JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – During the first two weeks of the NFL season, the Jaguars rookie left tackle Cam Robinson has faced the Texans J.J. Watt and Jadeveon Clowney and the Titans Brian Orakpo. Now he prepares for one of the best sack-artists in the NFL, Baltimore's Terrell Suggs.
Suggs is second among all active players with 117.5 career sacks, trailing only Julius Peppers. Suggs ranks 21st all-time in NFL history in the statistic. Although Suggs hasn't recorded double-digit sacks in a season since 2014, he is still a dangerous threat off the edge.
"Suggs is pretty good," said Jaguars offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. "But (Robinson) doesn't shy away from that stuff. He's blocked some pretty good guys up to this point. He's just going to play ball."
So what will the 15-year veteran do to test Robinson, who was limited in practice Thursday with a shoulder injury? Veteran Jaguars pass rushers Malik Jackson and Calais Campbell said that when they face young players, they want to find out what the novice linemen have early on.
"The first thing you do is go out there and do what you do best," said Jackson. "See what they like and what they don't like, then do your counter moves off that. See what they can handle. Pretty much just throw the whole kitchen sink at them."
Both Jackson and Campbell agreed that testing not only the physical abilities of a rookie, but the mental acuity, are important in a first meeting.
"You want to see if he's trying to do too much or if he's just playing his game and forgetting about everybody around him," said Jackson.
After not allowing a sack in the opener, Robinson was beaten once by Orapko, who sacked Blake Bortles, forcing a fumble, the first turnover of the year for the Jaguars.
"Usually, they don't know much, so you have to go out there and show him some trick," Cambell said. "Suggs is so fast and has long arms and knows how to use them. Cam has a tough matchup. It will be a good lesson for him right away."
Despite giving up the sack last week, Robinson has been impressive for a rookie. While the season is still young, Hackett has liked what he has seen so far from the second-round pick.
"He has done a really nice job," Hackett said. "It's such a long season, for any young player, it's a marathon. Up to this point, it has been great to have him. He's been working really hard and we just have to keep it going.
This week, while the Jaguars hope to run the ball more than the 25 times they ran it last week, there will certainly come a time when Suggs and Robinson will be matched up for an obvious passing situation. So will Robinson be ready?
"He'll be ready," said Cambell. "He better be ready. We're counting on him."