Taking a live look at OTA number four here on the field outside the Miller Electric Center in Jacksonville. Will be checking in throughout the day as organized team activities get started. We're going to do our own version of OTAs here on jag VAM. I'm Kadannie Stevens, Brian Sexton and John Oser are with me. Let's start up with the owen.
OTA's offense is.
What we're going to be talking about. We've discussed the offense of all off season and how important it is for them to come out to a strong start.
Head coach Doug.
Peterson talked this morning about the importance of Trevor Lawrence becoming more of a leader.
It's kind of all of it. Decision making, balls coming out of his hand, faster, quicker decisions, you know, all that part of it, Accuracy, the timing things that you know, and again, just the dialogue we're having out there as maybe CJ and Mack are taking their ute. You know, he's back there talking to myself, oppressed Mike and just always engaging, you know, and that's that's what you want to see out out the young quarterback.
John.
That was your question to Doug. We talked about you know, Trevor making that jump last year. This year, Doug talked about him being a more vocal leader. What did you make of of Doug Peterson's answer and what he's seen from Trevor so far in OTAs well.
I think the biggest thing was, you know, he talked about what every NFL coach and most NFL quarterbacks learn then that fans don't really want to hear, and that is it's not an overnight process. This thing. It takes three or four years, and you can want the quarterback to develop into that guy, into that all seeing, all knowing coach in the field. Guy you wanted to happen year one, you wanted to happen a year two. You can take steps toward it, but it's hard to get
there without the time on task. Everything that Press Taylor and Doug Peterson were talking about this morning, Bryan sounded like they are seeing what they want to see out of Trevor and then you'll see more growth. Again. I don't think it's going to be he was here and now he's here, but I think over time you're seeing growth and they like what they're seeing.
Chelovy play Devil's Advocate and just ask you this, because I know you get this question all the time in your email inbox. How does CJ. Stroud come in and light it up his first year and look like he owns the NFL? And how's a guy like Pat Mahomes not really need any startup time and step writing and go? Why why be patient? When there are quarterbacks who were out there achieving?
Well, I think they got those guys are going to get better. I mean meaning Mahomes was at a high level when he came in at a higher level now. You know, as much as Jaguars fans doing here, Stroud may have been at one level last year, and he's going to get better at those things we're talking about. Trevor's led to teams, to any records, he hasn't been bad. I think they seem more coming.
And I do think it's important to remember that everyone's different, right, I mean, this quarterback has a different way of playing the game than C. J. Stroud and Pat Mahomes, and the Jaguars have to work with him to get him to the highest level of performance, and the offensive line is a big part of that, getting him in a position where he is comfortable standing back there to throw the ball down the field. So I get it. I just know that's an argument I get all the time
as well. Why are some guys successful immediately and why do some guys need more time? I mean, I think you can apply that Kui in almost any application of life.
I think that's fair to say. We're all just looking for a better version of Trevor this season, and from all intents and purposes, we've seen that so far. Doug seems to think we'll see a lot of that progress as well. Our second big thing today is going to
be the t and rokas, which is teaching. We talked a lot about the new defensive coordinator coming in and teaching his news game, but we also have to talk about the new players and how the coaching ath needs to adjust their teaching to those players.
You see that show up from the way he handled himself in the huddle. It's also the meeting room, and that's one of the things that he's not afraid to speak up and ask a question. Where some young guys that are new to a system are you know, they're probably gonna wait till a meeting ends, go grab a coach on the side. Hey, you said this what do
you mean by that? Mitchell? Stop a meeting. Make sure he's on the same page of what the coach is expecting, because sometimes you go quickly through these things because you look around. There's a lot of familiar faces in a room. Guys have heard this, or guys know, Okay, he's talking about twenty twenty two Week three, this happened, blah blah blah. We kind of gloss over some things where Mitchell, Hey, what do you mean by this? Will pull up clip,
we'll all watch together. Make sure we're all speaking the same language.
