Welcome into JAG's Am today as we get ready for two days of joint practice with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Lots of fans on hands because it's gonna be a good one.
Finally get to see some matchups against players, not going up against themselves on the same team, so that's always exciting for us.
Let's get into our big.
Things right off the bat, because big thing number one is joint practice. There's a lot to be gained from that. Doug Peterson spoke earlier in the week about why he's so fond of having joined practices with others with other teams.
Yeah, you're right. You get to pick the situation, the scenarios. It's very controlled.
There's no live tackling or anything like that.
It's you know, but they're their physical practices.
But you can get you can.
Get quite a bit out of them. So special guests with me here this morning. Let's check in with Jeff Logman. What does a joint practice bring to the game. Why is it so special to have a joint practice with another team.
It's a great question, and the biggest thing that it brings is competition. You know, you're used to going against your own players. But then all of a sudden you add another team and then a fan base that's going to be watching very closely. It just amps everything up, and that's what you want to have as an evaluator, like for coaches and the scouting staff, the higher the level of competition that you can get to a game, the better it's going to be.
JP.
We had the pleasure of doing this last year we went to Detroit. Now we're hosting a joint practice.
What do you kind of get out of it? When you get to watch practice.
You get to see the starters go. You might not get to see many reps for last week. For example, the Jaguar starters, if you will, had nine snaps in the game. Well today they'll have what fifty or sixty Jeff, I mean, they're going to have a lot of opportunities out there against another team, and as Doug reference, there no live tackling, so you can protect your guys for the most part. Those are invaluable reps for the starter and a really good piece of film to watch after this next two days.
Our second big thing today is going to be matchups to watch because, as you guys mentioned, going up against a different team you can learn a lot and learn about different defenses and offenses.
So JP, when you're looking.
At different position groups today, where are you going to be honing in?
What are you going to be watching?
Okay, the Jaguars defensive backs against this great Buccaneers wide receiver corps. Mike Evans is probably going to Canton at some point.
How are they going to cover him in one on ones?
Tyson Campbell, Mike Evans, get your popcorn ready.
I'm excited for that. I'm also logs.
The guys in the middle are going to be fun to watch today too, because the Bucks have some beef up front. Well, and one guy in particularly that's got a lot of beef, which is Vita Vea. I think he goes about three hundred and sixty pounds now he's tried to swim down a little bit. He's a nose tackle for the Bucks. And the Jaguars have a new center, Mitch Morse. So I think that's a great opportunity to evaluate. Is when you have a joint practice, when you have
the big guys in a controlled environment. Boy, that's when the coaching staff really gets a lot of evaluation.
At that point, our final big thing today is going to be Armstead activated. Eric Armstead, who is signed in the offseason, is going to be seeing his first action. He's been out there practicing on the side, but not with a team, Jeff, when you have a player coming back, Doug Peterson talked about Armstead when he does come back, he wanted him to be at one hundred percent.
You expect we'll see that today.
Well, And I think it's smart, you know. And that's the one great thing about kind of the new age of the NFL is that you can take care of the players up until hey, it's time to get ready. And Armstead's played a lot of football, so I don't really worry about that. He's a premium athlete. And if you happen to hear to Sean Gibson, who has recently signed, when he came in, he talked glowingly about two things
that Armstead brings to the table. Number one is a great performance and he's a heck of a football player. Number two, great leadership. So I'm looking forward to him getting back in the mix. I don't know how much he's going to be doing out there today against the Bucks, probably off to the side until he kind of gets up to speed. You know, we've heard leadership, leadership, leader
ship around this guy. To Sean Gibson spoke yesterday and it was teammates with him out in San Francisco, and that's the first thing he did was went up and gave double A a hug. That's what he said. So he's that type of guy you want in your locker room to kind of lead the ways. A lot of young guys with a new defense, a lot of change happening here. Somebody that can be that that compass, that center for this team.
Maybe he's that guy. And obviously he's.
Hopefully still playing at a high level coming off that injury.
Let's see him work back to health.
