November 12, 2025 • 43 mins
We work through a brutal loss to Houston, where a 19-point fourth-quarter lead vanished and the same old issues—penalties, protection, and trench flaws—showed up again. We lay out how Jacksonville can still steer toward the playoffs with trench fixes and cleaner football.
Below are the specific talking points we covered this week:
• Fourth-quarter collapse after fast start
• Defensive line struggles
• Offensive line penalties wipe out key plays
• Turnovers dry up and pressure disappears
• Lawrence’s ceiling and the fans outlook on him
• Injuries to key targets and return timelines (Hunter news came after recording)
• AFC wild card chaos and tiebreaker paths
• Offseason priorities led by defensive tackle
• Practical OL reconfiguration for short term
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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_01 (00:59):
Welcome to the Touchdown Jaguars Podcast.
Here are your hosts, JamesJohnson and Phil Smith.
SPEAKER_02 (01:08):
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Touchdown
Jaguars Podcast.
I am your co-host, Phil Barrera,and with me, as always, is your
other co-host, James Johnson.
And Jay, we're recording here onthe evening of November 10th.
And following just a tough,tough loss that the Jacksonville
(01:28):
Jaguars had to the HoustonTexans.
A game that some would say theysnatched defeat out of the jaws
of victory, right?
They just could not get anythingdone as the game wound down,
specifically in the fourthquarter.
Emotions are high right nowwithin the fan base, myself and
you included.
(01:49):
And there are just, you know,there's problems with this team
that we knew about and that wehave talked about throughout the
season.
And, you know, not all of thosecan be addressed during a trade
deadline, right?
They can't, they can only we wecan only hope they get better
over time.
And then at some point,especially, you know, nine, ten
games in the season, you kind ofsee like what your team is.
(02:13):
Uh, but you know, fortunately,Jay, I mean, if this playoff
started today, the Jaguars arestill the seventh seeds, so we
can hang our hat on that.
And I do think that a lot offans, also including us, would
have if you told us that headinginto week 11 in the season,
they're they're fighting for awild card spot and they're
hovering around 500.
(02:33):
Probably would have taken that,but doesn't mean that we aren't
frustrated.
So it's good to be here backwith you tonight.
Uh, as always, appreciate youholding down the solo episodes
whenever I am busy, but uhexcited to talk about our team,
even though they are very, veryfrustrating.
SPEAKER_00 (02:48):
Yeah, frustrating is done doesn't even explain this
team, man.
Like it's week to week withthem, literally.
It's week to week.
You never know what you're gonnaget.
Um, so if you're the Vegas type,you know, don't don't spend any
money on the Jazz because youdon't you certainly don't know
what you're gonna get and youmight even lose your money.
But um, that being said, um,yeah, you're right.
(03:10):
We we still have the seventhseed, and that's kind of why I
said, like, a few weeks ago whenyou asked me if we would still
be in it, this is kind of youknow what I envisioned.
And I had them splitting withthe Texans anyway, they don't
make it feel better, you knowwhat I'm saying?
But I had them split with theTexans anyway.
I so I guess for me, um, youknow, maybe that softens the
(03:32):
blow a little bit.
I don't know.
Um, I don't even want to say itdoes that for me because I'm
frustrated as all get out aswell.
But I did have them split withthe Texans, I did have them
sweeping the Colts, which lookslike uh, you know, that'll be a
little bit harder than you knowwe thought.
But then again, the Colts, afterwatching them for two weeks
straight, I don't know who theyare exactly either, in terms of
(03:52):
if you look outside of JonathanTaylor, right?
So um, all of that said, man,um, yeah, this is one that, man,
is it's gonna leave a bad tastein our mouths in terms of this
loss to the Texans, and um, youknow, like Liam Cohen's
leadership and the team'sleadership in general is gonna
(04:13):
be tested here heading forwardbecause this is one of the worst
franchises, you know, lost infranchises history, if not the
worst lost in franchise history.
Um, so there's that.
Um, but again, uh they are stillin the thick of things, still
over 500.
And um, one more thing toconsider, too, is like the AFC
South or the AFC in generaldoesn't look like the AFC of
(04:36):
old.
You know, a lot of people gotmore than two losses in this
picture.
So it's really, really unclearwhat we could be looking at
heading forward in terms of theplayoff picture.
And the Jaguars made it evenmuddier with this loss to the
Texans.
SPEAKER_02 (04:52):
Yeah, you can't let the opportunity to go to six and
three slip through your handslike this, right?
Like you just cannot lose a gamein which you're up by 19 in the
fourth quarter.
It can't happen.
Like it, and that falls on a lotof people.
Uh, it's not necessarily justTrevor Lawrence.
It is, it it is not just thetrenches on both sides, it's not
(05:15):
just the receivers.
It's it's a lot, like a lot goesinto losing a game like this and
giving up 20.
I mean, it's 26 points they gaveup, but it really was 20, you
know, because of the the lastsecond interception uh there at
the very end.
So just things that cannothappen.
But I think what I have found,and I I texted you about this
earlier because as I was likerewatching the first half
(05:36):
because I missed it.
The the thing with this team islike this is like the ult uh the
opposite of what happened withDoug.
Remember, they lost a lot earlyon and then went on their run as
they figured things out.
What happened here,unfortunately, is that they
started off hot and theyprobably won maybe a little bit
too early.
Remember, we we had anticipatedthem starting slow, like looking
(05:57):
at their schedule and thenrallying in the back half of the
schedule.
And now we're fighting a coupleof games, you know.
Vegas, you got to go toovertime, Houston, you know, a
game you definitely should havewon.
And we expected them to behitting a little bit of a
stride, and now we're a littlebit of a slump, you know, losing
three out of four.
Um, and then you had the byeweekend there, of course.
So that is, I think, why thethings that I'm seeing now are
(06:19):
are worrisome because you youlook at, oh, the offensive line
looks like they've got thingstogether, you know.
The the defense is forcingturnovers, but turnovers dry up,
right?
We see that every single year.
Like 2017, like Saxonville, likethat's an admiration.
That those things don't happen.
Like, there's a reason.
I mean a lot of you know,mainstream media doesn't talk
about them as one of the bestdefenses of all time, but like
(06:40):
we know, we know the numbers wesaw, but we know what we
watched, but like those thingsdry up, man.
Like you can't depend on thosethings.
Um, I'll bring this up hereearly, as far as our buddy
Daniel Griffiths bringing up,you know, just a complete
implosion of the trenches whenit comes to the offensive and
and defensive line, you know,what you know, what as far as um
what they're what they'relooking at.
(07:00):
Um weeks uh uh as far as thedefensive line goes, 23rd in
pressure, 32nd in sackpercentage, 28th in non-blitz
percentage, um offensive line asfar as the the uh week one
through four, twenty-one pointseven percent in pass per
percentage, uh weeks fivethrough ten, thirty-eight point
nine, and twenty-first in sacksum in the league as far as the
(07:22):
offensive side of the football.
Uh this thing, this this team isimploding from the inside out.
And even myself included, and Iobviously like tensions run high
in our in our group chat.
A lot of this, you know, uh thefrustration when it comes to
Trevor Lawrence is like we'resix years into this thing, and I
think you said this, he'sprogressing at a snail's pace,
(07:42):
and that can't happen anymore.
So there are so many things thatare wrong with this team, and if
you want to pick and choosewhich one you're most frustrated
about, I don't think I'm goingto like argue with a lot of
people, you know, depending onwhat they want to pick.
SPEAKER_00 (07:54):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I agree with you, man.
Um, I think like for the theTrevor Lawrence argument, what
probably is not helping himspeed up his process, is you
know, when you you talk aboutand look, man, like there's
(08:15):
times where I run draftsimulations and you know I think
about taking a quarterback init.
So that's not you know what I'msaying, that that's not to say
I'm a Trevor Lawrence defender,but there's times where it's
like, uh, should I take aquarterback in this simulation
or not?
But you know, when you look atthe contract, it's like uh I
don't know.
But anyway, long story short, uhwhat I was getting at here is um
(08:39):
also too, like you theconversation about elevating the
team keeps coming up becausehe's getting paid a lot of money
and this, that, and the otherthough.
But like we're having aconversation that at times
doesn't make sense.
We're saying he needs to elevatethe team, but we also lead the
league in penalties.
We also lead the league indrops.
Like those three things don't gotogether.
(09:00):
How can a quarterback elevate ateam that leads the league in
drops and penalties?
Rightfully now, some of thosepenalties are on him, but I was
looking at like the um I wentand found the penalty log,
right?
And you'll be shocked at howmany of those penalties were on
the offensive line holding.
Um, of course, we got a bunch ofillegal shift penalties too, so
(09:22):
there is that.
But um, the just the offensiveline ones alone, and that kind
of reared his head.
And me and you have had thisconversation many, many times on
the podcast as well.
The reason I keep bringing thatuh element up of him trying to
elevate the team, but trying todo so with a team that leads the
league in penalties and drops,is because again, as I said,
(09:45):
they can't coexist.
And a prime example of thatfield was the last completion
that he made that was voided,right?
He completed the pass that wouldhave given Cam Little a chance,
and we know what Cam Little cando.
Cam Little, he seems to be back,he hasn't missed a field goal
for a while for the last twogames.
Trevor got us to the 45-yardline when he linked up with
(10:07):
Parker.
And this is the sameconversation we had two weeks
ago.
When he does make the plays thatneed to be made, they get
voided.
Chuma Y Doga got flagged forholding, you know, and that
wasn't the only time he gotflagged earlier.
And I think that voided aseven-point touchdown from the
which would have been JacobyMyers' touchdown, right?
(10:28):
If I'm not mistaken.
So again, when he does make theplays, and look, we're not
talking about a top 15quarterback, but when you're
doing that, when you're nottalking about a top 15
quarterback, that means when hedoes actually make the plays
that need to be made, they needto count.
And they're not counting becauseof penalties.
(10:48):
So you know, like it's hard tohave that conversation right now
about he's not elevating theteam like a quarterback getting
paid$50 million should when youlook at all of the elements that
are also in his way as he's nota top 15 quarterback.
And then in regards to um thethe offensive line and defensive
(11:10):
line, part of it that you werementioning, Phil.
This is why, like when you askedme two weeks ago or whenever it
was before the trade deadlineabout you know who would I like
to see on the team.
The first one that came out ofmy mouth was Quentin Williams.
I knew that we were gonna cometo a point where the interior
wasn't getting it done on thedefensive line, and that would
(11:33):
also, you know, put uh JoshHines Allen and Trayvon Walker
in a situation where they aren'table to perform at their best.
