pittsburgh Steelers at
home at Everbank Field orEverbank Stadium.
Should I say ever bank uh fieldor ever bank stadium?
Should I say uh for um, a gamein which normally and
traditionally, um, the startersdon't play a lot, and that's
probably going to be the casehere, even though liam cohen
(02:35):
hasn't spoken with the media.
But of course you know commonsense will tell you that.
You know they're probably notgoing to play the starters too
much.
They'll play it safe with themfor the first game.
They'll just allow them to getin, get their feet wet, maybe a
series or two, but as thepreseason progresses then you'll
probably see them in the mix alittle bit more.
(02:57):
And then maybe for that lastpreseason game, the third one,
who knows where they'll'll go,what route they'll go in terms
of that?
Um, but you know you'll seethem a decent amount of time.
Make sure everybody's healthy,get them off the field, let the
backups take over and then we'llbe there in the regular season.
(03:18):
So, all of that said, I can'twait to talk about, uh, some
preseason football that's comingup.
Can't wait to talk about somepreseason football that's coming
up.
Today's episode, we actually hada guest.
We had Jamal St Sear, which Ihad.
That interview I put it on theback end of today's episode,
which is episode 116.
And, with that being the case,I won't really talk too much.
(03:43):
In the intro of this podcast.
I will discuss one topic andthen we'll get into the
interview on the topic that I'lldiscuss.
And I felt, like you know, wedid need to at least address
this because it is the preseasonright.
The depth chart came out, theunofficial depth chart, so I
will be talking about a fewthings and I won't really go
deep into it because we have theinterview, but we'll be talking
(04:16):
about a few things to look forwhen looking at that depth chart
, to look forward to in week oneor preseason week one's game.
All right, so, as you alreadyknow, there was already the week
zero game, technically for theHall of Fame game, which was the
Lions and the Chargers, to getstarted for the preseason.
The Chargers won a game 34 toseven, so a real lopsided one.
There.
(04:36):
I don't think the startersreally played.
I watched most of most of thatgame.
Of that game.
Yeah, the starters didn'treally play, but, um, still, you
know it gave us a football fixto get us in the door and get us
ready for the rest of thepreseason games, for preseason
week one.
Before we get into the podcastand the content itself, of
(04:57):
course, I want to plug all ourhandles.
Let you know where you can findus.
Most notably, you can find uson twitter.
You can find me at sportsgrindunderscore don and phil at phil
the filipino.
On twitter, the touchdownjaguars podcast handle is at td
jaguars pod.
Of course, we have the websitetouchdown jaguars podcast, where
(05:20):
archived episodes and writtencontent is posted on, and you
can find this podcast on anymajor platform, whether it's
iTunes, whether it is Spotify,amazon Music, and if we aren't
on your favorite platform or amajor platform that you use, let
us know and we'll do our bestto get on there so we can give
(05:42):
you your weekly content for theJacksonville Jaguars.
Also, we have our TikTok page,which you know.
I've done a pretty decent job ofgetting videos up about every
week, or close to every week,somewhere in that ballpark.
New video will be coming up, ofcourse, with the first
preseason game, we'll have a newvideo coming up this week, the
(06:05):
first preseason game.
We'll have a new video comingup this week.
Please feel free to supportthat, because we are trying to
get in the mix for video contentand visual content as well, and
that will be our source fordoing that.
We also post the shorts onInstagram as well.
We'll have our link tree in thedescription where you can
follow all our major handles andstuff, so you will have no
issue with finding out where tofind our content, whether it's
(06:28):
on TikTok, whether it's theaudio format, whatever the case
may be written format.
We make sure that we have thatall posted and we will make sure
we'll have it posted in thedescription for this show, so
we'll get into it.
I don't want to make thispodcast too long because we have
the interview, as I mentioned,with Jamal St Sarah from News
for Jacks, who has been to campevery day and breaking out
(06:51):
pretty much or giving you aglimpse of every play, whether
it's 11 on 11, 7 on 7, whateverthe case may be.
But I digress from my point thethings I will be looking for in
preseason game week one, afterseeing this unofficial depth
chart, if you haven't seen it,go to our Twitter page to touch
(07:12):
down.
Jaguars Twitter page is ourmost recent post, or it will be
one our most recent post, soit'll be near the top and you
can look at it and makeassessments for yourself as well
.
And you can look at it and makeassessments for yourself as
well.
But, all of that said, I gotabout six things I'll be looking
at Again.
I won't go too deep into thembecause I don't want to make
this long.
(07:34):
Three things on defense andthree things on offense.
And the first thing we'll startwith that caught my eye when I
was looking at the depth chartand it's not a shock necessarily
, depth chart.
And it's not a shocknecessarily, um, but um, ezra
Cleveland is in the mix or onthe depth chart as the uh, left
guard starter at left guard.
And um, that being said, as weall know, we drafted Wyatt
(07:58):
Millam from West Virginia, thirdround pick, who a lot of people
are high on and want to see asa starter.
But of course, you know, aswe're being a veteran, and a
veteran is making a decentamount of money, it's kind of
not a shock that he is thestarter, at least for now.
So the one thing I'll be lookingfor is does Wyatt close that
(08:20):
gap that there is between himand Ezra, that gap that there is
between him and Ezra?
Now a lot of people feel likehe'll more so be the starter in
year two, in his sophomoreseason.
But I wouldn't mind seeing himbecause of the physicality he's
added or he will add, should Isay, to the mix.
I wouldn't mind seeing him inthe starting lineup because I
(08:42):
think he would help the run gamein a phenomenal way, in a
bigger way than Ezra Clevelandwould.
Now, as I mentioned, thestarters won't really play a lot
, so Ezra won't see a lot ofsnaps, right?
But that also means that WyattMillum gets the opportunity and
(09:03):
he'll have.
You know, this will be a gamewhere he gets or receives more
snaps than Ezra.
He'll have a lot of film to putout there to see if he can
close that gap and you know Iwould like to see him take
advantage of it.
I do want to see him show andshowcase that physicality that
we saw from him in West Virginia, that physicality that we saw
(09:24):
from him in West Virginia.
You know I would like to seehim be the lead cause for some
big time runs, for the backup,running backs and the running
game in general.
And I want to see him put somepressure on Ezra Cleveland, who
you know I think is a littleoverrated, honestly.
You know he gets praise fromthe metric people like PFF and
(09:46):
um.
You know he gets a lot ofpraise on Twitter and I'm not
saying by any means that he is aa bad guard, but I think he is
a little bit overrated.
Um, pff would argue that he's alittle underrated.
I think they actually put himon like they're all underrated
team, where they take like aunderrated player from all 32
teams and, um, you know, theyput them all on this list.
