One week left for the preseason, and as we have one week left for the preseason, so what is your biggest point of concern as the team heads into the regular season.
Banged up, big guys on both sides of the line.
Yeah, that, I'm not sure there's any of the direction to go with that. Welcome in.
We're back in Jackson and Nannie Stevens here for Jags A M. Brian Sexton, John Osier. After our beautiful week in Michigan, We're back in the lovely state of Florida as we get ready to wrap up this first section or last section I should say, of training camp and then we head into the regular season. So we got to see some game action this week, if you want to call it that. More action probably in those joint practices.
Yeah, although I will say this, you know, calling the game on television was it was pretty good. I mean, relatively speaking, a preseason game featuring nothing but twos, threes and some fours can generally be easily predicted to be less than stellar. But it was an entertaining game and we saw some young guys do some things. I mean, on the first snap of the game, calevon Chase on
who we've been talking about. We got to see something. Well, we saw the pass rush right that set up Jeremiah led better for the sack, should have got the sack himself. But there were moments like that Tim Jones over the shoulder catch. We'll talk about all of them, probably over the course of the next half hour, but it was pretty entertaining for a preseason game.
Yeah, I mean, I think the theme of this show will be injuries. The second part of the theme, which I think is a different theme the last year, is depth. It looks like, at least in the short term, the Jaguars have the depth to withstand this injury issue were talking about. That's interesting.
That's our big thing, Number one. We are going to discuss those injuries best laid plans. We came into the season thinking, you know, this team was very deep in certain sections of the roster wide receiver, offensive line, and specifically the offensive line. Suffered several injuries, mostly to the backups that were playing in the game in preseason Game two. But there's some concern there, right, we have, you know, a handful of names. Is there a specific injury that
concerns you the most? Friend?
Oh, wow, that's a good one, probably the shoulder of Anton Harrison. Although the word is that it's an injury that you play with. It's more pain management through the course of the year. But because Cam is going to be down for four games, Walker Little can't slide over
and step in and play right tackle. And I guess if you wanted to take that a step further, Josh Wells, because Josh Wells was going to be that veteran third swing tackle in camp in case someone get gets banged up while Cam is down early in the season, and now you don't have him, So Harrison first, Well second.
Yeah, those are theo And if it stops now and they sort of get this thing settled, I think they're okay. I don't have a feel whether Harrison will play this week. I wondered last week if they might not. You know, as much as you would love to have him get one more half of reps, you wonder I don't know the nature the shoulder injury. You know enough that if they didn't have him in contact for three weeks if that would help significantly. Because every time he's been on
the field so far, he's impressed. So you get the idea that they might be said, Okay, well, let's just assume that he's going to continue to impress. He'll be a rookie. But is the benefit of playing him for twelve snaps on Saturday outweigh maybe getting him rest until what September seventh, you know, whenever the opener is. In that sense, I would put Josh Well's at the top.
The other guys who got injured are mainly Depth. Didn't want to see Cooper Hodges get hurt, though, but I don't think he I don't think the team plans for him to be a big factor in September. So if he can get back by October and be Depth, I think you're okay there. I think Wells is the one that really started was a gut punch, because you felt almost like, well, that's something I don't have to worry about.
Whatever reps. He's ten years, he's going to be what he is, and then all of a sudden he's limping around and that's not good.
He was an important part of it. And then, of course the one that everyone's wondering about, the statement that was really yesterday by the Jaguars is Devon Hamilton. The coach addressed it this morning they just don't know, right, and so that's one that we're just gonna have to kind of wait and watch.
We were talking offensive line. To me, that's the biggest one so far because you feel like you have a general idea of Harrison. You don't know with Hamilton, and he's really important to the defensive.
And he was really good in Dallas. So you hope for that one too.
A list off some of the details for our viewers. Just because Devon Hamilton, we've heard is a back injury. It was non football related, so they're not going to comment on that any further until he's back in the building working with the team. In terms of the offensive line, Blake Hans will be available. I think he was in. He was They thought he was in.