Mitch Morse is one of those new players, expects to be the starter at center this year. Of course, he's a veteran of the league, coming from the Buffalo Bills. Brian, how much of this is, you know, get everybody on the same page. We talk about this time, you're getting the offensive line all on that one heartbeat rhythm, if you want to put it that way. But teaching those new guys and incorporating maybe things he has from his old team he can bring here as well.
Well. It's about streamlining the entire program, how you teach it, what you're teaching, the verbiage you use, you know, when you listen to Press Taylor and last week when we heard Ryan Nielsen, these guys are excellent communicators, which means that they don't leave any gray area for their players to wonder about. It's about guys being able to play fast because they know what's expected of them on any given play. So the teaching part of it is really important.
And then I'll just speak to the defensive side, because last week I was so impressed with the clarity with which Ryan Nielsen spoke. Now, I mean, they did talk about putting guys in different positions and seeing what they've got before they get to camp and ask guys to do very specific things, but it's pretty clear that the communication side of this thing is very important, especially at Center with Mitch Morse.
Yeah, I think I think it was Doug he talked about this morning. It may have impressed the communication with Mitch Morse and him going back over quest Hey, I want to see this, I want to make sure about this. It was Doug who was talking about it. It showed me exactly what everybody sort of knows about OTAs. This is about that sort of communication. It's about making sure these offensive linemen know what they need to do during training camp in terms of finding out how they're going
to mesh together. We'll find that. We'll find that out when the pads go on. It's all about communication right now.
It's always about communication, of course, staying healthy, especially on the offensive line. Our final big thing for our version of OTAs is going to be athleticism. That's something we've heard from the GM. We've heard that from the coach, and of course we've heard that from the players themselves wanting to improve from year to year. Of course, we've seen a ton of athleticism out of the rookie Brian
Thomas Junior. But Brian, when you're looking at maybe some players that have been on the scene, we'll talk about, you know, players we expect to make the jump, but otherwise just athleticism. What are you hoping to see from the team this year.
Well, we talked about bigger, stronger, faster for most of the off season after Trent you know, made those comments in late January. Well, you know you're watching Brian Thomas right there. I mean, this is a game of size and speed, and you're hopeful that you are bigger and you are faster at key positions. Wide receiver is one of them. I'm not sure that they got bigger, although they got faster at quarterback. With the speed that they were able to add, this is a game of speed.
Andy Reid said that right after the draft where they talked about you know why they took Xavier Worthy in Kansas City and the draft they said, hey, look, you know we knew we needed different positions, but this game is about speed. John, That's the way this game has evolved in recent years. And I think the thing I'm looking for is to see guys who are faster.
You know, they look faster. I mean, now, Brian Thomas the fast, and we can trust that Gabe Davis will be fast. You know. I think the thing with Gabe Davis Brian Thomas when you watch them, just like you watched them on that clip there. He and now the coaches talked about it. He makes everything look easy. It seems like football comes easy to him. He does things naturally.
That's all you can tell from a guy. Right now, there's time to see how he does with the ball in the air with defenders on him in game situations. So far, he looks like a first round draft pick. People watching this when they see him move. That's what they want to see, and people will be pleased with what they see from Brian Thomas as the first round.
And since we were talking about communication just a moment ago, it's important to point out that Press Taylor said that this is a guy who's very easy to communicate with. He's got a high football IQ. The game itself just
comes naturally to him. So in terms of making it clear what and he's a rookie receiver, what his role is on any specific play in any specific situation, to let him play that fast, Press seems to believe that his communication level of his IQ will go a long way towards his success as a rookie.
Always alert incur, but we're hopeful we'll be able to pick up the offense pretty quickly, especially with OTAs and training camp around the corner.
Stay with us here on Jagsam.
We'll have more live looks at o TA number four and we'll talk about players we expect to make a big jump this season.
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Welcome back, to jags am here.