(10:09):
But just, you know, I don't seesomebody who can move people
off the ball like you would wantfor this scheme, and he hasn't
been available as much as youwould like either as well.
So there is that.
So, all of that said, I kind ofwant to see um the rookie in
the mix as quick as possible,but you can't rush these things
(10:31):
when it come to rookies, right,um, and if he's not ready, then
you certainly don't want him outthere.
But if he's close to even beingready, right, you know, you can
put him out there, let himdevelop throughout the season
and then by the end of theseason, you got a prospect or a
player that's much, much betterthan Ezra Cleveland.
You know if you want to look atit from that standpoint, but I
(10:52):
will be watching the rookie tosee if he can close that gap and
see if he displays thatphysicality that we saw from him
when he was in college.
Saw from him when he was incollege.
The next thing that we'll belooking at is Travis Hunter, who
(11:13):
is the most popular player onthis team.
In my interview with Jamal, forsome stupid reason, I said that
he's not and that he would bethe second and third.
I wasn't even thinking, andI've even said it on this
podcast in the past, and he'sundoubtedly the most popular
player on the team.
So I don't even know what I wasthinking there, but I digress
from my point.
But I want to see the usage ofTravis Hunter.
He is listed on the depth chartas a wide receiver one, so
(11:36):
obviously he'll, you know, takethe field with the starters in
that regard, with Deami Brownand Brian Thomas.
So those will be your startingtrio of receivers, but as a
cornerback he's pretty much asecond stringer, because they
have Tyson Campbell and theyhave Jordan Lewis as the number
two.
But I think you know, likeJordan Lewis, jordan Lewis will
(11:58):
see a lot of snaps in the slot.
So he's like your startingnickel, which you know.
You see a lot of nickel thesedays.
No, duh, that goes withoutsaying.
You see a lot of nickel thesedays.
No, duh, that goes withoutsaying.
Um, but I said all of that tosay this in terms of boundary
corners.
Um, what you could maybe belooking at, just based on the
depth chart, is maybe Tyson andJarrion Jones who had a great
(12:21):
rookie season last year, by theway, um, and maybe Jordan Lewis
in that slot, or, if not, youcan see Tyson and you can see
Jordan Lewis playing on theboundary as a starter, because
they do have some injuries there.
They had to make a sign in, infact, this week, a young man who
I have to pull up his name herereal quick Levi Wallace,
(12:44):
veteran, who's 30, 31 years old,and I think he previously
played for the Bengals, if I'mnot mistaken.
But yeah, they signed LeviWallace because they have some
injuries there.
So that's why this conversationabout the cornerback position
is coming up.
Is, you know, how do they useTravis Hunter?
(13:04):
How many snaps does he receivethere?
Does he receive snaps there asa number one?
And if not and he's with thesecond stringers how long do
they keep him out there too?
That's another thing.
You got to kind of weigh howlong you want him out there in
terms of you know, but if he'sgoing to be a big part of this
(13:27):
offensive defense at a four, youwant to put him out there too
long.
Obviously, even though he's atwo way player and you know,
being that he's a two way player, that would say that he needs
to be out there a decent amountand he's playing in his first
game, he's a rookie, he'sinexperienced.
That would also say he needs hegets out there or receives out
there as a cornerback, and withwhat group, you know, first
(13:54):
string, second string, and howlong.
You know.
Me personally, I would get himout there, probably with the
second team corners, but also Iwouldn't let him play like a
full quarter, if that at all,just just for precautionary
reasons.
Down the road, that preseasonsecond game, yeah, you know, and
(14:16):
especially you want to get hisconditioning, or you want to see
where his conditioning is,which we everything that we've
seen in the case that hiscondition it is there and where
it needs to be.
But in that second game iswhere you probably more so want
to see him take more snaps, um,than he would in that that first
game.
But yeah, you just kind of wantto get his feet wet in that
(14:38):
first game and you want toprotect him for precautionary
reasons in that first gamebecause you know, make no
mistake about it, he's going toplay a big role for us in the
regular season, so you want toprotect him for that reason.
So that's one thing I will belooking for, um.
The next thing is, of course andwe discussed this actually in
(14:58):
the interview with jamal I didum that running back room and
the competition there, of coursetank bigs being traps, atn are
battling for the number one spotand, granted that they will be
battling for that spot atop thedepth chart, you would think
they're not going to see a lotof snaps here, right?
(15:19):
Not in this game, because they,you know they're penciled in as
the starters probably start a1a and 1b and then whoever kind
of separates themselves in thatsecond game when you play the
starters, more would be thestarter, but it's not a lot that
we need to see from them inthis particular game.
(15:40):
We can address that later, butI want to more.
So see what's going on on thatback end of the depth chart.
Basial Tootin is out with ahamstring injury.
I don't think he's returned yet, so he hasn't been practicing.
I think he's been off to theside, but they've been
protecting him, rightfully so,because hamstring injuries are
tricky and you don't want tore-aggravate it and get him out
there too soon.
(16:00):
But that leaves an opportunity.
He likely I mean you would feellike they probably will be
precaution, take precaution,take precaution with him and
keep him out of this game.
That leaves an opportunity forthe other running backs on his
roster and LaQuinn Allen andJaquinden Jackson, who Jamal put
on my radar and you knowJaquinden Jackson was saying, or
(16:21):
Jamal St Cyr was saying, thatJaquinden Jackson is a guy that
they've been kind of given moreand more snaps throughout
practice because they areimpressed by him and they kind
of want to see what he offers.
And you know, if he's a guythat can make this team on a
final 53 and he's a guy, he's alittle bit bigger of a guy at
the running back position, sohe's a physical force for this
(16:43):
team and you know he's one ofthose guys that can wear on a
defense over time.
So we'll see, um, what heoffers.
He'll be a guy that we watch,uh, under the radar name to
watch and, and you know, see ifhe starts to force their hand to
make them consider keeping himon a 53 man roster.
(17:03):
But I'm also wanting to seeLaquint Allen, who I'm the
bigger fan of.
When you talk about the runningbacks that they drafted this
year and LaQuint Allen is a guywho you know, I've said it, you
know when.
Trav ZTN is probably gone nextyear I don't think he'll be gone
this year, but next year.
I think LaQuint Allen is a guythey're looking at to replace
(17:25):
him.
He's a little bit more physicalthan people maybe have known
him to be between the tackles.
And also Jamal, pointing outsomething important as well
LaQuint Allen helps this team inthe regard of when they put him
out there, even though he's arookie.
He helps them in the regard ofpass protection and they like
that and that that, for thatreason, that'll get him on the
(17:46):
field more than Basial Totooting also.
So that'll be something towatch in this preseason game.
But in a nutshell, how doesallen and jackson, how do they
make the most of their snaps?