And Doug Peterson said, guy that is probably likely next week against Atlanta where he would get some game time.
All right, we'll keep an eye on that today for sure.
Stay with us here on jag zam as we look a little bit more into joint Factice and what we're gonna be looking at. Welcome back to jag Zam, brought to you a part by Fields Auto, Jacksonville's premier lugery the auto group. Go to Fields Auto dot com. This this welcome back to so that today I have two special guests.
It's like happy our Thursday in season.
Wow, But Doug Peterson Show's next. Now I'm kidding. It's only on Thursdays. But it's great to be with you this morning.
Guys.
We see each other every day, but it's always nice to we do a little show together.
No doubt. And it's nice to be in the air conditioning for a while before we go out into the blast furness.
So absolutely, because it's going to be in the heat of the day today as they take on the boxes.
I'm sure that was probably the point of having practice.
A little bit later in the middle of the day and getting the most out of it in these Florida conditions. But before we get out there, we're going to talk a little bit about what we've seen so far this preseason and this or that we kind of do either or for us for this segment, and we talked a lot about Parker Washington, that great return he had on the first kickoff that we saw. But when it comes to a group like that, obviously, Devin Dubernet was brought in in the off season as a free agent to
do just that. Obviously, preseason we can't take a ton out of playing time. But do we know exactly what that's gonna look like? Jeff, who do you think is going to be doing this?
It could be two players, but who are they gonna be?
Well, we know it's gonna be two because that's the new kickoff pool. You have to have two guys back. Devin Duvernet is clearly, in my opinion, gonna be one of those guys. Now, who's gonna be the other guy? I think it's gonna be a mix in the match a little bit. Who's healthy and who's gonna be active on game day. I think Parker Washington's a possibility. I think Tank Digby is a possibility. And if you listen to what Doug Peterson talked about, he talked about the
new kickoff return being very similar to a zone run. Well, if it's similar to a zone run, then what you want to have a zone running back right and Tank Bigsby? So uh, I think it's I'm excited for this new play though. I'm excited for the possibilities. And the league could also tweak some of the rules as we go along in this season, so we got to kind of
see what's gonna happen. Yeah, I'm with you. Jeff Duvernet was brought here for a reason, and it wasn't to be the fifth wide receiver, like he's here to be the return guy. And that makes sense punts in and kickoffs. And to your point, I think they could mix and match some different ideas on the kickoff return depending on what type of return maybe they want to execute. If they want a running back style, okay, if they want Parker Washington to do his thing, they can put him
in there. One well, the other team might just boom it out of the back of the end zone. You never know, So that could just change the whole strategy altogether. And if they changed the rule and put a touch back back to the thirty five, then all of a sudden, those kickoff returns will be in play a whole lot.
More than you think.
Good point bringing up Tank Bigsby.
If he didn't trip himself up, you might have had an even better return than we saw from park It's a touchdown.
It would have been a house call.
I think he saw his eyes were getting big and turned over.
Yeah, I got him.
I'm so excited for him though this year. I mean in that role, but then also as a running back, just because last year when you came out of camp, you would ask all the different veterans on the team who you were excited about watching for the younger guys, and multiple guys kept pointing to Tank Bigsby. But then he had, you know, the kind of the disappointing start, and I think there was a confidence issue kind of in two different ways, one his own and then also
the coaching staff. But I think he's a stut and I think if he gets a little bit of the ball rolling to start the season, lookout. And I know we're talking kick returns here, but to your point about Tank, his performance in the game the other night at running back, the way he moved and was decisive and downhill, that will farewell for him in the future.
We've talked a ton on our show just about those second year guys that jump they're going to make, and both of those guys in their second year, so it's good to see, at least in the preseason.
We hope that carries over guys well.
Also in this or that we're kind of looking as we get closer to that roster cut down what exactly that's going to look like Jeffie, you've been a part of the process. Of course, final roster spots. How much of this is locked in and how much of this is really kind of up for grabs. And if you do have a breakout performance, is there always space for somebody?