That's a live look of OTAs underway number four. We're gonna have ten of them and then mini camp after that. I know we talked a lot about you know, they're not physical, but this is a really important time to kind of get everybody on the same page, get everyone, you know, speaking the same language so beat, especially when you have a new defensive coordinator coming in. We are going to talk specifically now a little bit about players we think are going.
To make a big jump.
Obviously, we talked a ton about Josh Allen last year. He was playing on that contract year, trying to get himself a deal. He got himself a long term deal, so he did exactly what he needed to do. But I think fair to say he's probably the Jaguar that made the biggest jump last season, and now we're going to talk a little bit about who we think will make a big jump this season. Brian, when you're looking at this roster expecting a player to make a big difference, who's.
Someone you're looking at.
I think trigon Walker is the guy who's going to make the biggest difference, this biggest jump this year. You know, in the last four games he had five sacks. Not coincidence, Josh Allen had four sacks in those last four games and set the franchise record. Look, he's been since the day he arrived, a really good player on the line
of scrimmage, but he hadn't been that pass rusher. He wasn't a finisher, and that was really the word on him coming out of Georgia was that he was not used as a pure pass rusher and didn't have the skill set the combination of moves coming out of college.
It would take some time. Well, end of the second year, we started to see that, particularly in the game against the Ravens here where he would use the bull rush and drive the right tackle back and he just reached into the pocket and pulled the quarterback to the ground. We saw pass rush against the against the Panthers too, So I think he has a huge jump coming in his second year, I'm sorry, third year, and in particular I think it because you've got Eric Armstead, who's there,
healthy Devon Hamilton, you have a new defensive scheme. I think that will work to his advantage. I'm excited for what I think he's going to be in his third season.
Yeah, I agree, that he's gonna take a jump. I would counter that also by saying that even if he plays as he did last year, he's living up to it. To me and I know fans, there's always talk about Trayvon one to two pick and all that. If you get ten sacks a year out of Trayvon Walker with everything else he brings. He to me, people ask me all the time, who are the best players in this defense? It's Josh Allen Trayvon Walker.
But let me be more specific. In training camp in Detroit last year, at a TV pre production meeting, Josh Allen said, my goal was to finish. That was what we didn't see early on from Trayvon Walker last year. He was always around the quarterback. He was pushing his way into the pocket, but he wasn't a finisher until
the end of the season. A couple of things again, if you have a healthy Devon Hamilton and how they use Eric Armstead pushing the pocket and forcing the quarterback to get outside, my guess is he's going to run towards forty four as opposed to forty one. Just think, and I don't know that a big jump means he's going to go from ten sacks to seventeen and a half. But in terms of big I mean consistent finishing over the course of an entire season as opposed to all concentrated in one area of the.
Season, John, when you were looking at players that you felt like might make that jump, I know you were kind of talking about something similar to what the coaches were talking about and what they're expecting in the return of Cleveland.
Yeah, and I inserted Ezra Cleveland into this segment. I don't know that it's even fair to him to say that he's gonna take a huge jump, because I don't think he played bad last year. He came in seven games, he was injured much of that, so he really didn't get a chance to see what he was. But I think I wanted to talk about him in terms of a guy who can raise the position more than the individual player. I think the coaches believe that he is
an upgrade over what they had. When you talk about you know, they've got a lot of questions this year, you didn't do enough to improve the offensive line. I think the presence of Cleveland is a guy that they think will be an upgrade in terms of being there the entire season, and if he makes that side of the line better along with Mitch Morse. To me, Brian, if that the line is better, if the interior part of the line is better, by definition, it raises the entire offense.
Well, we talked about bigger, right and stronger. Although Tyler Shatley's one of the strongest players in the locker room, he's bigger Cleveland then, and you can see it right there. He is a big guy. He's got a lot more length in terms of the ability to keep defensive linemen from getting into his body and bull rushing him. A bigger yeah. I mean you look at him and Walker Little standing side by side. There's a tackle in a guard. So I think he's a guy that will significantly upgrade.