Because they will get a lot ofsnaps, make no mistake about it
in this game and probably thetwo games afterwards, for the
simple fact of what I mentionedum, they're down, one running
(18:06):
back tooting is down, and alsoto um, etn and Bixby are being
looked at as number one.
So they won't see the field alot, you would think.
So that leaves a grandopportunity for these two young
men to make some noise and makethe most of their snaps, kind of
like I was saying with WyattMillam.
So the next thing is somethingI talked about with Jamal in the
(18:30):
interview, which you will hear.
But just to kind of give alittle preview and spoiler of
one question I asked, I askedwhat is the biggest concern
after nine practices on his team, and he agrees with me that
it's defensive tackle.
So how do the defensive tackleslook?
(18:50):
Because they're down two men.
They had to make some signings,as a matter of fact today to
add at least one defensivetackle, and I will pull that up
here on my tablet real quick, sobear with me.
Yeah, they signed a young manthat previously played with the
Buffalo Bills and Austin Jackson, or Austin Johnson, excuse me,
(19:14):
because they are down twodefensive tackles.
As I said, mason Smith was puton the PUP list to start camp
and he hasn't returned yet.
It doesn't feel, and I'm not adoctor and I don't know exactly
what's going on it doesn't feellike it's a long-term thing with
him, uh.
(19:35):
but also, in addition to that,eric armstead has been out of
practice with a back injury, sothey're down their top two guys
there.
And um, devon hamilton has beenreceiving a lot of snaps,
according to Jamal, and TylerLacey has been receiving a lot
of snaps in terms of you knowthem being the starters there.
(19:57):
So at least you know, for campthey have been, because
obviously the two people, theaforementioned people that I
mentioned, have been out and ithas forced them to play Hamilton
and Lacey a little bit more so.
With that being said, althoughthe starters won't pay, although
the starters won't play a lot,I do and I will be interested to
(20:20):
see how Lacey and Hamilton look, because you know, this
defensive tackle position isstarting to become a concern.
Now, look, if we are week twoor week three into the season,
the preseason, and Armstead andMason Smith are still not there,
then we might be in sometrouble, but it's not time to
(20:43):
hit the panic button just yet.
But, that being said, I do wantto see at least you know, if
Lacey and Hamilton have to see asignificant amount of snaps how
they are looking.
And then I also want to seewhere the backups are, because
obviously, you know, we alreadyare starting in a situation
where there are injuries there.
How does you know JordanJefferson look?
(21:03):
How does some of these otherbackups on there, like Keevy
Rose look and Eli Mostert?
You know, maybe one of theseundrafted guys can step up and
help us in terms of alleviatingthose concerns at the defensive
tackle position?
Or even Austin Johnson, who wejust picked up.
(21:24):
How does he look?
You know, maybe he could be along-term answer for us.
Um, granted the injuries we'reenduring and could endure in the
season, all right.
So next up, I kind of alreadymentioned this, um when I was
mentioning travis hunter.
But how does jerry and joneslook?
Um, does he continue hisprogress from last year?
He looked great last year as arookie won't really touch on
(21:45):
this because we already talkedabout it a little bit, but he
looked great as a rookie lastyear.
He really wants to play on theoutside more.
This is his grand opportunityto do so, with the injury going
on to Buster Brown, who may notbe back by the regular season,
and the signing of the young manI mentioned earlier off of off
(22:07):
a free agency could be anindication of that.
So this could be Jerry andJones's grand opportunity to
basically show what he can doand, um, you know, just kind of
distance himself from Brownwhile Brown is out, um, in terms
of winning that boundary cornerposition.
Um, also, too, man, like he'sbeen looking good in practice.
(22:29):
He had the one-handedinterception that they
highlighted on their um on thejaguars twitter page feel free
to check that out but, um, it'sbeen a lot of good things said
about how he's performed and hehas really taken this
opportunity on the outside andreally ran with it from
(22:49):
everything you hear, read andsee.
Lastly, on the official depthchart, yazeera Abdullah was
named as the number onelinebacker on there, which, you
know, it's probably like forthat like hybrid Sam linebacker
role, which kind of fits hisbody type.
So just kind of, you know won'treally go deep into this, but
(23:10):
just want to see how he faresand how he looks with the
starters.
Again, he'll be looking atlimited snaps, um, but how does
he look with the starters?
Uh, because it feels like, youknow, when trent drafted him, he
didn't really fit the mold of atrent balky guy, which was okay
, because it's like hey, youknow, trent.
You, trent is consideringdifferent prospects than he
normally considers, but alsowith that, he didn't really fit
(23:34):
the scheme and have a place withthe last regime and it feels
like, with Anthony Campanilecoming into the mix, this is a
better fit for him.
And, yeah, I just want to seehow he fares in terms of when
he's with the starters and, youknow, has he made a jump from
last year to this year?
Because he's still a relativelyyoung.
(23:55):
You know what?
He's in his second, third yeara relatively young player.
So, all of that said, those arethe things I'll be looking at.
Feel free to comment on some ofthe things you all will be
looking for in the comments or,you know, shoot us some
questions.
If you have some things that Ididn't address in terms of what
(24:15):
I'll be looking at, you canshoot us some questions on
Twitter and, yeah, we'll be morethan happy to answer them to
the best of our ability.
All of that said, we'll getright into this interview with
Jamal St Cyr from News 4 Jax,who has been at training camp
for every session, all ninesessions, and, yeah, I hope you
all enjoy it as we discuss whathe has been seeing at training
(24:37):
camp in 2025 for theJacksonville Jaguars.
All right, ladies and gentlemen,welcome to Touchdown Jaguars.
As promised, we have a guestthis week and we have a guest
(25:00):
who has had his boots on theground there on the field, so
somebody who's been watching theaction up closely um, more than
even myself I call one day, butour guest has been there every
day of the week giving you abreakdown of every play,
literally on his timeline, ofevery like play 7 on 7, 11 on 11
(25:20):
, you name it.
He's been there.
Uh, ladies and gentlemen, uh,welcome, jamal saint, seer of
news for jacks to the podcasthere, as we have a bunch of
questions here.
Man, as I mentioned, phil'sgoing to miss out on this one,
but he'll join me on the nextepisode, everybody, so we'll
link up with him later.
(25:40):
But, jamal, man, first andforemost, man, welcome to the
show.
And how are you doing, man?
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Hey, appreciate you having me on man.
Yeah, look, football's a blast.
Uh, busy time getting totraining camp.
Uh, it'll be fun when theseason gets here.
You know, preseason footballcan be fun and not fun at the
same time.
But yeah that's there.
So I appreciate you having meon and always happy to talk some
jags man yeah, yeah, I um Iwent Sunday.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
I was in town for Sunday.
Okay, it was pretty hot.
