JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – “Training camp is full of hard lessons.”
Ain’t that the truth? There have been plenty of hard lessons for the Jaguars offense through the first few days of training camp.
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This year feels like the complete opposite of last year’s training camp. This time last year, expectations for the offense were through the roof. There were clips of Calvin Ridley going viral on the internet and Jags fans have sugar plums and dreams of Trevor Lawrence holding an MVP trophy dancing through their heads.
Fast forward to now and it’s doom gloom and panic. Through the first four days of training camp, Lawrence has thrown six interceptions. Six! That includes a pair of interceptions on Saturday between Andre Cisco and Travon Walker (It was tipped at the line). Lawrence has just looked off. I don’t know how else to explain it.
That said, it’s not time for the Jags to have buyer’s remorse or to be trying to hit the panic button.
“If you panic is when you make decisions or you act outside of yourself and rarely is that constructive,” said Jaguars center Mitch Morse.
Morse was a big addition to the Jags O-line this offseason. He is a veteran player who has been around the league and seen plenty of ups and downs during the season and training camp. Morse made it clear that “the thing is, it is on us to learn from it.”
Right now, there is plenty of tape for them to learn from. Some of the offensive struggles can be taken out of context. Depending on what the offense and the defense are working that day, one side of the ball can be put in a tough position. Morse also explained that during this time of camp, offenses will try and work on things they struggled with the previous season to see if they can improve in areas of weakness.
“You have to push the envelope. You have to do stuff that makes you uncomfortable,” he said.
Morse was very much the voice of reason to try and calm some of the panic around the Jacksonville offense right now. While I think there is some cause for concern and things to watch I agree panic isn’t the solution. Let’s pump the brakes. It’s like I explained earlier with the shift in the opinion of this time last year to this time this year. Last year, those highs were unwarranted and misguided and this year the lows will likely prove to also be just as unwarranted and misguided.
📖 Notebook 📖
- Andrew Wingard (illness) and Josh Proctor (illness) both missed camp on Saturday.
- Darnell Savage spent the first few days of camp in a full red non-contact jersey. Saturday he was in an orange non-contact jersey. That may be a little bit of an upgrade or that may just be grasping straws.
- Kicking competition: Cam Little and Riley Patterson went kick for kick during practice on Saturday. During early practice, both kickers went 4 for 5. Late in practice during late-game situation drills, Little went 1 of 2 and Patterson missed his lone chance. Little has a big leg and looks to have the early lead in the competition.
- Still waiting for the Brian Thomas Jr. moment. BTJ just seems to be getting off to a slow start. Maybe he is just a gamer. If that is the case we will be using the Allen Iverson quote about practice a lot.
- Travon Walker spent more time dropping back in coverage on Saturday than I expected to see in a Nielsen defense. Walker got popped for holding when trying to cover Travis Etienne on one rep then got an interception off a tipped Trevor Lawrence pass on another rep.
- Andre Cisco came up with the other interception off Trevor on Saturday. Great balls skills from Cisco.
- Andrew Parker Jr. has some serious speed and made a nice play in coverage on Saturday. Parker has a really good chance of making the roster.
- Another undrafted free agent that is making waves is Joshua Cephus. He is getting some serious opportunities. And he is taking advantage of those chances.
- Another day another big play from Devin Duvernay! He may the biggest bright spot on the Jags offense right now.
- Amani Oruwariye, and De’Antre Prince had standouts days. Both have been sticky in coverage. Oruwariye has shown enough in the early stages that he is a serios contender for a roster spot. I underestimated him.