JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – For 10 seasons middle linebacker has been the only position that Paul Posluszny has played in the NFL. This offseason the Jacksonville Jaguars asked Posluszny to move to outside linebacker, in order to make room for Myles Jack at middle linebacker. On Monday the Jaguars began their third and final week of organized team activities and Posluszny admitted that his new role is still a work in progress.
“I have a lot of improvement that I need to make and a lot of technique things that I need to work on,” said Posluszny. “I just don’t have the time-on-task that I’ve had at a different spot. I need to get fast with that. There’s no reason why we can’t have success with this change.”
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Playing strong side linebacker places Posluszny closer to the line of scrimmage than he’s accustomed to. There will be more physical contact at the snap of the ball, but that’s not the biggest adjustment he has to make.
“My eyes, the perspective that I’m trying to gain information from,” said Posluszny. “Playing stack linebacker, I’m five yards off the ball, I’m looking right at quarterback, running back, center, guard, that was my field of vision. Now, it’s seeing things from the edge or reading the tight end as my key and gaining all of my information off of that. That’s been the most challenging thing for me.”
The Jaguars will finish up OTA’s on Thursday and Friday of this week before mandatory minicamp begins starting Tuesday June 13. Following the end of minicamp there is a long break before veterans return for the start of training camp on July 26. Posluszny plans to use that time to get himself up to speed at outside linebacker.
“During the five-week period that we have off, I’ll be able to watch cut-ups of our techniques and what we need to do instead of looking at it from a middle linebacker’s perspective,” said Posluszny. “I just need to watch it over and over and over again from an outside linebacker’s perspective so I just see the small nuances of how guys move and what things look like. It just takes time. It takes repetition to be so quick with it that you can see things and react quickly.”