I was in the shade, though Isee you and Demetrius on all of
them.
Y'all were out in the heat.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
It be cooking.
It has been hot.
I was leaving the station theytalking about you know, it's the
heat, extreme heat warning.
I was like, yeah, what you wantme to do, yeah, yeah.
So I, it's all.
Good, look a little sun ain'tgonna hurt me too bad, I'll go
stand out in the sun and so Ican see what I can see.
They all they're always saying,well, you don't stand in the
(26:40):
shade.
I'm like, well, we only got tobe out here a couple hours.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
It's fine, that's true, go get it done yeah, man,
it reminds me I don't miss thosedays of high school football.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Man, I'm telling you, I remember in college like
because I played collegefootball at clark atlanta, and
there was some of them summerdays where, like they'd be
talking about this wet ballthermometer and heat and stuff,
and I could think of some ofthem summer workouts, where we
were out there and I'm watchingthe heat come off the turf and
I'm like I can see the heat.
I know there's gotta be too hotto be out here like there is no
(27:10):
way I'm supposed to be able tosee heat coming off this ground
and be out here at the same time.
So now, whenever they talkabout stuff like that, I'm just
like man, there's no way.
We were supposed to be outthere, no way.
But you know, look, that's partof it.
You go through that.
The heat grind.
Uh, make you a little stronger,you'll be all right right
bill's character bill's right,go on now but yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
So my first question.
I don't really like to startwith the basic stuff, but I mean
I will, uh, because everybodywants to know.
Man, um, how has trevorlawrence looked?
Um, the day I went again thatwas sunday.
Uh, it wasn't his best day, butit sounds like since then he's
like turned it on, like,especially when you look at the
scrimmage too.
I think a lot of people arehigh on that experience alone,
(27:55):
like the fans that got to see it.
But how has he been in totalityin terms of camp for you?
Speaker 1 (28:03):
look, I think trevor has gotten better day by day,
which is literally what you wantto see.
I think today, which is whatsunday, um, that we're recording
this.
I think this might have beentrevor's one of trevor's best
practices, honestly, um, eventhe incomplete passes that were
there I mean, man was, he waslayering it between two and
three guys just overreach, likeputting the ball right where he
(28:25):
wanted to be able to put it.
Um, have there been some playsthat he wants back?
Sure, I mean, over the courseof camp he's thrown 300
conceptions to this pointthrough nine practices.
But and there's a but only oneof them was really his fault and
it was really a play where heshould have thrown it away.
That was during the scrimmage.
They were in the red zone.
He tried to force somethingthat wasn't there probably
(28:45):
should have been a throwaway.
Um, the other two were off tips.
One was tipped at the line andyou know how those tip drill can
go and one came today andliterally it went through.
Travis Hunter's hands gottipped and ended up in the in
the savings hand.
So I mean tip drill kind ofplays where that goes on the
quarterback stack sheet.
But that's not reallynecessarily his fault, um, but I
think Trevor is in a good spot.
(29:07):
Um, I think one of the mostimpressive things that we've
gotten from Trevor so farthrough training camp didn't
happen on the field.
So right before camp kicked off, all the quarterbacks took a
test, 100-question test.
He had 45 seconds to answereach test or each question and
they said Trevor scored thehighest out of the group and he
(29:28):
got an A on the test.
Nick Mullins was second.
I think Wolford was third.
But the reason that's impressiveis because, keep in mind, nick
Mullins and John Wolford haveboth been in this offense for
years.
At this point Wolford was inthe offense in Tampa and in LA
basically the same offense.
Nick Mullins was in the offensein Minnesota.
So these guys have more time ontask than Trevor, but Trevor
(29:55):
able to score higher than themon the off, on the on the test.
That just shows you the workhe's put in and the command of
this offense he has.
Um, look, I think the sky's thelimit for him this year.
I really think this is going tooverall.
By the time we get to the endof the season people are going
to say this was the bestsupporting cast that he's had
around him since he's been inthe NFL to go with, uh, some
some pretty good numbers that Ithink he's going to end up
putting up.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
I think he's really been stacking some good days and
I think he's in a good spotyeah, as you mentioned, that's
what you like to hear isprogression throughout the
period, throughout the process,and also, too, as you that, yeah
, the test like we hear so muchabout testing in general, like
with the combine and stuff Likesometimes we just don't really
put a lot of thought into it.
But yeah, when you break itdown from that perspective, that
(30:35):
Wofford has been in thisoffense, nick Mullins has up in
Minnesota with the Vikings.
Yeah, that is pretty impressivethat he was able to outscore
them and you know we we need bigthings out of him going into um
year what is it?
Year five?
Uh, yeah, yeah, it's been thatquick.
(30:56):
Good, I lost track.
Year five for him, man, uh, butyeah.
My next question is the secondmost popular play on the field
right, travis hunter um.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
He's the second most popular player might be btj no,
I think travis is the mostpopular player on the field dude
yeah, yeah, good point.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
I mean I can't go on tiktok without like they'll put
they'll literally put him in myalgorithm, like it's like I
wouldn't even look for travis Ithink he is the your most
popular jaguars player and hehasn't played a down yet.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
But OK, yeah, what you got on Travis.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
But yeah, man.
So could you talk about how helooked?
He looked great.
Sunday when I went he had apick and almost got two more,
like he almost got one to endpractice on Cephas and he almost
jumped Walford for one, no,mullins, mullins for one, no,
mullins, mullins for one and Iforgot who he was covering.
(31:53):
But how has he looked sinceMonday?
And also, too, like, how do youthink they'll go about this
plan of utilizing him in termsof weighing his snaps on offense
and defense and what have you,and just in general in terms of
how you think they'll utilizehim?
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Look, I think they've done a lot of research.
My expectation is he's going toplay a lot on both sides of the
football, because that's what Ithink they believe he can do.
So I think he's going to play alot of snaps.
Are there going to be somewhere they try and manage it?
Yeah, but I think he's going toplay a lot of snaps, um, are
there going to be some wherethey try and manage it?
Yeah, but I I think he's goingto play a lot of football on
offense and defense for thisteam and I think he's going to
(32:36):
be a really good player.
He is explosive.
The way he can contort his bodyto play the football in the air
, um, it's impressive.
Uh, it's impressive, it'sdifferent.
There's not a whole lot of guysthat can do that exact same
thing or that have the ballskills that he has.
If it's in his range, you neverfeel like a ball is something
(32:56):
that he can't.
You know can't pull in.
Those sorts of acrobatics arewhat make him special on offense
and defense.
You know, because he's stickyin coverage.
You know, because he's stickyin coverage, but it's that
ability.
Where any football that's inhis vicinity, he's a danger to
go up and get.