And and I'm not gonna defendthose two.
We need more from those two aswell.
Um, now, granted, Walker is justnow, you know, getting out of a
cast where his whole hand isn'twrapped up.
So, I mean, like, there is that,like it is hard to play without
(11:57):
your hands at that position thathe plays in.
So, you know, you can give himthat, but it's no excuse for
Josh Hines Allen.
But regardless, in any case,regardless of how those two have
looked, I knew the importance ofgetting a defensive tackle in
this building, right?
And you know, the JacksonvilleJaguars, rightfully so.
At least one thing we can sayand we can hang our hat on is
(12:18):
that this regime understood thatthey needed to fix that because
they they took a shot at QuentinWilliams.
And then your boys, the DallasCowboys came in with their two
first round picks, by the way,Phil.
And they they you know, they hada better deal, rightfully,
because we don't have a firstround pick.
So, you know, they basicallyoutbid James Gladstone with one
(12:39):
of the two first round picksthat they had, thanks to the um
the trade they made with thePackers, and that really stuck a
fork in things too.
Like, but I really felt like weneeded Quentin Williams.
Like, we're talking about thestuff that happened in the game,
and we'll get into that and howmuch that hurt.
But going back before that, whathappened on the trade deadline,
(12:59):
at least what lack thereof, orwhat we didn't do on the trade
deadline, that hurt too.
And in James uh defense, hetried, you know, he he he
offered what he could, justdidn't happen, man.
Um, so yeah, man, this offensiveline as well going to them as
well.
Like, you know, there's timeswhere Trevor didn't have two
seconds in the pocket, and I'mnot saying Trevor had this great
(13:22):
fantastic game where he lookedlike he was Aaron Rodgers out
there or Tom Brady, but likewhen Walker Little's getting
beat like he was, and you know,Chumi Doga is getting penalties
at the rate he was, you get theresult that you get offensively.
And that's basically whathappened when you look at this
team.
They lost the battle in thetrenches against a team um
(13:44):
that's at least built well inthe trenches on the defensive
side of the ball.
SPEAKER_02 (13:49):
Yeah, we're so fired up about talking about this
game, you know, didn't evenmention, you know, of course, uh
make sure to uh follow us onsocial media, check that
LinkTree link, uh, use thatpromo code touchdown Jaguars on
Seat Geek, all that stuff.
Appreciate you guys uh for doingthat so far.
But yeah, Jay, I mean, likeWalker Little's a turnstile man.
Like I you gotta believe thatthat's gonna be one of those
(14:09):
things that they're going to uhimmediately address.
And uh, you know, it's like umthey made these fixes or are
they tried to implement thesefixes in the offseason, and
again, everything looked okayduring uh well as this as the
season starts, but you know, asthings have gone on, you know,
they they play obviously thiswas a real litmus test to see
where we're at um as far as youknow the best defense in that
(14:29):
interior, I mean, is just forfor Houston is incredible.
That's why, you know, even witha a 19-point lead, you still
don't necessarily feel goodbecause of their ability to get
to the quarterback, and then thethe defense is just gassed.
And uh, you know, like you said,you know, uh Heinz Allen and
Trayvon Walker can't get home,and uh that's partially because
uh that that's partially becauseof things that are out of their
(14:50):
control as well.
Like they're trying to do theirjob, but you know, obviously
when it comes to complimentaryfootball, like they just don't
have it right now.
And and I I think that's why I,you know, going into our preview
episode, like I had them, I wasmore leaning towards their
ceiling being right around eightand nine.
So it's like they're there,right?
And and I think what's gonnahappen is in this offseason,
like we'll just really, reallysee kind of the strategy that
(15:15):
this uh front office is going tohave, and and it will truly be
put to the test, especiallywithout that first round pick.
I mean, and also, you know,granted, what how much you want
to consider this, like there'sno BTJ.
We don't have Travis Hunter whowas just hitting his stride.
You know, how much of adifference would that have made
having Travis Hunter, BTJ, andum uh Jacoby Myers, like all of
(15:37):
the and Parker Washingtonballing out, you know, like that
that makes a huge difference,you know.
And um, you know, they uh attimes ETN is able to get going,
and then like you said, in inthe second half, like all of
that dries up.
So it's it's it's it's one ofthose things that's like, God,
I'm so frustrated watching whathappened yesterday, but also the
(15:58):
players that rely on theinterior line, either uh
offensively or defensively, arenot getting any help at all.
So how would they be able to dotheir jobs, you know?
SPEAKER_00 (16:10):
Yeah, yeah.
And then, yeah, when you bringup the injuries, um, you know, I
I never even thought about itfrom this standpoint until you
brought it up.
Maybe forgot about BrentonStrange, too.
Yeah, Brenton Strange, too.
Maybe the most important guythat's missing.
Right, you know, who would havethought?
Um, you know, now this thisdoesn't apply to this game.
They should have won itregardless, right?
(16:30):
They had to lead, you know, by19 points, but um it does apply
to the season in general.
Maybe we should be happy withfive wins, granted what we have
on IR, because I mean the name,the names that we're naming,
right, Phil, are the people thatessentially either James
Gladstone and Liam Cohen camehere for, or they are people
(16:55):
that uh Liam Cohen and JamesGladstone added with a high
priced investment, whether thatwas a first round pick or um you
know, or you know, somethingthey addressed in free agency,
whatever the case may be.
But yeah, man, like I thinkthat's what may help us if we
can make this run to theplayoffs, um, is how soon can we
(17:19):
get Brenton Strange back?
Right?
That's the first one.
How long is Travis Hunter out?
How quick can we get those twoback?
And also to like how healthy wecan stay until we get those two
back, because um you would thinkBTJ is kind of coming back
sooner rather than later becauseit's a high ankle sprain, a low
grade one, which that you know,that probably makes it like hard
(17:41):
to I'm not a doctor or anything.
That probably makes it hard tocut and whatnot, but at the same
time, I think that'll healquicker than you know a grade
two, grade three ankle sprain,right?
So I think we would get him backsooner rather than later.
And you know, like I said, um,you know, strange, where is he
at?
You know, I think Liam talkedabout him today that um they
(18:02):
will open up the 21-day windowat some point this week for him
to return.
But I think like, and I didn'tget to read the quotes all that
great, but I think he was sayingthat, you know, like, you know,
let's get him in practice firstin terms of strange and um you
know see um how how that goes interms of practice, and then
(18:23):
we'll you know bring them backin terms of getting them in
games and stuff, but let's getthem back to practice first.
So, you know, help is on theway, but at the the rate that
we're going, you also gottawonder like by the time we get
to help, will it be moreinjuries piling up on that end?
You know, that's anotherconcern.
But if we can, you know, getback to remotely being healthy
(18:45):
like we were in the beginning ofthe season, that will help
tremendously for us to hit thatmark of you know eight, nine,
ten wins.
SPEAKER_02 (18:53):
Yeah, and you know, like you mentioned, you know,
the this AFC playoff picture isso weird because the teams, the
the division leaders right now,like how much faith do you
really have in them?
Now it seems like the Patriotsare starting to kind of run away
with that thing.
Um, the Bills are just I I thinkwhat the the concern for me is
like there are teams in the wildcard race that shouldn't be in
(19:16):
the wildcard race, like Chiefs,Ravens, Bills.
Like those are supposed to bethe class of the AFC, and
they're they're down here in thewild card spot because these
other teams, and we've donethis, Jacksonville's done this,
right?
Where they take advantage of theeasier schedule.
And kudos to the Colts, Broncos,and Patriots.
They've done that, like you canonly play the teams that are in
front of you.
Uh so I think the the concern islike those teams will take
(19:37):
advantage of those schedules,and then you're then you're
dealing with Cincinnati.
I'm sorry, you're dealing withBuffalo, Kansas City, and
Baltimore in a wild card racethat you didn't expect to see
them in, you know.
So that's probably the concernfor me.
Uh, they do have a 40% playoffchance, uh, playoff probability
according to NFL.com, sitting atthe seventh seed right now,
(19:57):
right in front of the Chiefs,Texans, and Ravens.
Those are probably those are thethree teams that are right
behind them.
Uh, five and four for theChiefs, and then four and five
for Houston and Baltimore,respectively.
Uh, so you know, you gotta thinkthat the Chargers and the
Broncos take up one of those uhwild card spots, and then you
have a toss-up between, youknow, Buffalo, Jacksonville,
(20:19):
Kansas City.
Kansas City has that, uh, youknow, owns that tiebreaker, so
that's nice, a head-to-head winthere.
Um, and then, you know, whatwe'll see what else comes in.
They got a chance, they got anopportunity to play the Chargers
and the Broncos head-to-head,uh, and then two matchups with
the Colts, you know.
So they're very much in controlof their own destiny.
I think just when you continue,when you lose to Davis Mills and
(20:39):
freaking Jake Browning in thesame season, like Davis Mills,
he owns the JacksonvilleJaguars, man.
Three and one.
There's no, there's nothing, noway around that, man.
Three and one againstJacksonville.
That is enough of a sample sizeto know he doesn't worry about
this team.
Uh, it's it's crazy to see thatthey play better against CJ
Stroud than they do Davis Mills.
SPEAKER_00 (20:59):
And it's you know what else is scary?
Like, you know, it makes thegame against like Arizona a
little scarier because JacobyBrissett is.
And he's not playing terribleeither.
You know, and yeah, no, granted,now they have beat Jacoby
Bissett before when he was withthe Colts.
Now, so I I'll I'll add that inthere as well.
And I think Jacoby Brissett'skind of one of those weird uh
(21:19):
quarterbacks where you know backthen, at least I don't know
about now, um, he held on to theball a little too long.
So, you know, we we're nottalking about Davis Mills who
gets the ball out of his handsin two seconds, one second,
whatever it was.
Like, it was times Davis Millswas like hitting people one step
out of their slant.
You know what I'm saying?
Like um what's his name?
(21:40):
Uh Nico Collins or whatever thecase may be.
Um, but still, no, it does makeit like you look at that that
Arizona game and you're a littlebit scared about that.
You know what I'm saying?
More so than these other games.
Like, I was just telling youbefore the um before we started
recording, the Broncos gamedoesn't look as scary, and I had
that as a loss for us, doesn'tlook as scary as it once did.
(22:01):
Now I'm having a little bit moreconcerns about the Arizona game
more than the Broncos gamebecause of just how they fared
against second stringquarterbacks.