He's not.
That was that came from the spot. So he'll practice. He'll be fine. Shatley is still out dealing with his heart issues.
Supposed to be after another week, Doug said, So that's sort of next week we might get a better idea.
We'll get a better idea if he's going to be back with the team. Anton Harrison dealing with that shoulder injury, but he looked fine against Aidan Hutchinson all week last week, and he's playing more than fine. So he's playing through that very well. Josh Wells were hearing. I think it's a groin injury. They don't have a timeline on that could be out for quite some time at least from
what we heard from Doug so far. And there's definitely some other people im missing because I know there was a Kayler.
Brewer was concussion protocol and Antonio Johnson was a hamstring.
Yes, yes, Antonio Johnson was a hamstring. He's going to be out for at least a couple of weeks at least from what we've heard so far.
And then reserve offensive lineman Darryl Williams played through shoulder already played through it so and then I think what Doug was most optimistic about today through all that they get Ben Bartch back this week, which that's really important. Yeah that if no other injuries, then you basically go the end of the season with your offensive line healthy
as you thought it would be. Since you knew by the Cam Robinecks, you've bet I suspense you'd have Little on the left, Anton Harrison on the right, the bars and sheriffood Garden fort and the center. That's your starters, and then you just sort of hold your breath until these other guys sort of come back and you know, provide your depth. All right.
Big thing number two is a numbers game. We're getting down to that point where they're gonna have to cut down this roster very soon to fifty three. And since they only do one big cut now, it's a little bit different than years before. We maybe weed some people out when they make that big decision. A lot of these skill positions there is an overload. Specifically wide receiver. Does the math work out for everybody? And then also
running backs? How many are they going to keep? Where do you have any inkling either of you direction of which way they might go with that?
Here's the interesting rub to this, John is if you have to keep an extra offensive lineman right now, what's cover?
Yeah?
Right, because of all the injuries, what does that do? You're going to keep six receivers, but do you still keep four tight ends? Can you keep all four running backs that you like? Or does that offensive line issue start to create some downflow that impacts your roster?
And then they become guys where you think, well, we like this guy very much. Is another team going to like him enough to bring him in over guys that they have gotten, You know that they've developed crushes on, so to speak, during their off season. When I say that, I think a Garrett Prince for example, Yeah, I think this team really really likes Garrett Prince. If it's a numbers game, could they think, well, if we try to get him through to the practice squad, will anybody else
like him enough? Or do we just like it? And I'm not really singling out him, He's a name the posy in my mind.
You're the best example of that. In twenty fourteen, they had a rookie undrafted offensive lineman named Tyler Shatley, and they loved him right and they were going to try to pass through and get him to the practice squad because he wasn't ready to play. And yet they heard from.
Folks they started getting calls about trading for I think, yeah, that was good. So and they realized they couldn't do it. Yeah, So that they anticipate this not being a solvable problem, meaning they anticipate that they're gonna choose their fifty three release guys and then the two or three guys are gonna get picked up. And as Doug said, it was kind of funny the way he said it, and it
was a couple of weeks ago. So it's a good problem to have, and he said, well, it is if you make the right decisions, but you got to make sure if the guys you keep are the right guys, because sometimes you release guys and you know, make the wrong decision there. So it's yes, it's a good problem to have the depth, but you don't want to be releasing the next you know Whoever.
We'll get to that in a little bit. We're gonna talk specifically about those wide receivers because I think that's still definitely a spot that's up for grabs. Our last
big thing, though, is untouchables. Now we're talking a little bit about that fifty three men roster got us thinking, obviously, you know, Trevor Lawrence totally untouchable, but who else on this roster do you look at and you go, if that person is lost for the season, then this significantly affects what the record of the team could be, what the success of this team could be. Brian, did you have anyone in mind if you think about and obviously Trevor's out, We're out.