It is what makes him able to betruly special at corner, and I
(33:28):
mean that same explosiveness asa wide receiver and his ability
to make moves in space and makepeople miss is something that is
going to make him dangerous onthe Jaguars offense.
So look I I I think my hot takegoing into the season, as I
think Travis is going to winoffensive and defensive rookie
of the year and I think he'sgoing to have that sort of
season and I think he's going tobe really impactful for this
team.
I've seen nothing from Travisto change my expectations of him
going into the year.
(33:48):
I have been nothing butimpressed the way he I mean he
is impressive dude.
You watch him at corner and Ithink he just has natural
ability to play as a cornerbackin the NFL.
And then you watch him at widereceiver and you can see why
they want to put the football inthis guy's hands.
So I think he's going to beimpactful and, as long as he can
stay healthy, I think theJaguars are going to use this
(34:09):
guy and he's going to beeverything that everyone expects
him to be out there on thefootball field yeah, yeah,
that's what I saw sunday manlike it felt like nothing was
out of range for him, right,like at all.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Um, even even when, like they had, you know you
could tell the quarterback mighthave had a little bit of a jump
on him by the time the ball isto the receiver.
Travis is there because ofacrobatics and length too.
You know he's a little longerthan people.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Give him for two length, yeah he's got long arms
and I mean here's one of theimpressive things one of his
teammates are.
You know I've been trying toask the guys you know about
seeing him on offense and seeinghim on the defense and one of
the guys that's a veteran player, uh, who's been around a while
with this defense and beenaround the nfl.
He said one of the things thatimpressed him the most about
(35:00):
Travis is that he expected himto make mistakes because he's
trying to learn an offense andlearn a defense.
But he said, as far as he couldsee, that hadn't been the case.
He said, on defense, he knowsTravis has gotten out there and
always known his assignment andhadn't been blowing coverages or
making mistakes.
As far as he could tell.
On offense it had been the samething where Travis wasn't out
(35:20):
there running the wrong routesor confused on what to do.
Travis's ability to grasp all ofthe information and do the work
in the classroom whilesplitting time between two rooms
, that's probably like somethingthat he doesn't get enough
credit for.
When you've got a veteran NFLplayer saying like, hey, when
(35:40):
we're in the installation phaseand early in camp and through
the off season, you know itwouldn't be surprising if you
see a rookie that's trying tolearn offense and defense,
making mistakes, but this guysaying I haven't seen it, I
haven't seen him make thosemistakes.
That's what's impressive iswhere he's able to grasp all
(36:00):
that and do the work, and beforepractice he's worked if he's.
If it's an offensive day forhim, he's working with the
defensive coaches, If it's adefensive day, he's working with
the wide receiver coach.
So where he's always gettingthat extra work so that way he
knows what he needs to do.
I think that's something thatwe're not going to focus on,
because you're going to alwaysfocus on what he does on the
(36:21):
field and what's trulyimpressive about it.
But the way he was able tolearn it and really retain the
information and I mean play themental part of the game, that's
that's just as impressive, ifnot more impressive.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Absolutely.
Yeah, I agree, I agree and Ithink what, what helps him too
and a lot of people this goesover a lot of people's head
because you just don't reallythink about it, but what helps
him is some of the reason he'sable to jump these balls on on
defense is because he plays onthe opposite side, right and
like he and like I don't thinkI'll even go this far, I don't
(36:57):
think it'll be something that wejust see, because he knows the
Jaguars playbook, he knows aboutplaying receiver in general.
I think this is going totranslate into, when he's
playing, other people who havecompletely, totally different
offensive playbooks than us, andI think we'll see that.
And that's why you getpredictions like the one you
have of people saying that he'llbe defensive rookie of the year
(37:21):
or offensive rookie of the yearor both.
And, by the way, you heard ithere, folks, jamal just told you
to go book it now.
Go ahead, go to Hard Rock Cafewherever, put him in for
offensive and defensive rookieof the year, for offensive and
defensive rookie of the year.
No, I'm just playing there, butI think, like I think that's
(37:44):
going to really factor into him,at the very least, being the
defensive rookie of the year isbecause he understands, like,
the concepts of receivers andwhat they're trying to do, and
they've even mentioned this inlike interviews, where he would
go and tell his quarterbackslike I think it was maybe Shador
or somebody you know um, whatthe cornerbacks on the opposite
end were trying to achieve.
(38:05):
You know what I'm saying andlike how to how to hit him, and
then you add in his acrobaticability, as you mentioned, and
like just nothing being out ofhis range, and you got a very
dangerous player and I I toohave been nothing short of
impressed with him like heliterally could have had three
interceptions into the onepractice.
I went to three.
So, uh, yeah, man, I can't waitto see him in action.
(38:27):
Um, we'll go back to theoffensive side, right?
And um, I want to ask aboutthat running back competition.
Obviously, like you're going togo with your most experienced
guys between Bigsby and ETN.
Those are the front runners,right?
of that room, from what you'veseen, who do you think is
(38:49):
leading the way?
Because Bigsby, again, goingback to Sunday, he was with the
ones when I went and it soundslike he's continued to be with
the ones, at least, which youmight not have to put a lot into
that, but it seems likeBigsby's been rolling with the
ones and etn has been rollingwith the as of late.
But what do you make of thatrunning back uh competition?
(39:11):
How do you think it'll shakeout?
And also, like, what you thinkof the back end guys, because I
really I'm a big uh laquintallen fan and I saw some things
out of him Sunday which that'swhat I saw, like it translated
from what I saw from him on filmand I think, like you know,
like wow it.
You know it'll take him a whileto get where he needs to get.
(39:31):
I think he is ETN's replacementin the waiting, even over uh
Basial Tootin and I will see intime.
We'll tell on that ultimately,but I think when etn is no
longer there, I think they mightlook to him to be the
replacement of etn.
We'll see, but yeah, what'syour thoughts on that room in
general?
Speaker 1 (39:51):
um, I think it starts and ends.
I look I've been on the tankbigsby train for this thing as
rb1 for a while.
I think tanks thanks your guy.
I think tank's going to leadthis team in touches uh, not
touches but maybe carries.
Um, I think travis etn, as ofright now, still going to be
heavily involved.
Uh, but I think if you, if we,if today was week one, it
(40:14):
wouldn't surprise me if tankended the game with 12 carries
and tra Etienne ended it withsix carries, but he also
sprinkled in four or fivecatches, if that makes sense.
I think about what Liam Cohendid last year in Tampa and he
had Bucky Irving and RashadWhite.
Both of them were heavilyinvolved in the offense.
I think Tank is your BuckyIrving and I think Travis
(40:36):
Etienne is playing the RashadWhite role.
They were both used differentlyin the offense.
They both were utilized heavilyand I think that is where we're
at right now.
