JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jaguars are ready to turn the page to the regular season, but not without one final chunk of work on their roster.
The Jaguars handled business Saturday night against the Dolphins in the preseason finale, winning 31-18 in their lone home exhibition game. The regular season starts Sept. 10 at Indianapolis. But before then, the Jaguars have a lot of work to do.
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That starts with trimming their roster from 90 players to the final 53, a difficult task for coach Doug Pederson and general manager Trent Baalke. This is the first time the NFL has had one massive cut. It was previously done in waves. For Jacksonville, the decisions are particularly difficult this year. With 13 rookie draft picks and numerous undrafted free agents who have had good training camps, the depth this year is greater in Jacksonville than it has been in years.
“We’re finding that that is real and you know, we also know that there’s, you know, there’s going to be some good football players that are going to have to be released and it’s a tough, tough 24 hours or so here, and around the league,” Pederson said. “It’s just it’s a credit to obviously Trent and his staff and the quality of athletes, the players that we’ve brought onto this roster and the depth that we’ve brought to this team. It’s kind of that bittersweet [feeling]. You know, you love to keep them all but you can’t, and you got to make the best decisions moving forward.”
Thus far, various reports have listed Jacksonville making five cuts, none of them surprising.
- WR Kevin Austin Jr. (Adam Schefter)
- OL Samuel Jackson (ML Football)
- FB/DL Derek Parish (Tom Pelissero)
- OLB Jordan Smith (Tony Wiggins)
- RB Qadree Ollison (Aaron Wilson)
Injuries will play a role in some of the roster choices. Pederson said that rookie linebacker Ventrell Miller suffered an Achilles injury in the Dolphins game and will miss the season, an injury that will put him on injured reserve and likely create a roster spot for a bubble player like Shaquille Quarterman.
Miller was having a solid camp and in line to make the roster. So, too, was rookie seventh-round pick Cooper Hodges, who suffered a patella injury in the second preseason game against Detroit. Pederson said decisions on both the status of Hodges and Miller — full-season injured reserve or short-term — would be determined in the coming days.
“Obviously, we’re in the process of trimming the roster now and throughout the day, obviously, and those would be conversations that we get to eventually,” Pederson said.
A rash of injuries has been the only significant issue for the Jaguars in training camp. They have popped up here and there, but most notably over the past two weeks. Backup offensive tackle Josh Wells and Hodges were nicked up in Detroit. So was rookie safety Antonio Johnson, who was in the mix for a big role early before a hamstring injury.
Even with roster cuts set to be finalized by Tuesday afternoon, it’s very likely that the Jaguars will still be active on the waiver wire. Nearly 1,200 players will hit the wire at roughly the same time and Baalke will no doubt mine some of those players for the Jaguars roster. Pederson said that Jacksonville’s depth this year has made roster decisions that much more challenging, especially with so many more players back.
“Everybody is a year in the system, so it’s much better to be able to teach and correct because everybody understands where we are,” Pederson said. “Then, I think the third element of that is looking at special teams. The depth that we were able to provide on special team’s units, a lot of guys got opportunities to play on special teams and it was a great way to evaluate.”