SPEAKER_02 (22:10):
Yeah, I mean, in Arizona, they played indie very
well, and I'm not sure who wasthe quarterback for that game.
Was it Kyler?
No, it was Jacoby Brissett.
So, yeah, Jacoby Brissett isplaying like winning football.
I mean, the Cardinals aren'tnecessarily winning football
games, but like he is a morethan capable.
You can do way way more worse atbackup quarterback than Jacoby
(22:31):
Brissett.
I think we all know that at thispoint in time.
Uh, so you know, the Colts stillhave a couple of big games
against the Seahawks and theNiners.
Uh, that Seahawks gamespecifically will be a really
good litmus test.
And next week they got KansasCity, right?
So, or in two weeks, I'm sorry,they're on their bye.
So on the 23rd, they have KansasCity.
That'll be a huge game and uh,you know, an opportunity for
Jacksonville to own a tiebreakerthere.
(22:52):
So go ahead, Jay.
SPEAKER_00 (22:54):
Yeah, I'm calling it right now.
The the Arizona game, it just itjust a vision just flashed upon
me.
We'll win it.
And here's why.
That's gonna be the DennisGeerdick game.
Okay.
The Dennis Geardick revengegame.
Yeah, yeah.
He's gonna they're gonna marchhim out there like they always
do.
They always march the guy outthere against um at as the one
(23:15):
of the honorary team captainsagainst the team that they
formerly played, right?
They there with did it with EricMurray.
They put him out there againstthe Texans the first time we
faced the Texans.
They're gonna march him outthere as an honorary captain.
He's gonna channel his innerwhoever you want to name the
best pass rusher in Jag'shistory, his inner Tony
Brackens, or whatever the casemay be.
(23:37):
And they might come down to thewire, but he's gonna be the one
to make a play in that game thatwins us the game there.
The Dennis Garrett game.
And I'm I'm calling it rightnow.
And not only that, though, Phil,but he's literally one of the
best players on the team rightnow, too.
So, like, that's just great,man.
Yeah, I'm not just blowing smokeout of my behind there.
SPEAKER_02 (23:59):
One of those sneaky additions that will never get
mentioned in national media, butlike is just a really good
pickup, you know.
So, um, you know, looking back,like those losses against it's
the losses like this, likeCincinnati and Houston, these
will really eat at us for awhile until they, you know, get
some wins under their belt.
Because like Seattle and LosAngeles, those might be the two
(24:20):
best teams in the NFC.
Honestly, I wouldn't besurprised if either one of those
teams won to the Super Bowl uhfrom the NFC side.
Uh, but like you can't letCincinnati get away from you,
and you can't let this one getaway from you, you know.
Like that we've been talkingabout these missed opportunities
all year, and those are gamesthat come back and bite you, uh,
especially in a uh playoff racethat's gonna be really, really
tight.
So um, yeah, we haven'tnecessarily gotten to talk about
(24:42):
any specifics with the gamebecause again, there's just so
much.
Like you guys have seen it, andit's not as easy as it would be
to pin this all on Trevor, topin it all on the interior, like
the pin it all on one specificthing.
Um, and and I know a lot ofpeople and myself included want
to lay frustrations on down onjust one particular thing, and
(25:04):
that's just not doable here.
But we would be uh remiss if wedidn't talk about Trevor uh a
little bit more here because youknow the the fan base is split
right now.
Um, I'm I'm definitelyfrustrated and I'm to the point
where I am a little bit overthis as far as being six years
into it, but I also know he'sgoing to be here.
It's you can't get out of thismoney anytime soon.
(25:26):
He's going to be the guy.
I still don't feel as bad as Idid watching Blaine Gabbard or
Blake Bortles.
We're not anywhere close tothat.
The throws that he makes, uh,you know, I think that's the
frustrating part is like you seehim make choices and decisions
and throws, you're like, yep,that's the number one overall
pick.
And then you see him makechoices, decisions, and throws,
you're like, that's the numberone pick, like in the same exact
(25:46):
time in the same game.
Like, this was the perfectmicrocosm of Jacksonville Jaguar
football between first half andsecond half.
And I think it also doesn't helpthat Caleb Williams is starting
to find his footing.
Like he's, you know, the Bearsget another comeback win um uh
against uh against the Giants.
I mean, granted's against theGiants, but still he's playing
pretty well.
You're seeing these quarterbackskind of like figuring it out.
(26:07):
Drake May obviously is having uhuh people talking about him
being MVP.
I don't know how people feelabout that after this past week,
but you know, the optics withTrevor are always going to be
there because he's the numberone overall pick.
Like that's just inescapable.
So where are we at here?
You kind of alluded to italready, like you said, as far
as his development, but likewhat what are you saying to the
(26:27):
fan base right now, and myselfincluded, who are just overly
frustrated with him every singleweek?
And like, what do we do and howcan we just kind of approach
this for the remainder of theseason?
SPEAKER_00 (26:38):
Again, like he, yeah, no, he's not playing like
he should for the money he'sgetting and to be a first
overall pick.
And he's just probably not gonnabe that guy anyway.
Again, like that's why Imentioned earlier, and I I've
been trying to prepare peoplefor this, right?
I mentioned earlier in you know,two episodes ago, what you may
be looking at is you know, aquarterback you can win with,
(27:01):
but in the way that the 49erswin with Brock Purdy, right?
Or um another team that we kindof already mentioned, how this
year at least, how the Broncosare winning with their
quarterback, right?
Now, I don't think he's quite asbad as um his he's escaping me.
What is his name, Phil?
The Broncos quarterback.
(27:22):
Bo Nicks.
Yeah, Bo Nicks.
He's not I I think TrevorLawrence got Bo Nicks beat, by
the way, in terms of talent.
But in terms of my my advice tothe fan base, if they want to
take it, is again, we can't havethe conversation of how good he
is leading the league inpenalties and leading the league
in drops, right?
Those are two things that are sokey to his success as a
(27:44):
quarterback, right?
Especially if he already isn't atop 15 talent, that's only gonna
hold him back a little bit more.
Um now, what I will say is alsothis, too, and I kind of I don't
know if I mentioned it lastweek, um, because he, you know,
he led him to a comeback drivelast week against the Oakland
Raiders, or I I keep sayingOakland, the Las Vegas Raiders.
(28:07):
And you know, one thing forbetter or for worse, and and he
hasn't played great this year,but one thing that has kind of
uh flashed throughout hiscareer, you know, as as bad as
it's been, and as much as hehasn't lived up to the number
one expectations, is this issomething we can hang our hat
on.
Is he seems to have some form ofa clutch gene.
(28:31):
And that even that even shows,like, not just the game against
the Raiders, it even showeditself in this game that we
lost.
Again, I'm we were just talkingabout it.
He made the game win and throwthat Cam Little could have made
the kick for.
Right?
Like that keeps popping up no nomatter how bad he's looked.
It's been a few times, each, youknow, you you can say maybe
(28:53):
every three or four games wherehe's shown the ability where he
can lead a team from behind, atleast.
And he did it in the playoffsagainst the Chargers, too.
So, like, that's one of his mostnotable games, by the way.
But every year he has shown someshape of in some way, shape, or
form a comeback gene, right?
And like that doesn't grow ontrees either.
That's just you know somethingthat you can't find in the
(29:15):
quarterback just off of thestreet or what have you, right?
So like that does keep showingto me, in my opinion.
It does keep flashing, and andagain, he I I thought he had he
brought us back from one Sunday.
I'm I'm not gonna lie, because Ididn't even see the penalty at
first, and then when they showedit on the replay, I was like, oh
god, yeah.
(29:37):
That definitely uh deserved toget flagged.
Um, so yeah, I mean, like thatthat's another thing too.
I think like people don't givehim enough credit for is he does
kind of have somewhat of acombat gene in him.
Um now look he might strugglethe rest of the game for you, or
he might start game slow.
That's always been a problemwith him.
So, you know, I don't know ifhe'll ever get that fixed.
(29:58):
But in terms of Trevor Lawrence,man, again.
Man, before we can have thatconversation about what he is,
let's get the penalties fixed.
Let's not lead the league inpenalties like we've done the
last two years.
And let's also get some someplayers in here who can catch
the ball.
Because, oh, by the way, wedidn't even talk about this
either, Phil.
But, you know, while he's onlybeen here for a little bit of
(30:19):
time, Jacoby Myers, man, like healready has shown the ability
that he can, you know, impactthe team.
Once he gets more acclimated andwe can get him more passes and,
you know, throw him more passesand what have you.
He's already shown that, youknow, him and Trevor Lawrence
can have a dangerous connectiononce they get the chemistry
going and what have you.
(30:40):
And it is kind of tellingbecause these are kind of the
things like you see flashes ofwhat, and it's only been one
game, but you see flashes ofwhat we thought his connection
with Brian Thomas would be.
Like his early stages withJacoby Myers looks way better
than his early stages with BrianThomas Jr., which has only been
one game.
But that's another thing thatintrigues me.
(31:02):
If you can hold on to JacobyMyers, you probably you'll have
to extend him.
It's no probably in it.
Like that's a connection I'mintrigued by coming out of this
game with the Texans.
Although it was a limited bodyof work, it was a small,
impressive body of work.
And also, too, keep in mindBrendan Strange comeback to who
that's a big-time TrevorLawrence target, too.
So that'll help him too.
(31:23):
Like, that's part of what hisissue is, too.
That's why he's struggling, bythe way, Phil.
We talked about this last week.
Part of why he's struggling, hedoesn't have that big target
that he can hit in short rangeanymore, right?
So that's always like that'sbeen a part of his game.
Go back no further than thepreseason.
A lot of the targets that wesaw, or a good majority of them,
to Brenton Strange, was TrevorLawrence hitting him in the
(31:45):
middle of the field.
Like he hasn't had that forwhat, four or five weeks.
So, you know, that's anotherthing we gotta wait on to see if
that helps improve his game.
Because that was a big part ofhis repertoire.
Like that was one of his go-toguys, was you know, Brenton
Strange.
So maybe between Brenton Strangeand Jacoby Myers, he'll get
going.
And um, you know, we'll seecloser to the Trevor Lawrence we
(32:08):
saw in 2022, but time will tell,man.
SPEAKER_02 (32:10):
Yeah, uh we we certainly don't want to like
look too far ahead because, likewe say, we're still in this.
Uh, but you know, you alluded tothis in our group chat over the
weekend about you know, alreadylooking at uh starting and
wanting to look at prospectswhen it comes to like the these
trenches.
What do you think is moreimportant to fix right now or
fix when when you know the timecomes as far as uh free agency
(32:33):
and also looking ahead to thedraft?