Yeah, Walker Little, right. I think Walker Little has such a lynchpin in the offensive line because he can play left tackle, he can play left guard. Doug said this morning on his call that he thought he played really well for his first professional action inside and obviously with Anton Harrison in the shoulder, you know, if it's a pain management issue, there's gonna be some moments where you
know you might have to move him around. Walker is so valuable to this offensive line that if you lose a player like that, we're talking about Josh Wells, a ten year veteran who was brought here to be a swing tackle, and that being a blow right now. I think in the regular season, Walker Little is that guy who'll create a downflow that will really thin you out quickly.
Yeah. I don't want to lose Calvin Ridley because I really think his dynamic element is going to add a lot. But if you did, you still feel okay about how you're lining up there. And they were effective offensively without him, so they I think they could get by. I would point on defense, I still say, and people disagree with me. Josh Allen's the one guy that I do not want to lose because whatever his sack numbers are, when you lose him, all of a sudden, you're looking around to
figure out where you're going to get him again. And but maybe the biggest one and I'm going with like eighteen guys here, Tyson Campbell. If he goes down to me, it's Tyson and the rest. I don't know that there's a guy in that rest who can get to his level. That would be a blow in terms of how they line up defensively.
Just to touch on the Allen point, Allen was fifth or sixth in the league with a pass rush percentage greater than fifteen percent, right, which means that he was constantly the guy that was even if he wasn't getting to the quarterback, he was bothering the quarterback. You've got to have that guy. I think you're right.
I think he's critical and he's really really good against the run. And I know everybody, well, it's to be an agresh. I get that. But you don't want to not be good against the run because then teams don't have to pass. And he's even more than a cleanup guy. There's a lot of plays he makes that might be five yard runs and he makes them three yard runs and there's two yards in down a distance. He's really important on little things like that. He makes them much stouter. Guy.
All right, coming up, we're gonna go over the game film. We had preseason Game two in Detroit last week, so we'll go over some of our highlights from that. Stay with us Jack Exam is presented by Carshield. You can call car shield now if your cars out of manufacturer's warranty, do not get stuck with expensive mechanical and computer repairs. Call car shield now. We're back here in the Hundai studios after a week away in Michigan for practices with the Lions, and now we get ready for that final
preseason game on Saturday against the Dolphins. But first we're going to recap some of the action against the Lions. Now, we didn't see any of the starters except for Walker Little playing at guard. But other than that, we saw a lot of the young guys, which is what we needed to see in Those are the people that need to make an impression in game two if you want to have, you know, make the roster.
And I think there were a lot of guys that had positive impressions one and I think you mentioned him earlier and now he's really needed. Is Jeremiah ledbetter?
Right?
He flashed all over the second half and in Dallas, and then again in the first half here the other.
Night, and including the first play of the game.
He came out strong, finished off calebon Chase on you know, missack opportunity. They're gonna need that big guy if Dvon Hamilton is not ready to go at the start of the season.
Yeah, fully's injury as well. We should mention he's part of.
My sizzling hot take later on and it's it's so hot I can barely stand it. Right, Okay, but this doesn't always mean everything, But I think Jaguars fans who really follow this team closely and who even live and died during the preseason will sort of related to what I'm talking about. Boy, that preseason game was nice the other night because it looked like the entire Jaguars roster depth wise, was better than the Lions roster. And that
doesn't always mean that that's the case. If you follow me like I thought last year, the depth panic about this team is way overblown. So I thought they had depth in some really key situations. But Jaguars fans was set around a lot of second half of preseason games and watch their teams get rolled because the lines were not as good as the other team's lines. That didn't look like the casey that I think it was three
ninety nine to one thirty one. You know, again, doesn't always, that's not always a declarative statement on how good you are.
But because there's no game planning goal, it's never.
A bad thing to have the guys look like they did the other night in the second half. So that was pretty cool.
Or at the dad of the day, let's talk a little bit about the running backs too. We saw some extended carries from Tank Bigsby, who has impressed me at least he's really solidified his position here and what the role he's going to play on this team. And then also Deerannis Johnson had some good runs. So I was impressed with at least from the running backs we saw and that we saw. There's a lot on the roster, but I think some differentiated themselves.
