JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The first one is out of the way, and it wasn’t pretty.
So, will the Jaguars look like a more refined football team in their second preseason game of the year? Will the starting lineups look more like what fans can expect to see on a regular game day?
Probably not quite yet.
Whatever starting lineup the Jaguars trot out at TIAA Bank Field on Friday night against the Browns will be, at best, scaled back. Jacksonville had a few defensive starters in against the Raiders but held out 21 players in the preseason opener.
The makeshift first-team lineup included third-string quarterback Jake Luton starting, as well as rookie running back Snoop Conner out there. And the actual game plan was watered down, too.
The Jaguars operated in basic form against the Raiders, which was according to plan. Coach Doug Pederson said Sunday that he called Las Vegas coach Josh McDaniels prior to the game and had a conversation on what each expected during it. Pederson said it’s common for coaches to have discussions like that before preseason games.
While it wasn’t visually appealing to fans who were hoping to see a better performance after another offseason of change, it wasn’t unexpected for the coaching staff.
Offensive coordinator Press Taylor said there’s a reason for that “vanilla” calling during a good portion of the preseason.
“There’s always the fine line of, we want to put our guys in situations to see them execute things they know really well. So, when you are playing young guys, you are going to keep it vanilla,” Taylor said.
“It’s you on him, let’s line up and play. See how you run the route we put in day one, can you execute it with the technique we asked you to do, does it all fall apart when all of a sudden there’s a guy standing across from you?”
There were flickers of offensive positivity from younger players who don’t project to be starters.
Second-year tight end Luke Farrell led the team in receiving (three catches, 43 yards) and running back Mekhi Sargent had 59 yards on 10 touches. While those two have had good training camps thus far, producing against an opponent other than teammates was nice to see.
“You want guys to run the offense the way you believe it could be to see and evaluate, can this guy do this when we ask him to do? But maybe there’s not all the bells and whistles, we are not scheming it up and putting a ton of wordy calls to make sure we have the right play in there,” Taylor said. “Sometimes it’s, let go, figure out some problems here, but let’s see your technique play against another opponent. There’s always the fine line and I would say early on, there’s portions where it probably is pretty vanilla, and you want to see guys go out and execute, but that’s just something we’ll continue to work through as the preseason goes on.”
Asked if quarterback Trevor Lawrence will start or see any action against Cleveland, Taylor said Monday that’s still under discussion.
“We’ll see. That’s [the] stuff we’re getting into. There’s a chance, but we’ll continue to have those conversations,” Taylor said.
Lawrence said that he understands the need for patience but as a competitor, naturally wants to be out on the field.
“Whenever that time is I’ll be ready to roll and get out there and whatever that is. This week, next week, however much I play, don’t know yet. Just being as efficient as possible when it is out there. Live reps doesn’t change anything, except for that I can get hit. But still, you play the same way.”