JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Chris Clemons' absence from the Jaguars lasted just one day. After not reporting on Thursday for personal reasons, the veteran defensive end was present for the first day of practice Friday morning.
Jaguars coach Gus Bradley said Thursday he didn't expect the 33-year-old to be gone very long. Clemons didn't practice on Friday and Bradley isn't sure when he'll re-join his teammates on the field.
"I wouldn't put any timetable to it," said Bradley. "He's working out with our guys now, with Milo and Scott and doing some things with them as we progress. But it's good to see him back here. We had great conversations although it was a challenging situation I loved the communication and we're just very happy that for the most part, things got taken care of. There's still some things we need to with him personally but he's here and I appreciate that part of it."
Other observations from the first day of camp:
- Wide receiver Marqise Lee was a full participant in practice and looked very fluid while running his routes. Lee missed the majority of the Jaguars off-season program due to a knee injury
- Tandon Doss, Bryan Walters and Corey Grant got the first shot at punt-returning duties. This battle should last throughout camp. Don't be surprised if Denard Robinson also gets a look back there.
- Quarterback Blake Bortles has improved his delivery over the summer. Last season Bortles had more of a wind-up and that led to the ball coming out late. During Friday's practice his throws were a lot more crisp. This should cut down on the number of interceptions eventually.
More from Gus Bradley:
"It was a good day for the first day. I was very pleased with how we came out; just some subtle things different in our practice as far as tempo. I thought the guys adjusted to it pretty well. As we went on into practice we will have to shore some things up when we get into meetings but overall very pleased. I think we all realize we have a lot of work to do; offensively, the ball on the ground. It's all about the ball. We had some fumbles and things like that and just some execution things that you anticipate on the first day.
On a positive note, I was very pleased and I felt like we had some guys make some plays on offense and it's great to see some play-making plays by a number of people from Marcedes, to A-Rob, to Tandon Doss, to Blake Bortles, to Chad Henne to the tight ends, Julius; a lot of guys at different times. We have plays of the day that we go through with our team. This is going to be a tough day to do it because there were a lot of plays.
Defensively I just feel like we're playing fast. To come in, especially the new guys that are free agents coming in, you feel some confidence with those guys. Any time you're going for the ball and you're getting the ball out it means that guys understand what they're supposed to do and they're taking aggressiveness as far as going after the ball and that's a really good sign. "