Johnson's a different style of runner. He's more that third down back right. He can he can titch the swing pass, he can get around the corner. He showed us on the seventeen yeard touchdown the ability to get around the corner. But I was really impressed with Johnson's touchdown run up the middle.
He said, set himself up to for as he bounced outside before that there's outside run.
Yeah. I like Johnson. I think he's been overlooked because there's just so many storylines on this team. But again, I always hate to make declar of statements on the preseason, but Bigsby looks like he can really run. He's his feet in the hole or impressive. The way he sets up the runner impressive.
He's also patient.
Yeah, he has a calmness about him and the ability to accelerate. We've been saying for a couple of weeks on this show that you kept hearing in the off season after the draft that they sort of thought maybe they really found something in this kid.
Yea, and it looks like he could explode. Running backs coach Bernie Parmally told me early in camp that when he went to the tape and started evaluating these guys, this was the guy that he wanted the most. Yeah, he thinks, and talking to Birmley, he thinks this kid might be special, and.
I think when you also look at this, this is baseline. He's not played a regular season game yet and we're impressed, but what he's been able to do, I'm excited to see kind of what evolves of this, especially with so much attention on the passing game, might opened some stuff up for him. Also, we'd be remiss if we did not talk about the wide receivers, because we discussed that last week. Kind of we each had our own person, but who's going to be getting that final wide receiver spot?
We have most of them carved out. I think we gave Parker Washington technically the fifth person on our list, not necessarily the five, but who's going to be that other guy?
Well, so I shared this because Doug told me during our preseason telecast production meeting that this guy's going to be the fifth and that Parker Washington is slotted for the sixth. So these guys Jacob Harris, Tim Jones, Kevin Austin Junior, and Slash Williams. He didn't mention Elijah Cooks. He said those were the four guys that he talked about. John He said, those guys have to block a safety. They're going to be in in running situations and you
got to block the safety. I couldn't watch the game close enough the other night to see who blocked the best. But if you're asking me now, I'll take Seth Williams because I think he is a well rounded special teamer blocker, and he made clutch catches in both of the two preseason games on third down and long.
Yeah, I'd still be a little surprised if the kid we just saw, Tim Jones isn't the guy, because he was still good on special teams. He seems to get it. He makes plays when given the chance for the football right here. So I'll go with him, But I'm not banging the table. I think out at that bunch, obviously one of those guys is going to make the roster.
They'll probably just have to take the approach of we're going to release three or four receivers and hope like heck that one or two of them don't get signed somewhere and we can get him back and feel like we can manage that situation, and an injury might allow one of them to be on the team. You know, you don't hope for an injury, but once you get
him on the practice squad. Sometimes what happens is the other spots get injured and you can bring a guy up and keep them around your team for the long term, turning a short term negative into a long term positive.
The interesting thing about Harris and then Cooks, who I think is I like Harris, Yeah, I do too, is that they are so distinctly different than any of the receivers you have. They're taller, they're both over six foot five, they have immense wingspan, I mean their arms stretch from sideline to sideline, and both of them made catches on the run, which isn't as easy for those big bodies
to then turn up the field right. They can make the jumping catch sometimes like Harris in Dallas made the diving catch, but the catch and run like Cooks made the other day, for a big body like that to turn his hips and get up the field, that's not as easy to do as it looks.
And I think that's part of why I don't think some of these wide receivers that don't make the final roster are going to be available for practice squad. I think a lot of other teams are very needy for position players or you know, tall receivers, whatever it may be. So I don't think there's gonna be a chance that a lot of those end up back here on the practice squad.
