Welcome to jag Vam this Thursday.
I'm Kindannie Stevens, Brian Sexton, and John Osier are with me.
Happy Halloween.
Where you are getting ready to take on the Philadelphia Eagles this Sunday. Is the Jaguars head up to Philly this weekend. Let's start with our big things walk The walk is a big thing.
Number one.
Cam Robinson's trade in Minnesota becoming official yesterday afternoon. That means it's Walker Little's position to take over at left tackle. Trevor Lawrence says he's confident in Walker Little's clay.
I will say Walker's done a great job. I'm excited for this opportunity for him. He's played great when he's had the opportunity. In the last few years, he's been put in some tough spots. He's had to play a lot of different positions. He's had to come in in twenty two when Cam got hurt, he had to come in and finish the season when we were on that run, and we didn't skip a beat because he was prepared
and he prepared every day like a starter. And so he's been ready for his opportunities and that's not easy to do when you're not the full time guy, and now that he's getting that opportunity, I'm excited for him. So I think it's like there's always two sides to it, and it's tough, but obviously, like Walker, like I said, he's more than ready and he's done a great job and I'm excited for him. I got all the face in the world and he's played great so far.
Brian Walker Little is going to be the starting left tackle for the rest of this season. What do we need to see from him to know whether he'll be here long term after that?
Well, you need to see the guy who's played the last couple of weeks. I mean, he got started a little slow last week against the Packers, but since he went into the lineup, he's played really well. And in twenty twenty two, as you just heard Trevor refer to, when Cam went down with the injury, he stepped right in and helped lead them to the playoffs. So he's a gifted left tackle. He's a big guy, he's great
in terms of his athleticism. You got to see that they would love to be able to go forward with him as their left tackle. He's got nine games to prove it. John had a pretty big smile on his face yesterday. I think he understands the opportunity that's in front of him.
Yeah, this could get really fascinating. He's got nine games. He's played eighteen already, so if he stays healthy through the season, he's got twenty seven games as his NFL resume. You know, at the end of the season, maybe a franchise tag. I don't throw that out there because that's way premature, but you've got to know what he is. Does he play well enough to earn that? If he plays really well, Does he play well enough to earn big left tackle money. Can he show enough consistency for that.
There's a lot of questions. But if you're Walker Little, this is the opportunity for a lifetime. I mean, you can either show or not show, make a lot of money, or be on the bench somewhere next year. I mean it's and I don't think the later will happen, but it's a major audition for him no matter where he plays next year.
Huge opportunity for Walker Little, another opportunity for a lot of other players because next man up, that's our next big thing.
Because of the injuries, suffered.
In the game against the Packers. It's going to be an opportunity game for a lot of different players who may not have seen this kind of playing time before. Coud Pearson says, the team is prepared for.
That next man up. I mean, honestly, it's easy as that, you know. I mean, you know, the games are still going to come. League's still gonna you know, continue on, and we're going to continue on, and we got to coach. That's why we develop guys in the off season, you know, for for opportunities like this, right so, whether it's a whether it's a young player or rookie or a vet,
I mean, you're a practice squad elevation. You know, we're going to continue to coach everybody and get them prepared for a pre each week.
Sudden, we talked a little bit about seeing Parker Washington in place for Christian Kirk, but after the injury report came out yesterday, there's some injuries on the offensive line as well, so we might see some other players getting a chance to step up in this next game.
Yeah, the guard situation is a little concerning. Do you have both guys not pray I've seen Sheriff in Ezra Cleveland. Sheriff's history around here is he's been able to not practice and play. So you would think, based on what happened at the end of the game, Brian, that you would have Cooper Hodges starting for Cleveland and Sheriff in there.
And you know, I'm not trying to be a pessimist, but when you spend all week talking about next man up and there's this many injuries on the injury report, boy, do you need a lot of big performances from a lot of guys that you haven't seen before to play well in a really tough environment.
This is a tough, tough matchup.