Oh, I absolutely think that there's always room for a breakout performance. You know, there's a number of positions that are probably up for grabs. I mean, ballpark probably five, six, maybe seven. I think the majority of them that we're looking at really are on defense. I think the offense this is pretty well set. Yeah, we've got a wide receiver group. I think we're pretty confident who's gonna play. Maybe the last two spots or one spot there's maybe
up for grabs. The running back room. I think there's a pretty good idea of their quarterbacks. We know what's going to go on. But defense in the back end, on the defense, the linebacking position, and also up front. That's the big question mark.
Is on the defensive side of the ball.
Yeah, and they've got a new coordinator to figure out a new defense and some new players to go in those roles, so they've.
Got some time to do that.
That's why this game coming up Saturday is so big because in theory, the starters are going to get most of the time on the practice field this week, like we talked about, that.
Means guys that are on the.
Bubble bubble, if you will, we'll get a lot of time in a game under the lights in live conditions.
That's huge going towards their effort to make.
This rush and to kind of expand to what JP mentioned there about having a new defensive coordinator. You know, all these guys that were with his football team in the year's past. When you have a new coordinator, okay, there's not a lot of bank left. You know. What I mean by bank is that you're not referring back
to what I what I did before. You know, so the new coordinator's going to say, hey, look, I want to see what you've done for me lately and what you're doing for me now because I wasn't here last year, so it's a little different.
Jeff, have you ever seen in your experience someone that maybe had such a crazy performance and your memory at recent or not that like won themselves a roster spot almost.
I'm going to give you one that happened last year. All right, what you got, that's Elijah Cooks. You know he's got my depth chart here in front of me. Elijah Cooks. Last year, the performance that he had in the preseason was so strong that he was the highest rated player in PFF's ranking system. Okay, and when you're the highest rated player, even though it's a system that most teams don't create themselves, it's something that a lot
of teams subscribe to. And his performance catching the contested balls and the size of him, obviously the Jaguars felt that they had to keep him on the active roster. He's a perfect example of a player who who showed in live action under the lights that hey, look I belong and this year is he gonna make it? I don't know. It just depends on that in game performance. It look how so much toller he is than Parker Washington. They're standing right next to each other.
Different skill set, It's right, it's a little.
Different style and that's a good one. I remember Jaydon Mickens. I think he was that kind of guy too. This is a few years ago. He was kind of a kick returner. I think he was undrafted. Kind of thing. Interesting story about him. He actually slept in his car for a while. He was that guy. And he and kind of interesting this with the week that you bring this up. He also played for the Box absolutely and and it really had some successful games and seasons down
there in Tampa Bay. But he's that guy that just popped out of my head when you asked that question. Yeah, because he slept in his car during training camp here. That's it's pretty here. In the off season, he was slept in his car, didn't have a place, didn't have any money.
You think that guy wants a roster spot?
Absolutely? Yeah, who incredible.
I love to see that.
I love to see those guys that maybe are on the fringe kind of earning their spot, and hopefully we'll see another one or two of.
Those this season. Stay with us here on jag Zam.
We're going to answer some fan questions and we come back after the break as get ready for joint practice with the Buccaneers. For eleven years, Dreamfinders Homes has been proud to call themselves the official homebuilder of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Visit dreamfinders homes dot com for all of the available inventory and go Jags. All right, guys, we've got an ozone mailbag for you, but no Ozone, so we're gonna have to fill in and do our best.
I have a question, why is he always frowning.
In the logo, you know, John Oser?
Yeah, I guess I can tell you this.
The logo is way better looking than John.
We have to post, we have to poke a little bit of fun. If he's not here, he might as well.
And I heard he had card issues, like he loves a mile and a half away, like walk it's ten.
Minutes if John doesn't come biking into practice at some point to them to be arry.
You guys, can you guys picture John Friday in the bike?
No, maybe one of those little took things that they have that all the fans used to get out of the stage.
I'll just roll in with his.
Oh yeah, somebody's riding the bike.
And straw hat. Yeah they're pedaling, ye yeah right.