But yourstance fact, and I think you're right. But then, like I said earlier in the show, sometimes teams like keeping the guys around who know their scheme. So sometimes there's not quite as much movement on that deadline as you would think, because if it's if it's just marginal between say a Jacob Harris and some receiver in you know, Kansas City, the other team might say, well, yeah, we
like that guy, but this guy knows our system. He's been around, So you sort of hope that that plays into your favor a little bit and you can keep some practice squad guys, but they're gonna lose a couple.
Well, here's the interesting thing. I mean, we didn't even mention. We mentioned Austin, we mentioned Harris, we mentioned Cooks, we mentioned Tim Jones. Jerray Jenkins has been impressive on the practice field, and not told is improving as a special teams guy. I mean it's not just through Kendrick.
Pryor, who was on the roster of the whole year Avenue and mentioned he was on the roster for a reason. Yeah, because they felt like he was an NFL player who could step up if there was an injury. He's thinking about that wide receiver corps last year is you had Austin and Pryor. None of them ever got a shot because the wide receiver.
Let's hope it stays that way.
It's ridiculously deep. All right.
Now, let's take a look at Gregory Junior. He had an amazing game one of the preseason and Doug talked a lot about seeing consistency out of those young defensive players, and that's exactly what we saw in Game two. He was involved a lot of stuff, had his pick of course here and I mean he's doing all the right things at this point. Do you think he can carve himself out a starting position if this keeps up?
Yes? I do. I've been told that it's closer than people think. He's a bigger, stronger, more physical young presence. Nothing against Trey. Trey's been here since twenty eighteen and he has earned a spot in this Here's the other
thing too, and John, it's a factor. He's much less expensive and this is a team that has to watch every penny heading into next year, and if you have the chance to take a young Greg Junior who's playing well and have him for the next couple of years at a really fixed cost, it's much easier than a veteran player who's making over a million in that veteran minimum,
because every dime is going to count. If you want to keep Calvin Ridley, if Josh Allen has a big season and you want to find a way to get him, you got Tyson Campbell. You've got the quarterback. So that factors into this decision at that nickel corner.
I never forget about Walker Little either. I won't so money. Yeah, there's no question to me. Greg Junior's on the roster. The only question is whether he gets that nickel spot. I don't know that it would necessarily be the either or scenario in terms of money this year, but I think you definitely keep Greg Junior with the idea that bare minimum he can be a nickel going forward and with Darius Williams next year, can Greg Junior show enough
to eventually be a starting outside corner. I don't know that he's done that yet. I asked him after the game. You know, I said, you almost got to catch that one, right and he he laughed. He said, yeah, if I had to dropped that, it would have been bad. Yeah. Yeah, film me. But he's he's on the fifty three. There's no nack for being around the ball. Uh. Coaches don't like to get rid of that neck.
Nope, love to see it. All right, stay with us. We've got some piping hot takes coming up after the break. See then, move the freight, Move the freight. Magellan Transport was voted the coolest office space in Jacksonville. You can apply online at www dot Magellanlogistics dot com. Well, wrapping up training camp, wrapping up the preseasons, we got some hot takes for you. Why not Ryan?
You want to start us off for sure?
Uh, Nathan Rourke might be your three. And I say that because everybody is up in arms about this young kid for some of the dramatic plays that he's made. So rather than just throw that take out, I went and I talked to some coaches and scouting types while we were in Detroit, so most of them Jacksonville people, but some Detroit people too, And they point out a couple of things that I wanted to share. The first is is that in the preseason, this guy said to me,
just watch preseason game. In the fourth quart of a preseason game, if a quarterback has any juice at all, and this kid does. Playing behind a line filled with guys who are going to be doing something different after a final cutdown day, against guys who are rushing the passer who are going to be doing different things after cutdown day, any quarterback with some juice has the ability
to make plays. Now, his play in Dallas was legitimately a great play, but I watched that very night the Philadelphia Cleveland game, and there was a quarterback who spun, twisted, turn was not three times, got up, avoided the safety, and got up the field for what turned out to be a six yard game. So you're going to see the juice number two. And this was pointed out by
several people, and that is that you have. Now how much have we talked about the value of season two in Doug's system for the starter, same thing for CJ. Bethord behind him. Now we've got a kid who's been here what a little over two months. You're not going to turn the reins over to that kid yet, because you have a veteran backup who's very good in the room. I'm told with Trevor, they're very close. You're not going
to disrupt that. And the Jaguars, as Doug pointed out in his postgame news conference in the night, aren't even considering it. It's Bethard's job, that's what they means him. And here's the last one, and I thought it was valuable John. People have to understand their role, and he has to come in here and embrace being the three. Not everyone wants to be told they're the three, but there's such a learning curve in the NFL that good
twos are often good threes. They come in and they run the scout team, they learn the offense, they pay attention in meetings, they watch Trevor Lawrence, who's a legitimate elite quarterback in this league, and they grow from that. Folks keep in mind, he's coming from Canada and he's making an adjustment back to American football where he played college football Ohio, and there's a learning curve for everyone. He's not ready. He's athletic, he's exciting, he's got juice.