I hope the young guys can do it, I guess is what I'm getting at, because there's a lot of need from young guys who haven't done it before well.
And they're playing inside against massive Jordan Davis and then Jalen Carter, who are two excellent defensive tackles. I want to go back to the receivers, though. The next man up. The guy who needs to step up this week is not a Tim Jones player, right or someone they elevate from the practice squad. It's gave Davis, they gave him a big contract, almost fourteen billion dollars this year, and they haven't been paid back for it. This is the opportunity.
With Christian gone for the rest of the season, they need a veteran guy. I mean, we can talk about Parker Washington man. I have confidence and based on what I've seen from him so far this year, and obviously BTJ is a guy who can make big plays. But you're talking about a rookie and a second year player who hasn't been a receiver that much. The guy who has to step up, it's Kate Davis. This is your time.
Yeah, And amazingly he can now go from a guy who a lot of high hopes at the beginning, it's sort of dwindled down to where a lot of observers don't have much hope at all.
So he can almost be a.
Surprise when he shouldn't have been a surprise, if that makes sense. So he's got an opportunity to really, I guess, resurrect this season and frankly, prove a lot of people wrong.
Lots of opportunities.
Let's do our final big thing, which is bounced back. We have to look ahead to this game against the Eagles, which is a team that's really coming together right now. They won three straight games after going two and two to start the year.
But heading back to last year.
They had a really bad finish similar to what the Jaguars had. But this year they've been able to kind of resurrect and bounce back. What have you seen, Brian, when you look at this team where they are right now and how they've been able to get to five and one.
Well, they run the ball like the Baltimore Ravens, who are the standard bearer in professional football. They went and plucked Saquon Barkley away, and the minute they did that, I went there they go. I mean, they have a good offensive line. It's not the same offensive line that was so powerful for so many years. There are changes there,
a couple of different starters. But when you've got a quarterback like Jalen Hurtz who's got the ability to run along with Saquon Barkley, well, John, I mean they're averaging Barkley's averaging five point nine rushing yards per attempt and the Eagles are averaging one hundred and sixty six rushing yards per game. You want to know how they bounce back that rushing attack takes all the pressure off of the passing attack, and they can still send the ball
down the field. Obviously they've got excellent receivers, and then that helps the defense.
Yeah, they did an amazing, rare thing that I think you can probably only do at the running back position in this day and age. They added a Hall of Fame player in his prime to an already good team via free agency. Most free agent positions, teams don't give up on guys. Teams are willing to give up on running backs a little quicker. And the Giants gave up on Barkley, and you know, and the Eagles are bearing the fruit of that. Interestingly and probably frustrating to me
the Jaguars fans. The Eagles are doing exactly what the Jaguars wanted to do, Meaning they made some additions in the off season to a team that they thought was good but struggled at the end. They fixed a lot of stuff, they sort of meandered a little bit at the beginning of the season, and now these pieces are coming together and they look ascending. This is what the Jaguars wanted to be now right now, and unfortunately they're not.
Stay with us here, on jag Zam.
Coming up after the break, we'll talk more about the Eagles and that matchup coming on Sunday. Welcome back to Jagzam presented by Field's Auto Group, Jacksonville's premiere luxury auto group. You can head over to Fields Auto dot com. Welcome back into jag Zam. We are heading to Philadelphia this weekend. It is not going to be an easy matchup by
any stretch of the imagination. I think you guys both remember that game in Philly a couple of years ago and the pouring rain, so it doesn't look like rain and the forecast, so that alone is probably better off. But this team right now is pretty impressive. They strung together three wins in a row. We know what they're capable of. And obviously Doug Peterson familiar with that team.
He talked a little bit yesterday about Jingalen Hurts and the progression he's seen from him in the last couple of years.
The challenge obviously is his you know, the ability to create plays, you know, the ones that aren't there, and he makes it. He's really good outside the pocket. He's tough to bring down. He's strong, powerful, you know, and He's improved so much in the passing game too, you know, and he's got obviously got some weapons around him.