I'll never forget. And I know we're going off the rail seat. However, John Oser stories just popped in my head. I remember one time Josh Scobe was in traffic on day Meadows and took a video of John Oser running down.
The sidewalk jogging.
Really, it was fantastic that's not a very athletic run. Oh man, have you ever seen John run? I can get John because you know, John and I go way back.
Sure, I love John Oser stories.
Please When I when I was a player here, John was actually one of the beat riders for the Florida Times Union alongside Pete Prisco.
That's quite a do I mean.
And he had a ponytail. Pony's head had a little pony tail.
Stop it.
Oh yeah, he walked around the locker room and he'd asked questions. They had a little ponytail, and you know, yeah, way back.
My favorite John Oder story because obviously I'm new. When we went to London last year, he forgot his media credential on the bus. We took a bus to Wembley Stadium and they parked us rather far away because or they drop us off.
But then we had to walk a little.
Bit into the stadium and he didn't have it when we got to the security and couldn't find his way back to the bus and had to call several people. I think an hour later.
We got him in eventually pulled some strings and whatnot.
But I can imagine did he use the line don't you know who?
I am. I'm Johnny O's.
Do you read Jaguars the mail bags?
Come on, come on, all right, We're gonna do our best Johnny O impression and try to answer some of these mail bag questions that he has from the viewers as only Johnny Oken. But we'll do what we can. Our first question is a little bit about the quarterback room. Dave from Jacksonville says, is this the best quarterback room that the Jags have ever assembled?
Ken? Or will they keep all three of these guys?
Wow? I think it's the best quarterback room you think you ever Yeah to tot, I mean I do. And here's why. First of all, you've got a guy that you're paying fifty five million dollars to, Okay and Trevor Lawrence that I ought to tell you that he's pretty good, and I believe he's a franchise guy. Mac Jones' former first round pick was a starter for a long period of time with the New England Patriots, who they got in trade, which was, by the way, one of the
best trades in Jaguars history. To acquire a player of that caliber. On the way out, you're probably gonna get a great contensially pick and then CJ. Bethards. You know, so I like it because here's here's the thing, Trevor and CJ. You can run the same system with and my excuse me, Trevor and Mack and Mac is going to be the backup in my opinion, and CJ. I think there's a chance that he ends up on practice squad.
I don't think there's any doubt about that. And yeah, you don't trade for a guy like Mac Jones for him to not be your backup quarterback and have that opportunity. So I think he in fact, I think he starts this game and this is a big opportunity for him to showcase because there may not be many opportunities in the regular season for him to play. In terms of the historical stuff, I'll leave that to you, but yeah, you're right, fifty five million dollar guy, first round pick
and Mac Jones, CJ. Betherd's played a lot of football games. This is Tony Boselli predicted this. He locked it on Monday Night. But the Jaguars are going undefeated in the preseason. I wonder where he got that because of the experience at quarterback and compared to other quarterback rooms.
This time of year.
I mean, no offense to Nathan work, but there's no Nathan Urkes on this team coming from the CFL. Okay, and let me ask you a question, where do you think the Selly got that line from? Was he talking to you? He got it from me when I mentioned
it in our broadcast during the game. There you go, okay, because you know, look at the reality is is that when you're playing teams in the preseason, when you get to their second half or into the second half, the other team is playing a drafted player, some guy who's been on the street, the very inexperienced. The Jaguars have
three guys that are highly experienced through and through. The great thing from an evaluation standpoint is is that when you have three quarterbacks that are functional, it actually allows you to evaluate everybody else around them at a higher level because the quarterback, when he's doing his job, then everybody else can do their job. So I'm excited about I'm also really excited about Trevor and Mac Jones being one and two because if something happens to Trevor, the
system stays the same. In the past, when Trevor would get hurt, you kind of had to alter the offense a little bit to cater more towards some of the strengths that CJ. Bethard has. In my opinion, with Mac Jones and Trevor Lurch, you're not changing the offense. You're something happens to Trevor, you put Mac in and you play the offense. I think to that point last year, whatever was happening with Trevor, I think they would have been more apt to, hey, you know what, Trevor, sit
down a couple of weeks. Mac can handle this early December and let's get you back for the stretch run. But it didn't happen last year, and now they have that opportunity.