If he'll embrace his role as the three here, he'll have a good chance to be a two at some point.
In the future, John, is there any chance to carry three quarterbacks or I.
Think it's gonna be tough.
Well, the third quarterback now can be on the practice squad.
Yeah, and I don't know that. Again, going back to the thing of people have their own guys, a quarterback, particularly at cutdown date, has to really be something some for another team to say, Okay, I'm gonna go get that, because most teams have the same problem the Jags. Do you carry three, you are probably not going to go sign or acclaim a wavered player who wasn't the Jaguars two to come in and be your two. So now you've got to make room on your roster for a
three that you don't know. I don't know that it's as much of a given that somebody snatches him up as maybe fans think, who are very enamored with the place. It's an equity decision for the Jaguars, meaning if you keep him, you're keeping him, yes, because you like to have him as your backup potentially in a year or two. But you also think, well, quarterbacks are worth something in trade as well, which can matter. I think's gonna be
tough for them to keep him as the three. Bottom line is he's getting it done on sheer athleticism right. He is, He's got juice and he's that's the upside. The downside is he needs to now learn the system and how this works, and so there is a learning curve for him. But there's optimism that if he's willing to apply himself and embrace the role of being three, that he can be a good two.
And I know we love these you know, random Underdog, you know Gardner Minshee, all those kinds of crazy plays and stories. But we have Trevor Lawrence. So hopefully no one ever touches the field.
I would hope after this week. And by the way, I thought it was interesting today when Doug was asked, we'll see j Becker play most of the second half on Saturday against the Dolphins or will you work rourk in and he said, yeah, I haven't decided that yet.
So you know, we may ce CJ. Bethard get the entire second half because those reps are going to be valuable for him, God willing, he doesn't play much, if at all, this year, but those reps are better served for your number two than your number three, because your three is gonna get a lot of reps on the practice feel going forward.
And remember, I don't know everything that'll go into the decision. I don't know every detail of what Doug likes about CJ Bethard. But Doug was a backup quarterback for a minute, so he knows what he wants from that role, and he was a three, and I think he wants to trust that role more than anything else. What am I
going to see when that? You know, I've always said the backup quarterback in the NFL, if your starters out four weeks and you're a contender, you want that backup quarterback to be able to get you five hundred during that and keep you alive and trust that it's not going to be mistakes, it's not going to be mental stuff. So I'm sure Doug trusts CJ on that front, or CJ wouldn't be here.
By the way, last thought on this, Doug was not just a backup. Doug was a three in Miami, way down the depth chart behind Dan Marino, and he was released six times before he finally hooked on and became the three and then the two.
Much more common to carry three in Doug's era than.
Although the practice squad now because of the rules and how that's changed, allows.
You to do that.
John, I know you went offense for your take as well.
Well. I went offense, and my take's a little hotter than my feeling.
This is the defense you're going, let's go hot take.
This is the deepest offense in franchise history. And I think particularly at the skill positions.
Is that Fred Taylor calling you right now? Jimmy Smith not best.