As far as Basial Tootin goes,he's a little banged up, but man
, when he's had a hamstringinjury, but when he gets the
ball and decides it's time to go, he is explosive.
(40:56):
You can see the vision.
No doubt I mean he's made JackKaiser missing space a couple of
times during practice and Imean these are nasty moves and
right now they're not evenplaying full contact.
So for him to make somebodymiss like that like he's cooking
so Tootin' is just an explosiveguy.
I can see the vision for it,but I just I really feel like
(41:18):
this year is going to end upbeing a redshirt year for him.
To an extent.
I my expectations.
I think LaQuin Allen is goingto play more than facial tootin
this season unless somethingchanges and everything is in
flux right now.
I think I'm with you.
I've been a LaQuin Allen fan.
They grabbed him in the seventhround and I immediately started
(41:39):
saying his pass blockingability is going to get him on
the field as a rookie and as ofright now.
I'm still standing firm on that.
I think he's going to play.
If you think back to last yearwith the Jaguars, you saw
Dearness Johnson play in a lotof big passing situations
because they looked at thatveteran and said he is my best
pass blocker and pass catchingrunning back on the team.
(42:01):
I think LaQuinn Allenimmediately steps into a similar
role with this team where whenthey're in mandatory, we know
they're going to pass.
They need a running back whocan block and possibly go out
and catch something.
I think that's where LaQuinnAllen is going to play.
I think he's going to be up, butsince we talked about the rest
of the running back room, I'mjust going to throw out a guy
that's been impressivethroughout practice so far,
jaquinden Jackson.
(42:22):
I'm going to tell you right nowI did.
I've done two 53 man rosters sofar and I didn't have him on
either one of them.
But I'm waiting until thisfirst preseason game to see this
dude in the pads go againstanother team that has to tackle
him.
He's like 240 pounds, 236.
And he runs tough.
And if in the game he startsplowing through people the way
(42:43):
he's kind of looked duringpractice, oh no man, we might be
having a whole differentconversation here in a week or
two, because this dude mightforce somebody's hand to figure
out how to get him on thisroster.
Because Jackson looks like aload and they've given him
enough touches that they'retrying to get a look at him, and
so we'll see what happens.
Preseason obviously changesstuff, but man jackson looks
(43:03):
like a load that they might betrying to figure out.
Can we keep five or who do wegot to get rid of, so that way
we can keep four.
So, um, we'll see what happens,but I think the running back
room is is overall in prettygood shape.
They got enough guys and Ithink liam cohen wants to have
this thing as a committee, andthere that's a position where
there's a lot of injuries andthere's reason to be excited
(43:24):
about guys that are farther downthe depth chart.
You can be excited about LaquanAllen, for real.
I mean he had some big playswhen they started running.
He was running tough and didn'tback down.
I mean he let Ventrell Millerhave it a couple of times the
first day.
They put on pads and you know,foye Aluokun was getting his
(43:46):
face and they were going backand forth and the rookie didn't
back down.
Uh, so the defense was going athim and Allen showed up,
jackson has shown up, we I thinkwe saw Tank Bigsby get a heavy
workload last year and boy wasrolling and we know what Teravis
Etienne can do when he gets insome space and, uh, I think this
offense is designed to getthose running backs in space
one-on-one and that's why theserunning backs are going to love
it.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
Yeah, yeah, and you kind of mentioned something too
with ETN.
That I think a lot of peoplearen't realizing is that when
you look at him and Bigsby, doit really matter who's taking
the majority of the snaps,Because both of them, to me, are
very good fits for the offenseanyway.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
We're going to see a ton of two running back snaps,
man right, exactly.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
So like, do it really matter?
Is it like, is it really andthat's why I don't like why the
national media is bringing somuch attention to the etn thing
and like, oh, they'll trade forthem?
It's like, do you all not knowthe kind of usage your number
two will get in this offense?
Okay, not just as carries, asyou mentioned mentioned, but
catches right as well.
And you look at the runningback committee they had in Tampa
(44:47):
Bay, as you mentioned, and yeah, like you can definitely see a
place for Etienne in this systemwhere he's a good fit.
Like I've never seen him as amisfit, you know, and I don't
think anybody's making theargument that he's a misfit, but
what I'm saying is he has toomany qualities that can help
this offense look like what itlooked like in Tampa Bay for
(45:08):
them to trade.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
Barring something crazy, he's going to be used Now
.
The one thing I asked Travisthis a couple of weeks ago is
this is the most time he spentout lining up outside of the
backfield in his career.
He said, oh yeah, becausethey're going to line him up at
wide receiver.
There's going to be motions.
They'll move them around,they'll get them the ball on jet
sweeps.
He'll move back into thebackfield Travis is going to.
(45:30):
The crazy part is if you thinkback to when urban Meyer was the
coach and they drafted TravisETN and urban's thing was he
wanted Travis to be thisoffensive weapon and I remember
going out to training camp andthey were lining them up at wide
receiver and stuff.
To an extent we're kind of goingfull circle back to that um,
even though he's less he's notTravis by no means as being a
(45:53):
wide receiver this year but he'sgoing to line up a ton outside
the backfield where you're goingto get to the line of scrimmage
and people are going to belooking to see where one's lined
up at um and then where helines up at probably is not
where he'll be when they snapthe ball because they're going
to put him in motion and movehim around.
Tank, on the other hand, isgoing to play your more
traditional running back roleand line up in the backfield a
(46:13):
lot and they're going to use himdownhill and let him do his
thing.
So different, different role,different strokes for different
folks, you know what I mean.
Like they're going to playthese guys to their strengths
and they're going to get touchesand they're going to find a way
to make it work in space.
So it's tough to call onerunning back, one running back
to that.
They're really different rolesin this offense, the way he sees
(46:34):
it, you know, and and Cohen'svision, you need guys who can
move around and do differentthings, and Tank might not fit
the role that Travis is going tofit.
Where Travis might not fit therole that Tank is going to fit,
and that's what makes it perfect.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
Right, right, right, no, that makes a ton of sense.
It makes a ton of sense.
So, yeah, we will.
This is more so a generalquestion, and you kind of
mentioned the running back room.
You mentioned Jackson, youngman named Jackson I think is his
last name Now who is like asurprise in terms of you know
(47:18):
somebody who showed up in campthat flashed a little bit more
than you expected or that youdidn't kind of see coming For me
I can't really say a personbecause, like a lot of people
will point to Cephas, but I kindof expected that for him, like
I thought he was draftable lastyear.
But is there somebody like thatthat fits that for you?
Speaker 1 (47:32):
I'm sitting here looking at the roster in front
of me.
I mentioned Jaquinden Jacksonwho, once the pads come on, big
boy, he's really flash.