Like, what are you prioritizingfirst between the offensive and
the defensive line?
Like uh Anton Harrison has takenthese massive steps back.
Um, like I said, Trayvon Walkerand Josh Hines Allen are
rendered basically ineffectivewithout you know any type of
interior help.
Um, you know, like where do youeven start here um if you were
to prioritize and rank them uhas far as biggest need?
SPEAKER_00 (32:57):
Yeah, and one need we haven't talked about there's
also safety, too.
Um there's a need there too.
What do you mean?
42's back there, right?
Oh man, don't make me getstarted on him, Antonio Johnson.
Um, I mean, but I guess whysafety gets knocked down on that
list is because Caleb Randsawwill come back eventually.
(33:17):
He's on IR, but you know, theJacksonville Jaguars knew they
needed the safety to that totheir defense.
They drafted one.
He just got injured in thepreseason.
So they have help there.
I would even go as far as, man,maybe let's throw Rayon Lane
back there a little bit, man.
Like, can it get any worse thanwhat we're seeing, you know?
But that's another story foranother time.
But safety is on the list, butnot as high as it should be,
(33:40):
just for the simple fact thatthey have Ransall coming back
next year.
But yeah, number one on my listis defensive tackle, Phil.
And um I looked at the freeagency list for next year.
Um, I didn't see any guys thatcould really help them from a
pass rush perspective atop thefree agency list.
Now, like you might find yousome gems or something like that
(34:01):
when you look outside the top 50free agents, but yeah, it's
definitely defensive tackle.
And the reason I rank defensivetackle high is because I think
they'd be respectable, TrayvonWalker and Josh Allen with some
interior help.
But also, too, the reason I rankit number one is because I think
the offensive line is genuinelyuh easier to fix.
(34:23):
And the reason I say that isbecause while Anton has kind of
regressed, I do think you canmove him to left tackle, and
that'll fix your left tackleproblem.
And I think he's a he'll be abetter left tackle than Walker
Little.
Like I think it'll be anautomatic upgrade there if you
move him.
It's just a matter of, and wetalked about this in the thread,
you know, when you move him fromright to left tackle, you m
(34:46):
you're leaving a massive hole atright tackle, but I don't think
like this regime will have anissue finding a right tackle.
I don't think that'll be like ahard thing for them to do.
Um, and also, too, I don't thinkI don't really think they'll
have a hard time finding theirguard of the future.
Because I think one of theirguards on the future, and this
is why offensive line is secondon the list, one of their
offensive guards of the futureis on the team, too, kind of
(35:09):
like Ransaw is their safety ofthe future.
He's on the team, but WyattMillam is their guard of the
future.
They drafted him in the thirdround.
While, you know, a lot of peoplewill argue that, you know, like
they'll they'll make thisargument of like, why hasn't he,
you know, been on the field ifhe's so good and this, that, and
the other.
But we, you know, we talkedabout this with Luke Easterland,
by the way, Phil, when Luke wason, right?
(35:31):
After the third round, youpretty much were dealing with
projects on the offensive line.
And when they drafted Millum inthe third round, that told me
that while they think he's astarter, they think he's a
project player as well.
Which I always had it, I was ofthe belief at that point that it
would always take a year for himto get where he needs to be.
But I think the plan for him,and I don't, you know, this is
(35:51):
not insider's knowledge, but umI think the plan always was for
him to sit a year, you know,unless you got to a real
desperate situation where you'relike real low on the depth
chart, where you have to usehim, was to sit him for a year.
And he started on IR, remember,by the way, Phil, if I'm not
mistaken.
So that that held him back evenmore, essentially.
(36:11):
Uh, he didn't get to practice, Iguess, for to an extent for a
while.
But I do think like they theplan was always to have him be
their one of their guards of thefuture.
So between that and moving Antonto left tackle, you really don't
have that many offensive lineneeds if you do that, if that's
the route you want to go.
(36:32):
Whereas D-tackle is just amassive need, man.
Like, it's again, like I was ata point where I was more than
okay with giving up asecond-round pick for Quentin
Williams.
That's how desperate I thoughtthey were.
Uh, but yeah, that's defensivetackle, man.
Number one on the list, man.
And I think like that's where weneed to spend our film study and
(36:52):
all the our, you know, all thepeople that like to watch the
senior bowl and all that goodstuff.
You you want to watch thatposition.
I don't know what the strengthof this draft is and if
defensive tackle is the strengthof the class, but they probably
are gonna have to draft adefensive tackle because I don't
know what free agency will offerthem in that regard.
SPEAKER_02 (37:11):
Yeah.
And then, you know, you got tolook into you know the kind of
impact a young interior lineman,defensive lineman can have on a
team.
You know, there's a whole lot ofthings to look into there.
But um you know, one thing thathappens in Wavered is uh, you
know, I think we have you knowwe have the right people in
charge.
And that's something we couldnot say over the last decade,
(37:32):
right?
That's just not something uh,you know, we probably felt good
about Doug after 2017, but likeuh, you know, I I feel good um
uh taking the emotion out of itbecause like you know in the mo
I'm do I am glad we wait 24hours to record these and we
don't record on on Sunday night.
It'd be very different contentuh as far as what happens uh
(37:52):
whenever these episodes get uhget recorded.
So um but yeah, Jay, I mean wegot uh you know big game
obviously next week against uhthe Chargers uh here at home.
So you know they get to comehome for the first time since uh
October 19th.
Uh of course that was the badChargers uh um Rams loss, but
I'm sorry, uh the Seattle lossOctober 12th, because the Rams
(38:15):
game was in London.
So they have not been home uh infront of the home crowd since
October 12th.
So hopefully that will help thema little bit.
Um, and then they will hopefullyhave a couple of, you know, you
never want to say easier gameswith this team, but then you
have Arizona and Tennessee uh asyou gear up for the final
stretch of the season.
So, you know, they got somewinnable games on the schedule,
(38:35):
as we said, and the playoffpicture is um it's kind of a
mess in the AFC.
So there's still an opportunityhere.
But uh, Jay, anything else youwant to mention before we wrap
up this episode?
Um, you know, a lot of footballleft to play, but you know,
emotions are running high, andlike we get it, man.
Like, there's a lot of things tobe frustrated with when it comes
(38:57):
to this team.
Um, you did everything you want.
Like, if you told me the Jaguarsgot off to a quick start, forced
a couple turnovers, and we'reup, you know, what was it at
halftime?
20 to 3, like you take thatevery single time.
Uh you then, you know,unfortunately, uh the Houston
goes on a heater, and we can'tget anything done uh towards the
latter half.
So anything else you want tomention before we wrap up this
(39:18):
episode, though?
SPEAKER_00 (39:19):
Yeah, man.
I think the crazy part that justdawned on me as you were talking
about how we started.
I think the crazy part about itis if CJ Stroud was playing, I
think we win.
I think so too.
I think we win, man.
I think so too, man.
I got it.
You know, like that's why likeyeah, yeah.
In the third quarter, right?
That's why I could never say,even though we had a good lead,
(39:40):
I I almost texted it, but I waslike, nope, we'll not text that.
That, you know, like after theETN touchdown, that we had it in
the bag, but I didn't I didn'ttext it in the thread.
And the reason being was becauseI had to remember that CJ Stroud
wasn't back there.
Had he been back there, likethat offense hasn't shown
(40:03):
anything to me in terms of whatthey can do in the fourth
quarter with him back there,right?
Like, so they would haveprobably won because they
they're just kind of flat in thefourth quarter, they don't
really achieve much in thefourth quarter when he's back
there, but they had a backup inDavis Mills back there.
So at the end of the day, thisis one we'll have to wear egg on
(40:24):
our faces for the Davis Millscomeback game, and you know,
Jacksonville has now given upownership of the Jacksonville
Jaguars to Davis Mills, youknow.
So Shad Khan, man, you youyou've lost your team, man.
Shod Khan, you've lost your teamto Davis Mills after that.
But uh yeah, no, nothing else umto really discuss, man.
(40:45):
Just hope we can get backrolling in a positive direction.
Got a big game against theChargers coming up here, man.
Um, which I am a little nervousabout, not a little a lot of
nervous about, but um I thinkJustin Herbert is 0-2 against
Trevor Lawrence.
Am I right on that?
SPEAKER_02 (41:05):
The playoff game, and then there was the game at
SoFi, and uh, yeah, I believethey won.
Uh that that game in SoFi wasthe one where James Robinson
ripped that big run.
SPEAKER_00 (41:14):
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (41:14):
Shout out to the shout out to the GOAT, James
Robinson.
SPEAKER_00 (41:17):
Oh, yeah, man.
SPEAKER_02 (41:17):
Still around here in Jacksonville, too.
People see him all the time.
So shout out to him.
It sounds like he's um put someroots down in Jacksonville.
SPEAKER_00 (41:24):
So nice, yeah, nice.
But yeah, no, nothing else toreally talk about, man.
Uh, but yeah, everybody just umtry not to get y'all blood
pressure up, man.
Okay, man.
Try and stay healthy.
SPEAKER_02 (41:36):
Listen, man, this doesn't help because I also
follow the Dallas Mavericks.
And between Jacksonville and theMavericks, I I can't win, man.
I I just don't I can't have amoment of peace.
Luckily, Texas is starting toturn it around.
Uh, you know, they'll be in theconversation.
We got a big game, obviously,coming up in a couple weeks.
Uh Jay and I will be uh at eachother's throats when it comes to
(41:57):
Texas and Georgia matchup comingup here pretty soon.
Uh, but yeah, I mean, at leastTexas is starting to turn things
around.
Who would have thought that ArchManning maybe needed a little
time to get acclimated to SECfootball?
Wild, how that's happening.
Uh, don't switch up on us now,right?
So uh, but yeah, yeah, man.
I mean, we got the holidayscoming up, eat some good food.
Obviously, we'll have moreepisodes coming up here in the
(42:19):
next couple weeks.
Uh, but yeah, we uh weappreciate y'all.
And um, yeah, we're we're therewith you, man.
We're uh we it's it's afrustrating time.
Uh, but hey, they're they'reover 500, you know, five and
four.
And still in the race, still inthe hunt.
So we'll see uh what happensnext.
But uh yeah, guys, make sure youclick the Link Tree link in the
show notes of this episode uh tokeep up with everything you need
(42:41):
as far as uh touchdown Jaguarsrelated.
Um you'll find us um over onTwitter where we are the most
active.
And of course, if you head onover to your podcast player of
choice and leave the show fivestars, it would very much be
appreciated.