I don't think the running back rooms have necessarily had a Deernest Johnson at three at the same time that the tight ends went as deep. I feel like the offensive line is deep, so this is not as much of a given as people think, but I think right now it is the deepest. What's impressive about the depth in the point I wanted to get to with this take. I think Trent Balky and the pro scouting people here
need some credit if you think about the depth right now. Yes, it's coming from the draft, it's also coming from Durnis Johnson, Jeremiah Ledbetter, Blake Hants, Jacob Harris, guys that have been on other.
Rosters, young players who haven't.
Well Ledbetter's six. They signed Michael Dogby, who in his fourth year. They have really good third and fourth year players who have been elsewhere who have a chance to either make an impact or I don't know that this team has always had that in the past. I think there's an element that Trent felt two years ago like the roster was so depleted that you couldn't just build it through the draft. So they went with I would even consider them of these guys third tier free a
and see. And now they have guys who, you know, it's hard to have a young defensive tackle, Raymond Vahassek, I'm getting his name right, a rookie, seventh round pick. I think will be good. I don't know that he's ready right now to be good. So in lieu of that, you have Jeremiah Ledbetter, who's a veteran who's good right now. Hard for rookies to be really good depth on your defensive line. So the Jaguars went out and got somebody like Jeremiah Ledbetter who's not a rookie, but he's young,
he's cap friendly. That's roster building, and that's being ready.
They've done a good job with this roster I'll argue with you. In ninety eight they had Fred Taylor, James Stewart, and Tavian Banks. I think the offensive line in ninety nine around here was really deep and really good. But I think this is the deepest group of wide receivers they've ever had, and I think the deepest group of
tight ends. And that counts. You know, the two thousand and sixth season when they had Kyle Brady and Marcedes Lewis, right, Lewis was a rookie and Brady was you know, in his last season, was still the blest blocking tight end and a good chain moving third down. You can make a strong argument that the talent level here in a year could easily be right there.
Yeah, and again it's a there's such a tendency to see the latest thing you saw that's the best, you know. So I know there are position groups that have been better at times, but overall, I think the depth of receiver is what sort of tilts it from me. Yeah, it's the best this group at its front line. It is not Jimmy Keenan yet, because you got to prove that down to five or six. I think it's hard to find a deeper at any point in franchise.
There's never been as many wide receivers here. And the reason I point out the running backs is I had a phone conversation with Tavian Banks last week and he was talking about that ninety eight room and as a rookie being able to learn from Fred and.
Fitzkavian could have been really good man.
Yes, yes, I was working on a story for the Alumni News on that one. It's it's a great story. Great to catch up with him.
All right, you guys, I'm going boiling hot. I didn't tell you what my take was yet, so you should be pleasantly surprised. I think the Jaguars are going to start the season eight. No, and I'm basing that wow off of looking at the schedule. Obviously, Kansas City is gonna be the first one we talk about.
Yeah, that would be a franchise best. They've never started eight.
No, you know what, let's do this. We're going all int I'm pushing all the chips in where they ever started six? And oh they had no interesting five? And oh is the best? All right? So hear me out coming from New England, I do not think it can be underestimated coming to Florida and playing in September because it affects people. I always believe that, and I always will believe that, having seen Tom Brady never be able to beat Miami in September games, it was his bugaboo.
I believe that.
I know Patrick Mahomes can do crazy things, but also there's something else there we need to Chris Jones is not reported to their training camp yet. We don't know if that's going to be figured out before the beginning of the season or not. He seems to be really have dug his heels in on that, and you know, if you were losing the leading sack leader in the NFL, that's going to affect your defense. So that's my biggest
bugaboo for them. After that, I think having two weeks in England will benefit them more than their opponents, and then I think they'll go into the bye week un defeated at this point other than Kansas City, do you think there's any other games that you've looked at that are big for them in the first half of the season.
Yeah, Buffalo is big.
Yeah, at Tottenham at Tottenham, not in Buffalo in December.