He's a physical runner.
He's a little bit moreexplosive than maybe I gave him
credit for At receiver.
Yeah, I think Cephas hasstacked some really good days.
We saw it during practice.
I got to talk to him afterpractice last week and he said,
you know, he felt like he hadgood training camp practices a
(47:54):
year ago but his problem wasduring the preseason games he
didn't show up.
But his problem was during thepreseason games he didn't show
up.
So we've seen him stack thosegood practices and now his goal
is to stack some good preseasonoutings because he knows, you
know, showing up in the game isgoing to be big for him.
Another guy I still think EliPankle is a guy that is sneaky,
that could sneak onto the roster, but the receiver that's shown
(48:16):
up the most.
I think Parker Washington looksgreat.
I think Parker Washington looksgreat.
I think Parker Washington looksabsolutely fantastic for what
he's been rolling with and he'sstacked a whole lot of really
good days.
I think Parker's a guy who'sgoing to earn himself a role in
this offense.
And maybe the last guy is HunterLong.
I wasn't really sure what toexpect from Hunter just because
(48:38):
he hadn't gotten a whole lot ofplaying time with the Rams, but
Hunter Long has really shown upand I think started to solidify
himself as a good option at thattight end.
Two spot behind Brenton StrangeLong has made some big catches
today.
It was a big day for HunterLong showing up in space and
making a couple of really nicegrabs off the top shelf.
I think if we were starting todo a top five catches at camp, I
(49:01):
think Hunter Long's got two ofthe top five.
He's had some some really gooddays and made some really good
plays.
So I think that gives you acouple of guys on the defense.
I don't know that anybody onthe defense is necessarily
really shocked me like justshowing up.
That I just wasn't expecting.
Maybe Yasir Abdullah or TylerLacey guys that I think are
(49:23):
pushing for starting jobs rightnow that I wasn't necessarily
expecting.
I think Christian Braswell'shad some really good days
throughout training camp as aguy who might sneakily lock
himself into a 53-man spot, justto give you a couple guys there
.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
Okay, yeah.
So yeah, it's a lot of guysthat, like I said, um that you
mentioned there that I want tolike dig into a little bit more
and we'll see definitely like.
I think the pre-season willlike answer a lot of questions
as well, uh, so yeah, we'll lookinto that.
Um, my next question is um, sowe're in what camp?
(49:58):
Session number nine.
Speaker 1 (50:00):
Today was number nine Yep, nine practices down.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
All right.
Um, so my age is showing.
It was nine, I'm right.
Um, what do you think like isthe biggest need for this team
that you've like, that you'veassessed, because for me I had
concerns about the interiordefense and line.
Let me know.
You know you can when you,whenever you answer, let me know
(50:22):
if that's like still a concern.
Uh, but just from your eyes andyour standpoint, what do you
think is an area of concern?
Or not necessarily an area ofconcern, but somewhere that you
think they might need anaddition or that you know fans
might be want to be concernedabout?
Speaker 1 (50:40):
Look, I don't think there's any way around the
interior D-line at defensivetackle spot right now.
Eric Armstead's been banged upthroughout camp.
A lot of veteran rest days forhim, so the expectation of
moving him back to defensivetackle.
I think he'll be ready to gowhen the season gets here, but
just how ready?
Mason Smith, who is asecond-year guy who we're
(51:00):
expecting to take a big step,who talked about it during the
off season, feeling better,feeling stronger.
He's been banged up and he'smissed the start of camp.
So right now you're you'restarting defensive tackles, or
Devon Hamilton, who they feellike is playing some really good
football, and Tyler Lacey,who's a guy that I kind of had
on the bubble going into camp.
So I don't think there's anyway around it right now.
(51:21):
Defense attack was probably theweakest spot on the team.
Like I feel pretty good aboutsafety.
I think the corners and DBshave played really well.
Linebacker, you feel fine Ifyou went on the offense and you
were looking for a weakness.
I think the offensive line stillisn't like locked down.
I think there's still somequestion marks there.
But I also think that they'retrying to block guys like Josh
(51:42):
Hines Allen and Trayvon Walker,who I think are really good
football players.
So I think Walker little andAnton Harrison are being put
through the wood chipper day inand day out, as well as some of
those backup guys trying toblock them and hold up there.
So I think that's challenging ontheir part.
So I I think the biggest D,like the biggest question mark
right now has got to be rightthere on that, on that defensive
(52:05):
tackle spot, and maybe back uptight in, because hunter long
and johnny munt both justreturned to practice today.
Um, I already had questionmarks about depth, that tight
end going in, and then the twoof them being banged up left you
with like patrick herbert,who's an undrafted free agent,
along with a couple other guysthat you know.
You're just not sure whatyou're going to get if you do
end up with a spot where theyhad to be like your top backup
(52:27):
to Brenton Strange.
Speaker 2 (52:29):
OK, ok.
So in my last question, whichyou kind of led into it it's
funny you mentioned them.
It was so that edge rushergroup, yep.
It was so that edge rushergroup Yep.
(52:49):
You know, as I said, theinteriors are concerned to me,
but I would dare say that edgerusher group is top five.
Speaker 1 (52:51):
I mean, maybe I'm crazy for saying that in the
league.
It's one of the best duos inthe league, man.
Speaker 2 (52:55):
These dudes are brawn trees, right Right, no, they're
both.
I mean like wow, right right,no, they're both.
I mean like wow.
You know you could argue thattrayvon walker some people will
argue that the jag shouldn'thave taken him.
Number one overall, um, pairedwith josh allen and what he's
done for this team so far andthe steps he's made year by year
, it wasn't a bad pick.
You can't sit here and say itwas a terrible pick or anything
(53:15):
like that.
Um.
So, that being said, um, couldyou talk about the edge rusher
group as a whole because, like Isaid, I'm really high on the
group and even beyond those two.
Right, you have a veteran inthe one, smooth, who has pretty
much seen everything in thisleague and went and spent time
with the bills last year.
(53:36):
He's been with a team that youknow is known for winning and
you have um agba, who has madeplays.
Uh, he was making plays, likebefore the pads went on.
I don't know how he's fair withthe pads on, but veteran,
that's seen it all right.
Uh, you got the um the youngman, uh, dennis.
Um, I'm blanking on his lastname, but he's coming back.
(53:56):
He's a pass rusher specialist.
He was on um ir for a littlebit.
Yeah, gear that.
So he's a pass rusherspecialist.
He was on IR for a little bit.
Yeah, garrett, so he's a passrusher specialist.
You know, probably don't havethe size that those guys have,
but you know he's a guy that cancome in on third down and rush
the pass Rusher.
Can, you know, dip in and hecan be one of the twitchy guys
if you will.
But yeah, can you talk aboutthat group as a whole and your
(54:17):
thoughts on them?