Remember he gets here from Minnesota, they plug him right into the starting lineup, then he gets hurt, then they move him outside to tackle, and John mentioned he played hurt the rest of the season. So you see a big, strong guy like that who's had the offseason to get ready for playing left guard, and you have to feel better about it, especially with the addition of Mitch Morse, who brings that veteran presence in the middle, who makes
everyone's job easier's. I think you're right. I think he's a guy who can take a a big step forward in terms of the production of third down and short Yeah.
And it just seems like when people talk about the line, it's almost like they gloss over that and they feel like, well, he was here last year, so he was quote part of the problem, right, Well, the reason I wanted to discuss him. I don't think that's necessarily fair to him, and I think it may be something that people come back at the end of this season say, oh, well, he was consistent, he was there the entire year. What a difference it is for that position from the coaching
SaaS point of view. If he's there for seventeen games, yea and a veteran, a fifty year guy as opposed to a revolving door there. I think that is an area where you could see the offense as a whole.
In four starting guards on the left side last year, if he plays seventeen games, that's a massive win.
Absolutely.
Consistency and staying healthier two things they're definitely focusing on, particularly with the offensive line. I'm talking about staying healthy for my person. I'm picking Tyson Campbell because I think that's someone we had our eye on last year. He was going up against Calvin Ridley in practice every week, taking on the number one ride receiver of the opposite team, and he dealt with a lot of injuries. Right It's a hamstring, you know, and that kind of caters and
then you know you're trying to compensate. It was something that nagged with him all year and that really limited him. With six games he missed last season. There wasn't a lot of consistency he was able to get. And you know, there's a lot of talk in the off season they
need a corner, they need a corner. If they can get Tyson Campbell to play it up to what they think he's capable of, you know, re sign him after this season, that's the corner you need, right So obviously there'll be a lot of focus on that group as a whole, what they're able to do.
I think Tyson has the.
Ability to really make a statement this season, and I'm hopeful that he'll be able to stay.
Healthy and do that.
When you have one corner you can anchor on one side, it allows you to do so many different things with your coverage. Packages, whether it's nickel or dime or however you want to roll the coverage. But if you can count on Tyson Campbell to take the other teams number one receiver and be able to play with him most of the time, it gives you a world of flexibility. And they missed that last year when he popped the
hamstring against the Colts. He really I don't think he was ever the same the rest of the year.
Yeah, the graphic says missed six games. I think he missed missed them. It felt like he missed the rest of the season. I mean, it's and he is a lynchpin guy to me. The way that it played out last year, they didn't have a shut down corner in the secondary. They had Darius Williams, who had some picks, also got beat in some plays that he'd liked to have had back. Tyson was probably, you know what a thirty. You know, it didn't feel like they had an elite
corner last year. If he plays to what he did last year, and there are people who think he'll fit better in this scheme than what he was trying to play before. If that's the case, that's a huge upgrade because I said earlier, Trayvon and Josh Allen may of the two best players in this defense. Tyson's a guy who has flirted with being in that group. If he does more than flirt this year, all of a sudden, they got three big down players.
Well, it's a big year for him too, because it's a contract. Yeah right, I mean, so he's got a chance to prove it and to make it if he gets it done this year. And anybody who knows him, you guys included, No, he's one of those strong minded guys. I mean, he really understands what it takes in terms of time on the field, time in the weight room, time in the film room. He puts in the work last year. The Jaguars should have been focused on getting a deal done for him this offseason, but they didn't
have to be because of the injury. This should have been one of those things that Trent was trying to squeeze in and make it happen because of the injury. It didn't happen that way. I think this is a really I expect a lot from him this year.
They're real positive for Tyson is that if he's healthy, the floor is very hot. Oh He's not going to be bad. It is a matter of how good he can be.