And of course, continue to usethat promo code uh touchdown
jaguars over on SeatGeek.
Save yourself$20 on your firsteligible purchase.
(43:02):
Uh but folks, that's my co-hostJames Johnson.
I am Phil Barrera.
Do not forget to tune intoTouchdown Jaguars each and every
single week for every Jaguartouchdown, and we will see you
next week.
Welcome to the Touchdown Jaguars Podcast.
Here are your hosts, JamesJohnson and Phil Smith.
SPEAKER_02 (01:08):
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Touchdown
Jaguars Podcast.
I am your co-host, Phil Barrera,and with me, as always, is your
other co-host, James Johnson.
And Jay, we're recording here onthe evening of November 10th.
And following just a tough,tough loss that the Jacksonville
(01:28):
Jaguars had to the HoustonTexans.
A game that some would say theysnatched defeat out of the jaws
of victory, right?
They just could not get anythingdone as the game wound down,
specifically in the fourthquarter.
Emotions are high right nowwithin the fan base, myself and
you included.
(01:49):
And there are just, you know,there's problems with this team
that we knew about and that wehave talked about throughout the
season.
And, you know, not all of thosecan be addressed during a trade
deadline, right?
They can't, they can only we wecan only hope they get better
over time.
And then at some point,especially, you know, nine, ten
games in the season, you kind ofsee like what your team is.
(02:13):
Uh, but you know, fortunately,Jay, I mean, if this playoff
started today, the Jaguars arestill the seventh seeds, so we
can hang our hat on that.
And I do think that a lot offans, also including us, would
have if you told us that headinginto week 11 in the season,
they're they're fighting for awild card spot and they're
hovering around 500.
(02:33):
Probably would have taken that,but doesn't mean that we aren't
frustrated.
So it's good to be here backwith you tonight.
Uh, as always, appreciate youholding down the solo episodes
whenever I am busy, but uhexcited to talk about our team,
even though they are very, veryfrustrating.
SPEAKER_00 (02:48):
Yeah, frustrating is done doesn't even explain this
team, man.
Like it's week to week withthem, literally.
It's week to week.
You never know what you're gonnaget.
Um, so if you're the Vegas type,you know, don't don't spend any
money on the Jazz because youdon't you certainly don't know
what you're gonna get and youmight even lose your money.
But um, that being said, um,yeah, you're right.
(03:10):
We we still have the seventhseed, and that's kind of why I
said, like, a few weeks ago whenyou asked me if we would still
be in it, this is kind of youknow what I envisioned.
And I had them splitting withthe Texans anyway, they don't
make it feel better, you knowwhat I'm saying?
But I had them split with theTexans anyway.
I so I guess for me, um, youknow, maybe that softens the
(03:32):
blow a little bit.
I don't know.
Um, I don't even want to say itdoes that for me because I'm
frustrated as all get out aswell.
But I did have them split withthe Texans, I did have them
sweeping the Colts, which lookslike uh, you know, that'll be a
little bit harder than you knowwe thought.
But then again, the Colts, afterwatching them for two weeks
straight, I don't know who theyare exactly either, in terms of
(03:52):
if you look outside of JonathanTaylor, right?
So um, all of that said, man,um, yeah, this is one that, man,
is it's gonna leave a bad tastein our mouths in terms of this
loss to the Texans, and um, youknow, like Liam Cohen's
leadership and the team'sleadership in general is gonna
(04:13):
be tested here heading forwardbecause this is one of the worst
franchises, you know, lost infranchises history, if not the
worst lost in franchise history.
Um, so there's that.
Um, but again, uh they are stillin the thick of things, still
over 500.
And um, one more thing toconsider, too, is like the AFC
South or the AFC in generaldoesn't look like the AFC of
(04:36):
old.
You know, a lot of people gotmore than two losses in this
picture.
So it's really, really unclearwhat we could be looking at
heading forward in terms of theplayoff picture.
And the Jaguars made it evenmuddier with this loss to the
Texans.
SPEAKER_02 (04:52):
Yeah, you can't let the opportunity to go to six and
three slip through your handslike this, right?
Like you just cannot lose a gamein which you're up by 19 in the
fourth quarter.
It can't happen.
Like it, and that falls on a lotof people.
Uh, it's not necessarily justTrevor Lawrence.
It is, it it is not just thetrenches on both sides, it's not
(05:15):
just the receivers.
It's it's a lot, like a lot goesinto losing a game like this and
giving up 20.
I mean, it's 26 points they gaveup, but it really was 20, you
know, because of the the lastsecond interception uh there at
the very end.
So just things that cannothappen.
But I think what I have found,and I I texted you about this
earlier because as I was likerewatching the first half
(05:36):
because I missed it.
The the thing with this team islike this is like the ult uh the
opposite of what happened withDoug.
Remember, they lost a lot earlyon and then went on their run as
they figured things out.
What happened here,unfortunately, is that they
started off hot and theyprobably won maybe a little bit
too early.
Remember, we we had anticipatedthem starting slow, like looking
(05:57):
at their schedule and thenrallying in the back half of the
schedule.
And now we're fighting a coupleof games, you know.
Vegas, you got to go toovertime, Houston, you know, a
game you definitely should havewon.
And we expected them to behitting a little bit of a
stride, and now we're a littlebit of a slump, you know, losing
three out of four.
Um, and then you had the byeweekend there, of course.
So that is, I think, why thethings that I'm seeing now are
(06:19):
are worrisome because you youlook at, oh, the offensive line
looks like they've got thingstogether, you know.
The the defense is forcingturnovers, but turnovers dry up,
right?
We see that every single year.
Like 2017, like Saxonville, likethat's an admiration.
That those things don't happen.
Like, there's a reason.
I mean a lot of you know,mainstream media doesn't talk
about them as one of the bestdefenses of all time, but like
(06:40):
we know, we know the numbers wesaw, but we know what we
watched, but like those thingsdry up, man.
Like you can't depend on thosethings.
Um, I'll bring this up hereearly, as far as our buddy
Daniel Griffiths bringing up,you know, just a complete
implosion of the trenches whenit comes to the offensive and
and defensive line, you know,what you know, what as far as um
what they're what they'relooking at.
(07:00):
Um weeks uh uh as far as thedefensive line goes, 23rd in
pressure, 32nd in sackpercentage, 28th in non-blitz
percentage, um offensive line asfar as the the uh week one
through four, twenty-one pointseven percent in pass per
percentage, uh weeks fivethrough ten, thirty-eight point
nine, and twenty-first in sacksum in the league as far as the
(07:22):
offensive side of the football.
Uh this thing, this this team isimploding from the inside out.
And even myself included, and Iobviously like tensions run high
in our in our group chat.
A lot of this, you know, uh thefrustration when it comes to
Trevor Lawrence is like we'resix years into this thing, and I
think you said this, he'sprogressing at a snail's pace,
(07:42):
and that can't happen anymore.
So there are so many things thatare wrong with this team, and if
you want to pick and choosewhich one you're most frustrated
about, I don't think I'm goingto like argue with a lot of
people, you know, depending onwhat they want to pick.
SPEAKER_00 (07:54):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I agree with you, man.
Um, I think like for the theTrevor Lawrence argument, what
probably is not helping himspeed up his process, is you
know, when you you talk aboutand look, man, like there's
(08:15):
times where I run draftsimulations and you know I think
about taking a quarterback init.
So that's not you know what I'msaying, that that's not to say
I'm a Trevor Lawrence defender,but there's times where it's
like, uh, should I take aquarterback in this simulation
or not?
But you know, when you look atthe contract, it's like uh I
don't know.
But anyway, long story short, uhwhat I was getting at here is um
(08:39):
also too, like you theconversation about elevating the
team keeps coming up becausehe's getting paid a lot of money
and this, that, and the otherthough.
But like we're having aconversation that at times
doesn't make sense.
We're saying he needs to elevatethe team, but we also lead the
league in penalties.
We also lead the league indrops.
Like those three things don't gotogether.
(09:00):
How can a quarterback elevate ateam that leads the league in
drops and penalties?
Rightfully now, some of thosepenalties are on him, but I was
looking at like the um I wentand found the penalty log,
right?
And you'll be shocked at howmany of those penalties were on
the offensive line holding.
Um, of course, we got a bunch ofillegal shift penalties too, so
(09:22):
there is that.
But um, the just the offensiveline ones alone, and that kind
of reared his head.
And me and you have had thisconversation many, many times on
the podcast as well.
The reason I keep bringing thatuh element up of him trying to
elevate the team, but trying todo so with a team that leads the
league in penalties and drops,is because again, as I said,
(09:45):
they can't coexist.
And a prime example of thatfield was the last completion
that he made that was voided,right?
He completed the pass that wouldhave given Cam Little a chance,
and we know what Cam Little cando.
Cam Little, he seems to be back,he hasn't missed a field goal
for a while for the last twogames.
Trevor got us to the 45-yardline when he linked up with
(10:07):
Parker.
And this is the sameconversation we had two weeks
ago.
When he does make the plays thatneed to be made, they get
voided.
Chuma Y Doga got flagged forholding, you know, and that
wasn't the only time he gotflagged earlier.
And I think that voided aseven-point touchdown from the
which would have been JacobyMyers' touchdown, right?
(10:28):
If I'm not mistaken.
So again, when he does make theplays, and look, we're not
talking about a top 15quarterback, but when you're
doing that, when you're nottalking about a top 15
quarterback, that means when hedoes actually make the plays
that need to be made, they needto count.
And they're not counting becauseof penalties.
(10:48):
So you know, like it's hard tohave that conversation right now
about he's not elevating theteam like a quarterback getting
paid$50 million should when youlook at all of the elements that
are also in his way as he's nota top 15 quarterback.
And then in regards to um thethe offensive line and defensive
(11:10):
line, part of it that you werementioning, Phil.
This is why, like when you askedme two weeks ago or whenever it
was before the trade deadlineabout you know who would I like
to see on the team.
The first one that came out ofmy mouth was Quentin Williams.
I knew that we were gonna cometo a point where the interior
wasn't getting it done on thedefensive line, and that would
(11:33):
also, you know, put uh JoshHines Allen and Trayvon Walker
in a situation where they aren'table to perform at their best.
And and I'm not gonna defendthose two.
We need more from those two aswell.
Um, now, granted, Walker is justnow, you know, getting out of a
cast where his whole hand isn'twrapped up.
So, I mean, like, there is that,like it is hard to play without
(11:57):
your hands at that position thathe plays in.