You know.
And it's just again another player that is is playing with confidence.
You know.
Again, they're they're kind of catching their stride from early in the season, you know, when they had a couple couple losses there. But he makes it go, you know, offensively.
Rian, you talked a little bit about the running game, but half of the running games Jalen Hurts and then finding those receivers when he when people think he's gonna run, it's it's when he is on, he is on, and it's impressive.
I gotta imagine that the weight room show that Hurts and Barkley put on is impressive because each one of these guys squats something over six hundred pounds. So when you hear the Jaguars defenders talk about not arm tackling, yeah, you're not gonna arm tackle these guys. You've got to wrap up and you've got to get your leg strength into it. These I here's the thing I really am concerned about this week is that you Wars struggled to tackle Josh Jacobs, who's a good player, but he's not
Saquon Barkley. This week is a completely different challenge.
Yeah, I fear a lot for the Jaguars this week, and I'm not trying to be facetious, but it feels like they match up not great to get some of the Eagles strings. I mean it seems struggled to stop the run, struggled on the interior, meaning the Jaguars, if they get their tackling plan, like if they tackle better than they did last week, you can alleviate a lot of that. But the Eagles have an identity. They know
how they want to play. They play to it once they get it going, and they get into play action and start testing this secondary stopping the run and stopping the deep pass. They've got to do much better period over the course of the season. The Jaguars do. They really have to get a lot better this weekend or this could turn outly At.
A heart, I'm totally focused on stopping the run. I mean, if you can't stop the run, you're not gonna You're not gonna make them throw the ball. I mean they will.
Subject against the teams that really wanted to do that, the Bears, for example, There's been games where you just felt like they're not going to get the They have to get it done this week, and the.
Jet wars in the inside of that defense in front have not been good. I mean, Devon Hamilton is a guy that they have had a lot of high hopes for and they he had a terrific training camp and we haven't seen that guy. You've got Mason Smith who has not been active, and Jordan Jefferson the rookie. They just Roy's gone. Eric Armstead has played limited inside. They have got to be better between the tackles, and I don't know how they get there.
We flipped to the other side of the ball.
Trevor Lawrence talked a little bit about what the challenges the Eagles defense percents.
Well coached defense. They know what to do. Everything looks the same, really good disguises. It all comes out of this shell and then at the snaps the changes and they do a good job of disguising, disguising some pressures. They mix the fronts up. You know, it's not that they don't. It's not a group that pressures a ton necessarily. They just since like they do at the right time, they're on the same page. They really stress your protections. When they do, they like to get one on ones
up front. You know this this D line is is a really good group, so they play to their strengths and then the guys in the back end they fly around. These backers are really physical, very physical, and then the back end is smart and they got good ball skills and they're all playing together. So I think you see their defense every week you watch the season, They've gotten better and better every week.
John was seeing the slow starts from the offense this year. What is it going to take to get things going early? In Philly played better early.
Look, the Eagles defense is not on paper their strength.
Uh.
The way they built this defense this year was the hope was to have it improve as the season went on and then compliment a really good offense once they get to the postseason. They have young cornerbacks, be able to take advantage of young cornerbacks. But they're good. They don't have a lot of takeaways. My concern with this is it's a Vic Fangio defense. Vic's defense is at some point start taking the ball away because they confuse you. Uh,
what I don't want to see happen? And what the Jaguars need to avoid is sort of getting manhandled in the first half by a strong Eagles running game and then being playing uphill in the second half into a you know, it's gonna be a four o'clock game, it's gonna get to dark, Bryan, it's gonna get you know, it's gonna feel windy and cold, and you're throwing into a confusing defense that hasn't had a lot of takeaway. You don't want to see takeover central. Uh, that's a
scenario that could play out. It's what the Jaguars have to guard against. And that's what I worry about the most of the seconds.