Definitely an X factor for this team. Andre Cisco also in that contract year, so two of the defenders that will have our eyes on this year. Coming up with more of OTA practice. Doug Peterson got his eyes on everybody, and we'll go over some ozone mailbag questions as well. After the break, Jaguars fans eure up at fanatics dot com with all the latest drag styles. You can chomp now and get today's special offer. Fanatics dot Com officially licensed everything.
French.
The ozone is back. We took a brief week away because we had Bucky once. We asked Bucky a couple of questions, but now we're going back to John to get his infinite finite.
We appreciate it.
Always is finite infinite ten all knowing.
Anyway, John is going to answer some of our questions. Our first question is about the International Pathway program, So how long can a team keep an International Pathway player on their roster. The Jags were awarded aa OOLA in twenty twenty two. Patrick Murtau this year, do teams eventually have to sign them to the fifty three or the practice squad at some point.
Well, if they make the team, they can be on the team, and definitely they can be like real live NFL players. They had a player and I always mess up his name, I owe Oyola, he was here for two years. You can have one under that, under that program, as I understand it. And they signed Murtaw this year, so there's actually.
A practice squad player.
Well, it's a roster, right, and they can extend the number on your practice squad from sixteen to seventeen if they are on the practice squad. So if they make the team, they can be on the team indefinitely. And then you can go side another one and you can have one on the practice squad and definitely as well. And there is something this year where they've expanded it where all teams can sort of automatically have won the
entire season on the practice squad. Before there was it wasn't as wide open and I haven't researched it much more than that. Best Min's Dame.
Look, the NFL's goal is to expand internationally. They're playing in South Hollow, Brazil, they're talking Madrid in Paris, and in order really to expand, they need to have some players from some of these countries. They need to have the game played in some of these countries to a greater level. So they're really they're pushing this program.
And Myrta, by the way, I don't have developed his as an NFL player, but he looks the part and you can ease see how a team could say, hey, it's worth our time investing in this to see where it goes because he's impressed.
Well, it's the left tackle for the Philadelphia Eagles. Jordan Malita is a former rugby player, which is amazing how big he is. Right, you can find these guys if if you just are willing to take the time to develop them.
And that's a lot of what it is obviously American football and not huge in other countries necessarily. So if you can take athletic players and teach them American football a lot of talent that can be utilized. There our second Ozone mill bag question about the Stadium of the future. Ozone I rent the Stadium of the future, is gonna have synthetic turf?
Please?
Saving so other than the whole growing grass and side deal, why would you go away from grass?
Well, that's the report and Brian, you may know more about this than I did. I haven't researched this a whole lot. My understanding from the reports is that they're going to go to terf. Synthetic inside may have something to do with it. I'm gonna find out more, don't.
I don't know that much more about it. I do know so that there's a push around the league to have a consistent surface, right, to have the same surface everywhere. You obviously can't have natural grass everywhere. It doesn't grow in certain places at certain times of the year, and we can't play it indoors in certain times of the year. I hadn't heard that they were going to the synthetic, but I do know that there's a push in some circles in the league to have everybody have the same turf.
And of course they want it to be the good stuff. They want to have this thing scientifically engineered to be better for players and their bodies. But I don't know any more than that.
It's possibility for the hybrid stuff, I think as well. I know Green Bay has that, you know, real grass sewn in with the synthetic grass.
It doesn't get pulled up through a framework here.
Yeah, some of the players are fans of that kind of dynamic, So maybe something like that we'll see, Because I know this stadium isn't fully closed. The new stadium of the future, there will be some breezeway in there.
So you know, there's a tray in Phoenix and the tray slides out with the entire field, And in Houston they used to have a tray system where they just lift trays out and take them outside, and maybe they can do something like that.
We'll keep an eye on those things. Obviously.
That's all developing as the stadium pitch rolls along. Our final ozone question of the day is about some of those new defensive players on this roster gave from Washington, DC says, haven't seen many people commenting on the.
New defensive free agents that were just added.