So, you know, you can give himthat, but it's no excuse for
Josh Hines Allen.
But regardless, in any case,regardless of how those two have
looked, I knew the importance ofgetting a defensive tackle in
this building, right?
And you know, the JacksonvilleJaguars, rightfully so.
At least one thing we can sayand we can hang our hat on is
(12:18):
that this regime understood thatthey needed to fix that because
they they took a shot at QuentinWilliams.
And then your boys, the DallasCowboys came in with their two
first round picks, by the way,Phil.
And they they you know, they hada better deal, rightfully,
because we don't have a firstround pick.
So, you know, they basicallyoutbid James Gladstone with one
(12:39):
of the two first round picksthat they had, thanks to the um
the trade they made with thePackers, and that really stuck a
fork in things too.
Like, but I really felt like weneeded Quentin Williams.
Like, we're talking about thestuff that happened in the game,
and we'll get into that and howmuch that hurt.
But going back before that, whathappened on the trade deadline,
(12:59):
at least what lack thereof, orwhat we didn't do on the trade
deadline, that hurt too.
And in James uh defense, hetried, you know, he he he
offered what he could, justdidn't happen, man.
Um, so yeah, man, this offensiveline as well going to them as
well.
Like, you know, there's timeswhere Trevor didn't have two
seconds in the pocket, and I'mnot saying Trevor had this great
(13:22):
fantastic game where he lookedlike he was Aaron Rodgers out
there or Tom Brady, but likewhen Walker Little's getting
beat like he was, and you know,Chumi Doga is getting penalties
at the rate he was, you get theresult that you get offensively.
And that's basically whathappened when you look at this
team.
They lost the battle in thetrenches against a team um
(13:44):
that's at least built well inthe trenches on the defensive
side of the ball.
SPEAKER_02 (13:49):
Yeah, we're so fired up about talking about this
game, you know, didn't evenmention, you know, of course, uh
make sure to uh follow us onsocial media, check that
LinkTree link, uh, use thatpromo code touchdown Jaguars on
Seat Geek, all that stuff.
Appreciate you guys uh for doingthat so far.
But yeah, Jay, I mean, likeWalker Little's a turnstile man.
Like I you gotta believe thatthat's gonna be one of those
(14:09):
things that they're going to uhimmediately address.
And uh, you know, it's like umthey made these fixes or are
they tried to implement thesefixes in the offseason, and
again, everything looked okayduring uh well as this as the
season starts, but you know, asthings have gone on, you know,
they they play obviously thiswas a real litmus test to see
where we're at um as far as youknow the best defense in that
(14:29):
interior, I mean, is just forfor Houston is incredible.
That's why, you know, even witha a 19-point lead, you still
don't necessarily feel goodbecause of their ability to get
to the quarterback, and then thethe defense is just gassed.
And uh, you know, like you said,you know, uh Heinz Allen and
Trayvon Walker can't get home,and uh that's partially because
uh that that's partially becauseof things that are out of their
(14:50):
control as well.
Like they're trying to do theirjob, but you know, obviously
when it comes to complimentaryfootball, like they just don't
have it right now.
And and I I think that's why I,you know, going into our preview
episode, like I had them, I wasmore leaning towards their
ceiling being right around eightand nine.
So it's like they're there,right?
And and I think what's gonnahappen is in this offseason,
like we'll just really, reallysee kind of the strategy that
(15:15):
this uh front office is going tohave, and and it will truly be
put to the test, especiallywithout that first round pick.
I mean, and also, you know,granted, what how much you want
to consider this, like there'sno BTJ.
We don't have Travis Hunter whowas just hitting his stride.
You know, how much of adifference would that have made
having Travis Hunter, BTJ, andum uh Jacoby Myers, like all of
(15:37):
the and Parker Washingtonballing out, you know, like that
that makes a huge difference,you know.
And um, you know, they uh attimes ETN is able to get going,
and then like you said, in inthe second half, like all of
that dries up.
So it's it's it's it's one ofthose things that's like, God,
I'm so frustrated watching whathappened yesterday, but also the
(15:58):
players that rely on theinterior line, either uh
offensively or defensively, arenot getting any help at all.
So how would they be able to dotheir jobs, you know?
SPEAKER_00 (16:10):
Yeah, yeah.
And then, yeah, when you bringup the injuries, um, you know, I
I never even thought about itfrom this standpoint until you
brought it up.
Maybe forgot about BrentonStrange, too.
Yeah, Brenton Strange, too.
Maybe the most important guythat's missing.
Right, you know, who would havethought?
Um, you know, now this thisdoesn't apply to this game.
They should have won itregardless, right?
(16:30):
They had to lead, you know, by19 points, but um it does apply
to the season in general.
Maybe we should be happy withfive wins, granted what we have
on IR, because I mean the name,the names that we're naming,
right, Phil, are the people thatessentially either James
Gladstone and Liam Cohen camehere for, or they are people
(16:55):
that uh Liam Cohen and JamesGladstone added with a high
priced investment, whether thatwas a first round pick or um you
know, or you know, somethingthey addressed in free agency,
whatever the case may be.
But yeah, man, like I thinkthat's what may help us if we
can make this run to theplayoffs, um, is how soon can we
(17:19):
get Brenton Strange back?
Right?
That's the first one.
How long is Travis Hunter out?
How quick can we get those twoback?
And also to like how healthy wecan stay until we get those two
back, because um you would thinkBTJ is kind of coming back
sooner rather than later becauseit's a high ankle sprain, a low
grade one, which that you know,that probably makes it like hard
(17:41):
to I'm not a doctor or anything.
That probably makes it hard tocut and whatnot, but at the same
time, I think that'll healquicker than you know a grade
two, grade three ankle sprain,right?
So I think we would get him backsooner rather than later.
And you know, like I said, um,you know, strange, where is he
at?
You know, I think Liam talkedabout him today that um they
(18:02):
will open up the 21-day windowat some point this week for him
to return.
But I think like, and I didn'tget to read the quotes all that
great, but I think he was sayingthat, you know, like, you know,
let's get him in practice firstin terms of strange and um you
know see um how how that goes interms of practice, and then
(18:23):
we'll you know bring them backin terms of getting them in
games and stuff, but let's getthem back to practice first.
So, you know, help is on theway, but at the the rate that
we're going, you also gottawonder like by the time we get
to help, will it be moreinjuries piling up on that end?
You know, that's anotherconcern.
But if we can, you know, getback to remotely being healthy
(18:45):
like we were in the beginning ofthe season, that will help
tremendously for us to hit thatmark of you know eight, nine,
ten wins.
SPEAKER_02 (18:53):
Yeah, and you know, like you mentioned, you know,
the this AFC playoff picture isso weird because the teams, the
the division leaders right now,like how much faith do you
really have in them?
Now it seems like the Patriotsare starting to kind of run away
with that thing.
Um, the Bills are just I I thinkwhat the the concern for me is
like there are teams in the wildcard race that shouldn't be in
(19:16):
the wildcard race, like Chiefs,Ravens, Bills.
Like those are supposed to bethe class of the AFC, and
they're they're down here in thewild card spot because these
other teams, and we've donethis, Jacksonville's done this,
right?
Where they take advantage of theeasier schedule.
And kudos to the Colts, Broncos,and Patriots.
They've done that, like you canonly play the teams that are in
front of you.
Uh so I think the the concern islike those teams will take
(19:37):
advantage of those schedules,and then you're then you're
dealing with Cincinnati.
I'm sorry, you're dealing withBuffalo, Kansas City, and
Baltimore in a wild card racethat you didn't expect to see
them in, you know.
So that's probably the concernfor me.
Uh, they do have a 40% playoffchance, uh, playoff probability
according to NFL.com, sitting atthe seventh seed right now,
(19:57):
right in front of the Chiefs,Texans, and Ravens.
Those are probably those are thethree teams that are right
behind them.
Uh, five and four for theChiefs, and then four and five
for Houston and Baltimore,respectively.
Uh, so you know, you gotta thinkthat the Chargers and the
Broncos take up one of those uhwild card spots, and then you
have a toss-up between, youknow, Buffalo, Jacksonville,
(20:19):
Kansas City.
Kansas City has that, uh, youknow, owns that tiebreaker, so
that's nice, a head-to-head winthere.
Um, and then, you know, whatwe'll see what else comes in.
They got a chance, they got anopportunity to play the Chargers
and the Broncos head-to-head,uh, and then two matchups with
the Colts, you know.
So they're very much in controlof their own destiny.
I think just when you continue,when you lose to Davis Mills and
(20:39):
freaking Jake Browning in thesame season, like Davis Mills,
he owns the JacksonvilleJaguars, man.
Three and one.
There's no, there's nothing, noway around that, man.
Three and one againstJacksonville.
That is enough of a sample sizeto know he doesn't worry about
this team.
Uh, it's it's crazy to see thatthey play better against CJ
Stroud than they do Davis Mills.
SPEAKER_00 (20:59):
And it's you know what else is scary?
Like, you know, it makes thegame against like Arizona a
little scarier because JacobyBrissett is.
And he's not playing terribleeither.
You know, and yeah, no, granted,now they have beat Jacoby
Bissett before when he was withthe Colts.
Now, so I I'll I'll add that inthere as well.
And I think Jacoby Brissett'skind of one of those weird uh
(21:19):
quarterbacks where you know backthen, at least I don't know
about now, um, he held on to theball a little too long.
So, you know, we we're nottalking about Davis Mills who
gets the ball out of his handsin two seconds, one second,
whatever it was.
Like, it was times Davis Millswas like hitting people one step
out of their slant.
You know what I'm saying?
Like um what's his name?
(21:40):
Uh Nico Collins or whatever thecase may be.
Um, but still, no, it does makeit like you look at that that
Arizona game and you're a littlebit scared about that.
You know what I'm saying?
More so than these other games.
Like, I was just telling youbefore the um before we started
recording, the Broncos gamedoesn't look as scary, and I had
that as a loss for us, doesn'tlook as scary as it once did.
(22:01):
Now I'm having a little bit moreconcerns about the Arizona game
more than the Broncos gamebecause of just how they fared
against second stringquarterbacks.
SPEAKER_02 (22:10):
Yeah, I mean, in Arizona, they played indie very
well, and I'm not sure who wasthe quarterback for that game.
Was it Kyler?
No, it was Jacoby Brissett.
So, yeah, Jacoby Brissett isplaying like winning football.
I mean, the Cardinals aren'tnecessarily winning football
games, but like he is a morethan capable.
You can do way way more worse atbackup quarterback than Jacoby
(22:31):
Brissett.