Youd better be able to run the ball to some degree. Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter, both Georgia Bulldogs, are outstanding inside. They win their matchups. You're gonna have to find it. You've got to be able to make them get to some degree otherwise and now they listen, Darius Slay has been injured. They have some young players. Quentin Williams, the kid from Toledo and the safety from Iowa are both young players. So if you can keep them off balanced,
maybe you can find some room in that secondary. But to me, this is all about upfront on both sides of the ball. Your interior three have got to find a way to create a gap so that Travis or Tank can find some room.
All right, stay with us here on JAGXAM.
Coming up after the break, we will give you what we think the headlines are going to be on Monday morning. Sad it all distrusted and reliable moving company set it's proud to be official moving company of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
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Sutteth dot com slash Jacks. We are going to do our best at predicting the future as to what the headlines are going to be on Monday.
And I don't know if we want.
To be predicting this week because I feel like we might all be on a similar plane, John, what did you pick well particular.
Propocess by saying I love the heart this team showed last week. I love to fight. What I worry about is is there enough personnel going forward or like on the offensive line at receiver to keep that up. So my headline, if there's.
A graphic just too much, I believe just too much.
And that's mine, that's Brian's but anyway, just too much. Just I think the Jaguars will fight. But as we've talked about a little bit in the show, this is not trying to be pessimistic, it's trying to be realistic. The Eagles match up physically in spots where the Jaguars haven't played that well yet this year. So I kind of worry that the Eagles will have just too much up there, and that the situation even you know, it's a hard place to play.
It gets dark.
At noon, you know, it's so it's I think they're already going into daylight saving times.
It will be dark at one o'clock.
So I just feel like it's going to be one of those days. And who knows, if the Jaguars played like they did on Sunday, with that kind of fight, they could pull the upset, but it would be an.
Upset, all right, Brian, We got a little preview year as well.
Yeah, thrown up in the spirit of Halloween. I'm not a horror movie guy, but I did like the classic Alfred hitch Cock thriller The Birds this week, and you can see there are birds everywhere, and it's kind of like John said, their strengths play right now to weak spots for the Jaguars, and it just seems like, just like that, there's just going to be too many things for the Jaguars to contend with on Sunday. I don't I don't. I don't predict scores, but it just seems
like they can throw the ball deep. Draguars have struggled with that. They're running the ball powerful. The dag struggled with that last week. It just seems to me like there's just going to be too many things that the birds can do.
And the Eagles also believe in themselves right now, which means a lot in Thissly, and I think the Jaguars want to believe. I think if they can get some stuff going early, they might start believing. So maybe that'll be the tipping point. But it's hard to keep believing when you have the frustrations they've had so far this season, especially when you're up against whe they're going to be up against.
Suenden haven't gotten the results so far.
I went with this hurts because I think it's gonna be a Jalen day for sure. We've talked a little bit about what he's been able to do in terms of evolution. Doug Peterson talked about how he's been throwing the ball better. He still runs the ball great, had two rushing touchdowns last week. And when we talk about you know, if you shut down the passing game, he'll run on you, and if you do the opposite, then he'll throw. So I think that could be problematic for
this team. But I would love to be wrong, and I would love to rescind that headline on this Monday morning. But we will come back after the break talk a little bit more about.
What's going on the rest of this week. Yeah expands.
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Welcome you back.
A couple of days away from game day in Philadelphia. We talked a lot about players that aren't gonna be playing this week, but there are potentially a couple of players that are coming back this week.
Brian maybe do we'll be.
Back maybe, And that would certainly help the guy that I would like to see back as Travis etn from the hamstring, because, as we talked about the other day, the ability to throw the ball short and let him try to make a play. Is probably their best running game on Sunday against the Bears or the Bears against the Eagles.
Yeah, you gotta have that balance, and I think getting Travis back with Tank would be something that would help in this the way you're going to play on Sunday, and I'd be surprised if Dow he's not back.
All right, just a reminder to all of the Jags fans, it's not primetime matchup anymore. It's gonna be at four oh five, So tune in for that one and we will be back on Monday on Jagsam to recap everything from Sunday.
Enjoy the game.