Are they camp bodies or do they have a decent chance to make the final roster? What does that vote poorly for guys like Monterrek Brown, Greg Junior, Christian braswell.
Well, I don't think it necessarily votes poorly. I think when you're bringing in a new system, when you get to this time of year, which is after the draft and after collegiate free agency, you get into rookie camp, you get into a tag, you take one final look at your not a final, but you take a fresh look at the roster and you say, Okay, we like these young guys. We also want to have an option.
Coaches don't love often always just having a second year guy of a so you want to make sure that you have some fifty year, sixth year as an option there and see how it works. So I'm not gonna call anybody on these lists a can't body, but they're creating competition. And you also go out and when you bring in a new scheme, and you bring in a new defensive back scheme or secondary scheme, you bring in guys who fit that. You may not have that level of guy on the roster. When I say level, I
mean veteran experience. You may not already have somebody who fits the scheme on your roster when you're changing schemes.
In particular, Monterek Brown and Greg Junior sixth and seventh round picks, those guys generally signed three year deals. They're coming into the final year of their deal, and if you're going to go forward with them, you need to find out right now, whether they're the guy or not, or you need to have other guys in the pipeline that you're developing so that if you're not going to pay these guys, these guys are ready to step in.
You're always going to have some of those developmental guys at the bottom of your roster that you're trying to fix. And especially if we're going to see a contract for Trevor Lawrence here, those guys become critical because they play at a fixed number or they played a lower number that you can manage on your roster.
Trevor Lawrence contract is always something thing that we are thinking about, whether it's you know, this week or the coming weeks.
That's something that we imagine we'll get done very soon.
Stay with us here on jags am as we preview what we're going to be looking at at OTAs today have.
To explosive state.
You know, it's tough enough being consistently efficient. We want to be able to have that explosive element to us. And Brian's length and speed is a big thing that was obviously the strength of his throughout his college career with the numbers and all that, and then something gave has always brought and you're not going to be a super high path completion percentage if you're pushing the ball way down the field. And that's something we feel like we've done a good job. When we've called the play
action stuff. We've been particularly explosive. When you look at our numbers in terms of concepts that we've called and opportunities push the ball, we've done a good job with that. But we do feel like we have the people that we're able to push the ball down the field. We just got to be able to get the opportunities to do that, and we've got to call those types of ways throughout the course of games.
Offensive coordinator Press Taylor talking about this offense being more explosive, more vertical, Does just Brian Thomas alone give them that option or do you think as a whole everybody's staying healthy will be a big part of that.
John Well, I think the biggest thing with that, and he alluded to a little bit. I think they're fine in terms of threats. If they get better on the offensive front and run more consistently when they want to run, they will a get more opportunities because to be on the field more, you convert third downs all of a sudden that starts drawing the defense up and you get more opportunities to go ankle last year. Honestly, in the
last eight or nine games the last year. If I'm playing against this team, I'm not going to commit my defense overly to stop short yards because I know they can stop it, and therefore I'm not gonna give up a whole lot over the top. So I think just getting better on the interior offensive line will help everything, including the d passing game.
I can't add anything to that other than you know, I've been hammering on the offensive line in particularly the interior all off season because third down and two was such a weak spot for this team last year and gave no threat of play action. When you've got a quarterback like Trevor Lawrence, the play action that's everything to get those one to one matchups down the field. So
they've got to be better there. And you know, my sense is with Cleveland and Moorse and if Sheriff can stay healthy, I think it's important to be fair to him. You know, he injured his ankle last year an opening day in Indianapolis and didn't miss time. He kept playing. How many times did he go down with the ankle during gameslast year because it was bothering him and he kept playing. If he's healthy, if he can stay healthy, he's as important as Morse or.
Cleveland complimentary football. There's a reason we always say it. We'll keep an eye on things at OTA's this week, and of course we'll check in again with you at OTAs as they wrap up next week. Thank you as always, we'll see you next week on Jags. I am