I think we all know that at thispoint in time.
Uh, so you know, the Colts stillhave a couple of big games
against the Seahawks and theNiners.
Uh, that Seahawks gamespecifically will be a really
good litmus test.
And next week they got KansasCity, right?
So, or in two weeks, I'm sorry,they're on their bye.
So on the 23rd, they have KansasCity.
That'll be a huge game and uh,you know, an opportunity for
Jacksonville to own a tiebreakerthere.
(22:52):
So go ahead, Jay.
SPEAKER_00 (22:54):
Yeah, I'm calling it right now.
The the Arizona game, it just itjust a vision just flashed upon
me.
We'll win it.
And here's why.
That's gonna be the DennisGeerdick game.
Okay.
The Dennis Geardick revengegame.
Yeah, yeah.
He's gonna they're gonna marchhim out there like they always
do.
They always march the guy outthere against um at as the one
(23:15):
of the honorary team captainsagainst the team that they
formerly played, right?
They there with did it with EricMurray.
They put him out there againstthe Texans the first time we
faced the Texans.
They're gonna march him outthere as an honorary captain.
He's gonna channel his innerwhoever you want to name the
best pass rusher in Jag'shistory, his inner Tony
Brackens, or whatever the casemay be.
(23:37):
And they might come down to thewire, but he's gonna be the one
to make a play in that game thatwins us the game there.
The Dennis Garrett game.
And I'm I'm calling it rightnow.
And not only that, though, Phil,but he's literally one of the
best players on the team rightnow, too.
So, like, that's just great,man.
Yeah, I'm not just blowing smokeout of my behind there.
SPEAKER_02 (23:59):
One of those sneaky additions that will never get
mentioned in national media, butlike is just a really good
pickup, you know.
So, um, you know, looking back,like those losses against it's
the losses like this, likeCincinnati and Houston, these
will really eat at us for awhile until they, you know, get
some wins under their belt.
Because like Seattle and LosAngeles, those might be the two
(24:20):
best teams in the NFC.
Honestly, I wouldn't besurprised if either one of those
teams won to the Super Bowl uhfrom the NFC side.
Uh, but like you can't letCincinnati get away from you,
and you can't let this one getaway from you, you know.
Like that we've been talkingabout these missed opportunities
all year, and those are gamesthat come back and bite you, uh,
especially in a uh playoff racethat's gonna be really, really
tight.
So um, yeah, we haven'tnecessarily gotten to talk about
(24:42):
any specifics with the gamebecause again, there's just so
much.
Like you guys have seen it, andit's not as easy as it would be
to pin this all on Trevor, topin it all on the interior, like
the pin it all on one specificthing.
Um, and and I know a lot ofpeople and myself included want
to lay frustrations on down onjust one particular thing, and
(25:04):
that's just not doable here.
But we would be uh remiss if wedidn't talk about Trevor uh a
little bit more here because youknow the the fan base is split
right now.
Um, I'm I'm definitelyfrustrated and I'm to the point
where I am a little bit overthis as far as being six years
into it, but I also know he'sgoing to be here.
It's you can't get out of thismoney anytime soon.
(25:26):
He's going to be the guy.
I still don't feel as bad as Idid watching Blaine Gabbard or
Blake Bortles.
We're not anywhere close tothat.
The throws that he makes, uh,you know, I think that's the
frustrating part is like you seehim make choices and decisions
and throws, you're like, yep,that's the number one overall
pick.
And then you see him makechoices, decisions, and throws,
you're like, that's the numberone pick, like in the same exact
(25:46):
time in the same game.
Like, this was the perfectmicrocosm of Jacksonville Jaguar
football between first half andsecond half.
And I think it also doesn't helpthat Caleb Williams is starting
to find his footing.
Like he's, you know, the Bearsget another comeback win um uh
against uh against the Giants.
I mean, granted's against theGiants, but still he's playing
pretty well.
You're seeing these quarterbackskind of like figuring it out.
(26:07):
Drake May obviously is having uhuh people talking about him
being MVP.
I don't know how people feelabout that after this past week,
but you know, the optics withTrevor are always going to be
there because he's the numberone overall pick.
Like that's just inescapable.
So where are we at here?
You kind of alluded to italready, like you said, as far
as his development, but likewhat what are you saying to the
(26:27):
fan base right now, and myselfincluded, who are just overly
frustrated with him every singleweek?
And like, what do we do and howcan we just kind of approach
this for the remainder of theseason?
SPEAKER_00 (26:38):
Again, like he, yeah, no, he's not playing like
he should for the money he'sgetting and to be a first
overall pick.
And he's just probably not gonnabe that guy anyway.
Again, like that's why Imentioned earlier, and I I've
been trying to prepare peoplefor this, right?
I mentioned earlier in you know,two episodes ago, what you may
be looking at is you know, aquarterback you can win with,
(27:01):
but in the way that the 49erswin with Brock Purdy, right?
Or um another team that we kindof already mentioned, how this
year at least, how the Broncosare winning with their
quarterback, right?
Now, I don't think he's quite asbad as um his he's escaping me.
What is his name, Phil?
The Broncos quarterback.
(27:22):
Bo Nicks.
Yeah, Bo Nicks.
He's not I I think TrevorLawrence got Bo Nicks beat, by
the way, in terms of talent.
But in terms of my my advice tothe fan base, if they want to
take it, is again, we can't havethe conversation of how good he
is leading the league inpenalties and leading the league
in drops, right?
Those are two things that are sokey to his success as a
(27:44):
quarterback, right?
Especially if he already isn't atop 15 talent, that's only gonna
hold him back a little bit more.
Um now, what I will say is alsothis, too, and I kind of I don't
know if I mentioned it lastweek, um, because he, you know,
he led him to a comeback drivelast week against the Oakland
Raiders, or I I keep sayingOakland, the Las Vegas Raiders.
(28:07):
And you know, one thing forbetter or for worse, and and he
hasn't played great this year,but one thing that has kind of
uh flashed throughout hiscareer, you know, as as bad as
it's been, and as much as hehasn't lived up to the number
one expectations, is this issomething we can hang our hat
on.
Is he seems to have some form ofa clutch gene.
(28:31):
And that even that even shows,like, not just the game against
the Raiders, it even showeditself in this game that we
lost.
Again, I'm we were just talkingabout it.
He made the game win and throwthat Cam Little could have made
the kick for.
Right?
Like that keeps popping up no nomatter how bad he's looked.
It's been a few times, each, youknow, you you can say maybe
(28:53):
every three or four games wherehe's shown the ability where he
can lead a team from behind, atleast.
And he did it in the playoffsagainst the Chargers, too.
So, like, that's one of his mostnotable games, by the way.
But every year he has shown someshape of in some way, shape, or
form a comeback gene, right?
And like that doesn't grow ontrees either.
That's just you know somethingthat you can't find in the
(29:15):
quarterback just off of thestreet or what have you, right?
So like that does keep showingto me, in my opinion.
It does keep flashing, and andagain, he I I thought he had he
brought us back from one Sunday.
I'm I'm not gonna lie, because Ididn't even see the penalty at
first, and then when they showedit on the replay, I was like, oh
god, yeah.
(29:37):
That definitely uh deserved toget flagged.
Um, so yeah, I mean, like thatthat's another thing too.
I think like people don't givehim enough credit for is he does
kind of have somewhat of acombat gene in him.
Um now look he might strugglethe rest of the game for you, or
he might start game slow.
That's always been a problemwith him.
So, you know, I don't know ifhe'll ever get that fixed.
(29:58):
But in terms of Trevor Lawrence,man, again.
Man, before we can have thatconversation about what he is,
let's get the penalties fixed.
Let's not lead the league inpenalties like we've done the
last two years.
And let's also get some someplayers in here who can catch
the ball.
Because, oh, by the way, wedidn't even talk about this
either, Phil.
But, you know, while he's onlybeen here for a little bit of
(30:19):
time, Jacoby Myers, man, like healready has shown the ability
that he can, you know, impactthe team.
Once he gets more acclimated andwe can get him more passes and,
you know, throw him more passesand what have you.
He's already shown that, youknow, him and Trevor Lawrence
can have a dangerous connectiononce they get the chemistry
going and what have you.
(30:40):
And it is kind of tellingbecause these are kind of the
things like you see flashes ofwhat, and it's only been one
game, but you see flashes ofwhat we thought his connection
with Brian Thomas would be.
Like his early stages withJacoby Myers looks way better
than his early stages with BrianThomas Jr., which has only been
one game.
But that's another thing thatintrigues me.
(31:02):
If you can hold on to JacobyMyers, you probably you'll have
to extend him.
It's no probably in it.
Like that's a connection I'mintrigued by coming out of this
game with the Texans.
Although it was a limited bodyof work, it was a small,
impressive body of work.
And also, too, keep in mindBrendan Strange comeback to who
that's a big-time TrevorLawrence target, too.
So that'll help him too.
(31:23):
Like, that's part of what hisissue is, too.
That's why he's struggling, bythe way, Phil.
We talked about this last week.
Part of why he's struggling, hedoesn't have that big target
that he can hit in short rangeanymore, right?
So that's always like that'sbeen a part of his game.
Go back no further than thepreseason.
A lot of the targets that wesaw, or a good majority of them,
to Brenton Strange, was TrevorLawrence hitting him in the
(31:45):
middle of the field.
Like he hasn't had that forwhat, four or five weeks.
So, you know, that's anotherthing we gotta wait on to see if
that helps improve his game.
Because that was a big part ofhis repertoire.
Like that was one of his go-toguys, was you know, Brenton
Strange.
So maybe between Brenton Strangeand Jacoby Myers, he'll get
going.
And um, you know, we'll seecloser to the Trevor Lawrence we
(32:08):
saw in 2022, but time will tell,man.
SPEAKER_02 (32:10):
Yeah, uh we we certainly don't want to like
look too far ahead because, likewe say, we're still in this.
Uh, but you know, you alluded tothis in our group chat over the
weekend about you know, alreadylooking at uh starting and
wanting to look at prospectswhen it comes to like the these
trenches.
What do you think is moreimportant to fix right now or
fix when when you know the timecomes as far as uh free agency
(32:33):
and also looking ahead to thedraft?
Like, what are you prioritizingfirst between the offensive and
the defensive line?
Like uh Anton Harrison has takenthese massive steps back.
Um, like I said, Trayvon Walkerand Josh Hines Allen are
rendered basically ineffectivewithout you know any type of
interior help.
Um, you know, like where do youeven start here um if you were
to prioritize and rank them uhas far as biggest need?