That's a huge out for them to go to Buffalo.
I think if they do what you said, then I think they're going to super Bowl. Because if to me, if you're eight to no against this schedule, you this.
Ain't no get into the bye week's your by week.
I think San Francisco's the first loss. That's the first game the bye week, and then they But I don't know if it does mean super Bowl because if you
have then you come back. So the second half is really Obviously Kansas City is a huge game, but the second half is what I'm looking at is you've got forty nine ers, You've got the Bengals on Monday Night Football, you have Baltimore on Sunday Night Football, and then you get some of those weird bugaboo games, like they're playing Carolina at home at Houston around Thanksgiving, and then Tennessee's the last game of the season.
So but if you're eight and oh, you're really really good, and you've got all of a sudden, you've broken Kansas City's sir, you have tie breakers against Kansas City and Buffalo, you're awfully hard to catch. If you're eight and oh and you've beaten two of the other good conference teams, I'm I'm not gonna have that hot to take you.
It's got to come in visualize.
So eight they started five and oh, and what did they finish? They finished eleven and five okay, and then they lost in the second round of the playoffs in New York. That was the Jets team led by Keishawn Johnson and Curtis Martin that went on. No Churs Martin wasn't there that year with the Testaverity year. Yeah, it was Testaverty and and they went to the AFC title game and got beat that year by the Denver Broncos. And I'm just then, now, here's here's the best starting
franchise history. Ready, eleven, thirteen and one And that was that was ninety nine when they lost in Week three to the Titans and then had an eleven game winning streak. So eleven and one is the best start. Five and oh is the best undefeated start. So I mean, you're can be done. More power to you, you guys, more power. Well let's go, let's go.
Yeah, that's John's not on board yet. I mean I came eight no, because eight no is really really hard. And if you're starting eight and eight no this roster, you're elite. You're ready to join the big boys. You're one of the four and uh, then you're flipping a coin in the playoffs.
Whether you beat one of the elites, it means also that you win on Thursday night in New Orleans. And I know this is not that you're.
That's my other second game I look at. It's that Thursday night game is always tricky, especially on the road.
And then Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Jaguars have had good success there in recent years. That's also gonna be good.
Yeah, yes, be fun.
We'll look more at the schedule a little bit later on once we get through this last preseason game, but coming up, we'll talk to you guys about what we got going on this week. So stay with us Jags fans. If you want customized Jaguars furniture for your home, checkout zipchair dot com to browse all customizable options. Zip Chair
is furniture for fans. So we have one more week of practice before preseason game three midday and late day practice, so they're getting out there in the sun, getting used to the weather, and we're just trying to make sure everybody stays healthy at this point, at least.
In my big deal. Yeah, yeah, one o'clock games here in Week two against Kansas City and week three against Houston, so you better be ready for those days too.
Well.
It's interesting. This is sort of why though, I think coaches like the idea of this sort of final bye of the preseason because it gives you a chance to manage. Yes, the Jaguars are beat up, but there's also what twenty days until till the game, first game, the opener. Well, if you were at week four and told hey, you're beat up, but you've got two bye weeks come up, you know the rest these guys, he'll be okay. Well
we can we can manage that. So I think they're okay as long as they manage this and as long as nothing happens Sunday or Saturday where you think, oh, there's another.
One, right.
And Doug said this morning that he's not going to coach fearful of injuries. It's football. It's a dangerous game. Because he can't do that good guys get hurt. He's going to go out there coach. He's got a certain agenda plan for these guys, and he'll get that done. And if a guy gets hurt, a guy gets hurt, he's not gonna coach scared.
Last bottom line is as long as the quarterback's up right.
Yeah, yes, and last we heard, starters are going to go the whole first half against Miami, so we'll see a lot of what maybe this team can kind of put together in that time. Give him a little time to work the offense, and we'll see what they got out there. Thanks everyone for joining us. We'll come back with you on Wednesday for jag Zam and give you the latest on everything going down.