I think that's a great point to make, because maybe the back end of the season is a little bit different. If you're practicing and playing that way, let's not hopefully, or come.
On, Scott, if.
That way, I don't know.
If it's not, don't break anything, we don't own it, all right.
The second question is about some of our defensive players that we've been looking at and training camp.
Brian from Tampa says it looks like Chad.
Mumma's got a real role in the defense now, looks like they might be using him at different positions, So could he push for a starting role.
What's this defense going to look like exactly?
Well, it's a four down lineman defense in theory. It's a four to three if you will, But how many times are they really going to have three linebackers on the field with the way offense is running the NFL today?
So is it a four to two.
Five nickel defense starting defense? If that's the case, that he might not be on the field starting a whole lot. I think he's got some things to prove still in this camp lodge because there are a lot of newer, younger faces in that linebacker room you talked about. This is a spot that linebacker room where some guys are trying to make the roster and make a name for themselves.
I'm not saying he's on the bubble, but I'm saying he's got to show some stuff here in the next couple of weeks to make sure he ensures that strong side linebacker position. Let me just go back to the original question, which was Brian from Tampa. Isn't it nice to have Brian from Tampa collin or set right and in for a Jaguars question. I appreciate that. Okay, so we're stealing fans from Tampa. That's a great thing. And to answer JP's question, he said, what's the percentage of
snaps at three linebackers are on the field? Historically in the National Football League, about thirty percent of the downs on defense, you have three linebackers on the field, and as the league continues to go year after year, it continues to grow to a lesser number. I like Chad Muba. I think he plays hard, he's smart, he's aware. Is he has athletically gifted If you're going to only choose two linebackers, is he athletically gifted as Devin Lloyd, No,
not in my opinion. But in a three down linebacker set, he can play the Sam and then if it goes to a two down linebacker set, he can I think play either the will or the mic. The great players and the guys that have value are the ones that you have that can play multiple positions, and especially at linebacker, and all those guys have to cross train, and I think that's what they appreciate most about MoMA is that he can play all three positions. He's smart enough to
do that he's aware. He's a try hard guy. I think he maximizes his athletic ability, and I think he's also a really good special teams player, which for that role, Okay, third linebacker, you know, play all the positions, do a good job when you're on a field at linebacker, and then you got to play special teams. He's a great, great fit I think for this football team.
You guys mentioned those younger guys at linebacker as well, so we have another. Our final question is about that Ventrel Miller deal with that achilles injury last year. But when he's gonna if he's gonna make this team, he has that hand injury. I think the fan question specifically was do we know if that cast is going to be on his hand, as it will be removed before the season starts. Obviously there's a ton of potential there with him, but what's he going to be able to do with these injuries?
Well, I haven't heard exactly what the injury is.
Nobody's really said that they don't have to in the preseason, so you don't know the extent, But I mean it's wrapped up like a gordina, right, So a gordina is you've never seen Talladega Knights. No, no, I'm going Talladeagan Knights. Rat five tackles in the game and nearly a pick. I mean, that's it's good to see him on the field, first of all, but he'll do anything to be on the field considering what he's going through. Okay, let's talk about what he's going through. He came back from an
achilles tear quickly. Okay, this is not a minor injury, and and he looks to be playing fast. It started training camp, it looks like he was still trying to feel his way around.
Uh.
In the preseason game, I think, in my opinion, he was one of the top four or five performances of a Jaguars player. And he did it with that cast on that left arm, and essentially the cast completely encompasses the hand in the end, so he can't grab, he can't use his fingers. That's hard to do his football player, because especially linebacker, you know you're shedding blocks and you don't have a hand to be able to grab. So I give him a lot of credit for playing through this.
But the one thing that he has to prove, because if you go back to his career, at Florida and then so far in his career here he's been hurt a lot. Availability is always the best ability for an NFL player, So he's got.
To prove that he can stay on the field.
