JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jaguars are back at the office, still weighing their options for an offensive playcaller and ready to prove that last season’s colossal meltdown was a fluke.
Jacksonville opened training camp Wednesday morning at the Miller Electric Center, kicking off the first of 16 open practices for fans and igniting the march to the preseason opener.
Recommended Videos
The Jaguars host the Chiefs on Aug. 10.
There’s quite a bit of work to do before then. There are new starters penciled in at eight positions, a new defensive coordinator (Ryan Nielsen) and growing expectations after handing out several massive new contracts and a brutal finish that ended with a playoff miss.
RELATED: Jaguars training camp notebook
“I think you’re going to hear it when you ask them. It’s motivation, its fuel. It was a disappointing end to our season. How high it was for the first 11 games, it was just as low the last six,” said head coach Doug Pederson. “But again, it’s all stuff we can learn from. How it motivates guys and how we can lean on these experiences — coaches and players. With the addition of the new guys, hopefully that gets us through those times.”
It’s a new season and players are focused on turning the page and putting the disappointment of last year behind them.
“I’d say probably once OTAs start that gives you an idea, like, ‘OK, it’s time to transition to the new season.’ At the same time, you don’t forget, but you do move on and grow from it,” said cornerback Tyson Campbell, who signed a four-year contract extension on Tuesday.
“You learn. You learn from what last season taught you and you just use it as fuel for the next season. That’s what we’re doing, we know we don’t want to get back to that place, so we’re honing in on the little things.”
The little things are easy to focus on. The Jaguars need to tackle better, cut down on mistakes, protect quarterback Trevor Lawrence and reduce giveaways. They weren’t good at enough of those things last year as they imploded after an 8-3 start to a 9-8 finish. Since then, Jacksonville has handed out major contract extensions to Lawrence, edge Josh Hines-Allen and Campbell.
Lawrence said that the team likes being considered an underdog, but all that really matters is going out and performing.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s two-fold because that means you probably didn’t do as much as you wanted to do the year before, but I think it’s always fun being on this side of it where you want to prove everybody wrong and you have a lot of people doubting you,” he said. “Maybe there’s not as many expectations from the outside, I mean, it doesn’t really matter. At the end of the day, you’ve still got to go perform.”
The Jaguars’ breakdown in 2023 may have had something to do with a lack of leadership in certain spots. They went for veteran help in free agency, adding notables like defensive lineman Arik Armstead, cornerback Ronald Darby and center Mitch Morse. Those three have 10 years or more of experience in the league. Pederson said that he’s optimistic players with that kind of experience will provide an infusion of leadership for some of the younger players.
“Well, it sends a message to them, this is how a pro takes care of himself. How he takes care of himself physically, mentally; how he approaches every single day, and just his leadership style — how he can bring along young guys,” Pederson said of Morse before adding something similar about Armstead.
“So, it would be great for both of those guys to lead, probably more by example.”
Pederson said that he’s still undecided about who will call plays for offense this season. Coordinator Press Taylor held that role last year, but the offense struggled with consistency. Taylor called plays in parts of Jacksonville’s run to the playoffs in 2022, but didn’t have full playcalling privileges until last year.
“He’ll do it today in practice,” Pederson said if Taylor would return as playcaller. “We’re still in discussions with all of that. We’re not ready to make a public decision just yet.”
Owner Shad Khan said during the offseason that he had an opinion on who should be calling plays but didn’t discuss that in detail. When asked if he’ll take Khan’s preference into his decision, Pederson was curt, answering just “yes.”