SPEAKER_00 (32:57):
Yeah, and one need we haven't talked about there's
also safety, too.
Um there's a need there too.
What do you mean?
42's back there, right?
Oh man, don't make me getstarted on him, Antonio Johnson.
Um, I mean, but I guess whysafety gets knocked down on that
list is because Caleb Randsawwill come back eventually.
(33:17):
He's on IR, but you know, theJacksonville Jaguars knew they
needed the safety to that totheir defense.
They drafted one.
He just got injured in thepreseason.
So they have help there.
I would even go as far as, man,maybe let's throw Rayon Lane
back there a little bit, man.
Like, can it get any worse thanwhat we're seeing, you know?
But that's another story foranother time.
But safety is on the list, butnot as high as it should be,
(33:40):
just for the simple fact thatthey have Ransall coming back
next year.
But yeah, number one on my listis defensive tackle, Phil.
And um I looked at the freeagency list for next year.
Um, I didn't see any guys thatcould really help them from a
pass rush perspective atop thefree agency list.
Now, like you might find yousome gems or something like that
(34:01):
when you look outside the top 50free agents, but yeah, it's
definitely defensive tackle.
And the reason I rank defensivetackle high is because I think
they'd be respectable, TrayvonWalker and Josh Allen with some
interior help.
But also, too, the reason I rankit number one is because I think
the offensive line is genuinelyuh easier to fix.
(34:23):
And the reason I say that isbecause while Anton has kind of
regressed, I do think you canmove him to left tackle, and
that'll fix your left tackleproblem.
And I think he's a he'll be abetter left tackle than Walker
Little.
Like I think it'll be anautomatic upgrade there if you
move him.
It's just a matter of, and wetalked about this in the thread,
you know, when you move him fromright to left tackle, you m
(34:46):
you're leaving a massive hole atright tackle, but I don't think
like this regime will have anissue finding a right tackle.
I don't think that'll be like ahard thing for them to do.
Um, and also, too, I don't thinkI don't really think they'll
have a hard time finding theirguard of the future.
Because I think one of theirguards on the future, and this
is why offensive line is secondon the list, one of their
offensive guards of the futureis on the team, too, kind of
(35:09):
like Ransaw is their safety ofthe future.
He's on the team, but WyattMillam is their guard of the
future.
They drafted him in the thirdround.
While, you know, a lot of peoplewill argue that, you know, like
they'll they'll make thisargument of like, why hasn't he,
you know, been on the field ifhe's so good and this, that, and
the other.
But we, you know, we talkedabout this with Luke Easterland,
by the way, Phil, when Luke wason, right?
(35:31):
After the third round, youpretty much were dealing with
projects on the offensive line.
And when they drafted Millum inthe third round, that told me
that while they think he's astarter, they think he's a
project player as well.
Which I always had it, I was ofthe belief at that point that it
would always take a year for himto get where he needs to be.
But I think the plan for him,and I don't, you know, this is
(35:51):
not insider's knowledge, but umI think the plan always was for
him to sit a year, you know,unless you got to a real
desperate situation where you'relike real low on the depth
chart, where you have to usehim, was to sit him for a year.
And he started on IR, remember,by the way, Phil, if I'm not
mistaken.
So that that held him back evenmore, essentially.
(36:11):
Uh, he didn't get to practice, Iguess, for to an extent for a
while.
But I do think like they theplan was always to have him be
their one of their guards of thefuture.
So between that and moving Antonto left tackle, you really don't
have that many offensive lineneeds if you do that, if that's
the route you want to go.
(36:32):
Whereas D-tackle is just amassive need, man.
Like, it's again, like I was ata point where I was more than
okay with giving up asecond-round pick for Quentin
Williams.
That's how desperate I thoughtthey were.
Uh, but yeah, that's defensivetackle, man.
Number one on the list, man.
And I think like that's where weneed to spend our film study and
(36:52):
all the our, you know, all thepeople that like to watch the
senior bowl and all that goodstuff.
You you want to watch thatposition.
I don't know what the strengthof this draft is and if
defensive tackle is the strengthof the class, but they probably
are gonna have to draft adefensive tackle because I don't
know what free agency will offerthem in that regard.
SPEAKER_02 (37:11):
Yeah.
And then, you know, you got tolook into you know the kind of
impact a young interior lineman,defensive lineman can have on a
team.
You know, there's a whole lot ofthings to look into there.
But um you know, one thing thathappens in Wavered is uh, you
know, I think we have you knowwe have the right people in
charge.
And that's something we couldnot say over the last decade,
(37:32):
right?
That's just not something uh,you know, we probably felt good
about Doug after 2017, but likeuh, you know, I I feel good um
uh taking the emotion out of itbecause like you know in the mo
I'm do I am glad we wait 24hours to record these and we
don't record on on Sunday night.
It'd be very different contentuh as far as what happens uh
(37:52):
whenever these episodes get uhget recorded.
So um but yeah, Jay, I mean wegot uh you know big game
obviously next week against uhthe Chargers uh here at home.
So you know they get to comehome for the first time since uh
October 19th.
Uh of course that was the badChargers uh um Rams loss, but
I'm sorry, uh the Seattle lossOctober 12th, because the Rams
(38:15):
game was in London.
So they have not been home uh infront of the home crowd since
October 12th.
So hopefully that will help thema little bit.
Um, and then they will hopefullyhave a couple of, you know, you
never want to say easier gameswith this team, but then you
have Arizona and Tennessee uh asyou gear up for the final
stretch of the season.
So, you know, they got somewinnable games on the schedule,
(38:35):
as we said, and the playoffpicture is um it's kind of a
mess in the AFC.
So there's still an opportunityhere.
But uh, Jay, anything else youwant to mention before we wrap
up this episode?
Um, you know, a lot of footballleft to play, but you know,
emotions are running high, andlike we get it, man.
Like, there's a lot of things tobe frustrated with when it comes
(38:57):
to this team.
Um, you did everything you want.
Like, if you told me the Jaguarsgot off to a quick start, forced
a couple turnovers, and we'reup, you know, what was it at
halftime?
20 to 3, like you take thatevery single time.
Uh you then, you know,unfortunately, uh the Houston
goes on a heater, and we can'tget anything done uh towards the
latter half.
So anything else you want tomention before we wrap up this
(39:18):
episode, though?
SPEAKER_00 (39:19):
Yeah, man.
I think the crazy part that justdawned on me as you were talking
about how we started.
I think the crazy part about itis if CJ Stroud was playing, I
think we win.
I think so too.
I think we win, man.
I think so too, man.
I got it.
You know, like that's why likeyeah, yeah.
In the third quarter, right?
That's why I could never say,even though we had a good lead,
(39:40):
I I almost texted it, but I waslike, nope, we'll not text that.
That, you know, like after theETN touchdown, that we had it in
the bag, but I didn't I didn'ttext it in the thread.
And the reason being was becauseI had to remember that CJ Stroud
wasn't back there.
Had he been back there, likethat offense hasn't shown
(40:03):
anything to me in terms of whatthey can do in the fourth
quarter with him back there,right?
Like, so they would haveprobably won because they
they're just kind of flat in thefourth quarter, they don't
really achieve much in thefourth quarter when he's back
there, but they had a backup inDavis Mills back there.
So at the end of the day, thisis one we'll have to wear egg on
(40:24):
our faces for the Davis Millscomeback game, and you know,
Jacksonville has now given upownership of the Jacksonville
Jaguars to Davis Mills, youknow.
So Shad Khan, man, you youyou've lost your team, man.
Shod Khan, you've lost your teamto Davis Mills after that.
But uh yeah, no, nothing else umto really discuss, man.
(40:45):
Just hope we can get backrolling in a positive direction.
Got a big game against theChargers coming up here, man.
Um, which I am a little nervousabout, not a little a lot of
nervous about, but um I thinkJustin Herbert is 0-2 against
Trevor Lawrence.
Am I right on that?
SPEAKER_02 (41:05):
The playoff game, and then there was the game at
SoFi, and uh, yeah, I believethey won.
Uh that that game in SoFi wasthe one where James Robinson
ripped that big run.
SPEAKER_00 (41:14):
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (41:14):
Shout out to the shout out to the GOAT, James
Robinson.
SPEAKER_00 (41:17):
Oh, yeah, man.
SPEAKER_02 (41:17):
Still around here in Jacksonville, too.
People see him all the time.
So shout out to him.
It sounds like he's um put someroots down in Jacksonville.
SPEAKER_00 (41:24):
So nice, yeah, nice.
But yeah, no, nothing else toreally talk about, man.
Uh, but yeah, everybody just umtry not to get y'all blood
pressure up, man.
Okay, man.
Try and stay healthy.
SPEAKER_02 (41:36):
Listen, man, this doesn't help because I also
follow the Dallas Mavericks.
And between Jacksonville and theMavericks, I I can't win, man.
I I just don't I can't have amoment of peace.
Luckily, Texas is starting toturn it around.
Uh, you know, they'll be in theconversation.
We got a big game, obviously,coming up in a couple weeks.
Uh Jay and I will be uh at eachother's throats when it comes to
(41:57):
Texas and Georgia matchup comingup here pretty soon.
Uh, but yeah, I mean, at leastTexas is starting to turn things
around.
Who would have thought that ArchManning maybe needed a little
time to get acclimated to SECfootball?
Wild, how that's happening.
Uh, don't switch up on us now,right?
So uh, but yeah, yeah, man.
I mean, we got the holidayscoming up, eat some good food.
Obviously, we'll have moreepisodes coming up here in the
(42:19):
next couple weeks.
Uh, but yeah, we uh weappreciate y'all.
And um, yeah, we're we're therewith you, man.
We're uh we it's it's afrustrating time.
Uh, but hey, they're they'reover 500, you know, five and
four.
And still in the race, still inthe hunt.
So we'll see uh what happensnext.
But uh yeah, guys, make sure youclick the Link Tree link in the
show notes of this episode uh tokeep up with everything you need
(42:41):
as far as uh touchdown Jaguarsrelated.
Um you'll find us um over onTwitter where we are the most
active.
And of course, if you head onover to your podcast player of
choice and leave the show fivestars, it would very much be
appreciated.
And of course, continue to usethat promo code uh touchdown
jaguars over on SeatGeek.
Save yourself$20 on your firsteligible purchase.
(43:02):
Uh but folks, that's my co-hostJames Johnson.
I am Phil Barrera.
Do not forget to tune intoTouchdown Jaguars each and every
single week for every Jaguartouchdown, and we will see you
next week.
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