Speaker 1 (54:21):
Look about that group as a whole and your thoughts on
them.
Look, I think josh and trayvonare due for big years.
I think both of them got todouble digit sacks last year
without much of an interior passrush.
To speak of um, moving ericarmstead inside permanently, I
think will boost that.
I think a second year for masonsmith who was coming on late
last season I think once he getshealthy we'll boost that.
So I think that edge group isin for a big dividend year Plus.
(54:45):
You mentioned Emmanuel Ogba.
I think he's one of theunderrated kind of off-season
acquisitions for the Jaguars.
They haven't had a third passrusher that you could really
rotate in and feel confident insince Arden Key left.
So adding him into the team Ithink is huge, just quietly for
when those guys do need aplayoff.
You mentioned Smoot.
I think Smoot's going to playsome on the edge in that
(55:08):
rotation but I think he's goingto do his biggest damage
possibly on the interior andsome passing downs where they'll
slide him inside to go get thatpass rush on the inside.
We saw that from him once upona time back when he was with the
Jaguars and we've seen themkind of work it during camp so
far, a little bit too.
So my expectation is that we'llsee Smoot on the edge if needed
(55:28):
, but I think we're going to seehim as an interior rotation the
most, where maybe you do see atime like if it's third and long
, it wouldn't surprise me if yousee Josh Trayvon, dejuan Smoot
and Eric Armstead all lined updown there on the defensive
lines so they can really get inthat.
I mean, I guess previousdefensive coordinators call it
something like a NASCAR packageor whatever you want to,
(55:48):
whatever camp decides to call it, as they get after it.
But I think that edge group isreally strong.
And I think there's a guy youmentioned, dennis Geredak.
He just got healthy so I'm noteven going to venture to to
guess what he could possiblybring.
I know the people in Arizonawere really high on him.
But undrafted free agent DannyStrigow from Minnesota, um, he's
(56:12):
a guy who's made a couple ofplays and kind of flashed here
and there, um, and I know theywere really excited to get him
as an undrafted free agent.
James Leston likes to talk aboutguys that are intangibly rich
and this dude, I would say, ispretty intangibly rich.
He's kind of flashed throughout.
He's the undrafted free agentthat I think has caught my
(56:32):
attention the most on thatD-line edge group.
He played in the senior bowl.
He got the call the day beforeand just showed up and was
wrapping his hand just to getout there on the field.
He's a football player throughand through and I think he's a
guy who sneakily, might be ableto squeeze his way on this
roster.
We'll see, we'll see.
(56:52):
But Danny Strigow is a namethat that's at least worth
watching in that edge group.
Speaker 2 (56:58):
Yup, I remember the video um him literally like
talking, being on a hot mic, andthey were like uh, so do you
even know the players?
It was like nope, I'm justgonna go out here and do what I
do you know?
Speaker 1 (57:09):
so yeah, no, I'll definitely watch him.
Speaker 2 (57:12):
Um, and yeah, he was another guy, I think, like when
I did a review on the undraftedfree agents, like he felt
draftable too, like he shouldhave like maybe been a seventh
roundish pick, sixth round pick,um.
But yeah, man, nah, weappreciate all of that insight
and, um, if you will, before welet you go on about your day,
because we know you got to be onthe news tonight, all that good
(57:34):
stuff.
Uh, please feel free to plugyour handles and let everybody
know where they can find you andyour content.
Speaker 1 (57:41):
Well, I'm pretty much anywhere you want for social
media.
Just look for JSTCYRTV.
That's JSTCYRTV.
You can also check all my stuffdown over on news4jagscom Click
on that sports page.
Yeah, we've been cranking out abunch of stuff throughout
Jaguars training camp.
We'll keep it rollingthroughout the season For the
most part, man, I remembertrying to find stuff when I was
(58:03):
growing up.
I grew up in New Orleans tryingto find Saints stuff,
play-by-play and all that stuff.
So I try and create the contentthat I was looking for when I
was off scrolling trying tofollow the team.
So if somebody can dream it upand I can figure out a way to
pull it off, we'll do it.
So, um, yeah, this is this isall.
For the love of the game, man,I enjoy it.
(58:24):
Appreciate you having me onliterally anytime, man.
Speaker 2 (58:26):
Uh, you know where to find me Absolutely man, and we
appreciate what you do.
Man, um, definitely like eversince you've been there.
I think you've been at whatfive years now.
Speaker 1 (58:37):
Uh, going, going on.
Is this six, or?
Speaker 2 (58:40):
I guess I got there in 2019, so yeah yeah, man year
one for me we appreciate all thecontent you provided over the
years.
Uh, you always been nice to us.
Even when we, you know, visitedpress box, you always been nice
and, uh, everything, anythingwe needed, you've always been
more than willing to come on andspeak with us and answer any
(59:02):
questions.
So we appreciate it.
And yeah, man, we'll link upwith you, probably, if you can,
during the season, at some pointWe'll do a runaround again and
yeah, as always, man, weappreciate it here at the
Touchdown Jaguars podcast.
Speaker 1 (59:18):
Yeah, anytime, man, just give me a shout.
Except for Fridays.
Fridays are high schoolfootball nights for me, so
outside of that, yeah, we'llmake it work.
Speaker 2 (59:27):
Right, right, oh yeah , we won't bother you on the
Friday night lights.
Nah, I know how that is.
Yeah, yeah, man, appreciate youcoming on, man, man.
(59:52):
All right, folks.
So there you have it, ourinterview with jamal st seer.
Hope you all enjoyed that.
Um, for the outro here, I won'tmake it too long here again,
I'll just plug the handles andI'll let everybody go on about
their day of.
Of course, you can follow me atSports Grind underscore done on
Twitter.
Phil at Phil the Filipino, andhe will be back as we get into
the swing of things and we getinto actual football and
consistently making podcasts.
(01:00:12):
With the football seasonofficially starting, I can't
wait to have him back.
So shout outs to him,appreciate everything he does.
You can follow the website.
Touch him back, so shout outsto him and appreciate everything
he does.
You can follow the websitetouchdownjadwarscom.
Our Twitter handle for thepodcast is, of course,
tdjadwarspod.
Feel free to check out thewebsite and also don't forget to
(01:00:34):
check out our TikTok.
We are at TDJadwarsPod on thereas well and we'll link
everything in the descriptionfor you all to make it easy for
you to find.
So glad that football is back.
Can't wait to talk football.
We'll be having analysis andtweets going out during the game
and what have you?
We'll review the game in anepisode as well.
(01:00:55):
So fun things on the way forthe touchdown Jaguars podcast.
We'll have more guests on theway and all that good stuff.
But until the next episode,everybody take care of each
other and I am signing out.
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