All right. Now, I've never had I don't know what it is, but if it was a broken hand of some kind in theory, could you punch it a football with that cast before? Yes, you can. I played with it before. Does it hurt, Yeah, if you're going on something. But you know here it can't hurt that bad because you know he reached that arm out and knocked that ball out on the cash defense that he had in
the game. And then the one great thing about when you're wearing a cast, you can use it as a weapon of sorts, because you know you're talking about additional weight. You know, I want to I want to see one of those one of those plays from the Long East Yard and take that whole club thing and do one of one of these things. And I think I think I broke his neck, but it wasn't. That wasn't the exact life Jones head slap. That's illegal now, you know
what I mean. He's not a pass rusher, but yeah, you know, one of these uppercuts or for them up under the chin. I actually saw him in the game use that club one time in that fashion.
You have to talk to him about it, coach him up.
It's good. I mean, it's good. I mean if hey, if you got to use it, there you go.
Absolutely.
All right, we're getting ready for joint practice today.
Stay with us.
We'll talk a little bit more as we get ready to take on the Bucks and practice. Jags fans, if you want customized Jaguars furniture for your home, check out zipchare dot com to browse all customizable options. Zipchair is furniture for fans. All right, guys, looks like practice is finally underway outside, so we're going to get out there pretty soon. But what are guys hoping to see in
the next couple of days? And then we talked about position groups, but just overall, what are you hoping to see physicality?
Well, number one, today, you want to see the starters because this is the opportunity that you're going to get to see them because they're probably not going to play at all in the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and so you want to see starters versus starters, and to see that level of competition ramp up. You know, I'm going to be focusing on just them because I know that during the game. This is a great opportunity during the game coming up against the Bucks, to where
you're looking at those bubble players in the backups. This long, long, long opportunity in game conditions. Let's see Brian Thomas Junior against the starting corners for the Buccaneers.
One on ones today will be big.
We mentioned earlier, Vita Vea in the middle against the interior of the Jaguars offensive line, Jags defensive backs. This is a really good Buccaneers wide receiver room led by Mike Evans.
Godwin's there.
I mean, the list goes on and on for this Bucks team. Baker Mayfield's on the field today too. Yeah, a bunch of first round pick quarterbacks out there for both sides. So let's see the ball in the air today. I think the real good thing about these joint practices today because if you look at the Buccaneers what they're known for, they're known for defense. They're head coach Todd Bowles is a defensive guy. He is, in fact the coordinator.
They don't have an defensive coordinator. This is a great matchup. This is going to be great reps for Trevor Lawrence in this first team offense against a really good, really good defense. And let me bring up something else. Let's go back to last year the game in Tampa right around Christmas time. Well, we got to because you know, this could lead to something today. And the reason I bring that up that was a game that the Jaguars really got beat up on. It was embarrassing, it was
not a good performance. And if you want to get specific, the Jaguars defensive front got beat up by some of the Buccaneers offensive lineman. And the Buccaneers okay, Buccaneers dot Com did this whole video segment where one of their offensive linemen was miked up. Okay, so not only did you get beat up, but then it was captured in one of those film moments for Buccaneers dot Com or whatever their website is. So it's kind of a little bit of the hey, let me rub your nose in
it kind of the thing. And not that it was intentional, it just happened that way. So if I'm one of the Jaguars defensive linemen, i am not forgetting that game, and I'm not forgetting the embarrassment of having the show to show how bad it was. That said, I think at the end of the day, you want everybody healthy at the end of this thing. That's the idea of these practices. It's not live tackling to the ground. You
can both teams can get their work in. They've been working for the last few weeks, the coordinators together on uncertain situations that you'll see at practice today. You might not get two minute situations in the game, you're probably gonna get some of the next two days. So keep it as clean as you can. Get some great work in, and I think that's what I'm looking forward to.
Yes, we don't want to fight, but things do get a little chippy.
Keep your eyes out. Well, we'll be back here on jag XAM tomorrow.
We'll have a little bit more of a recap and then another practice with the Bucks.
So thanks for joining us. We'll see then.