Jaguars Coordinators Talk Players Stepping Up in Their Roles | Jacksonville Jaguars

Jaguars Coordinators Talk Players Stepping Up in Their Roles | Jacksonville Jaguars

you seen Kim Ward progress from week one to now? Yeah. Um, very positively is probably the way I would uh explain it. He’s very decisive. You know, he’s done a great job uh with his feet the last few few weeks, too. But, um, he’s a tremendously accurate thrower and, uh, very mature decision maker in my opinion at this point, you know, for for a young guy. Um, but he’s definitely progressed and, you know, he’s getting the ball where it’s supposed to go just about all the time. Uh, he’s keeping a lot of plays alive with his feet. So, he makes you work, you know, just like all the other great players at that position. He makes you work obviously with the plan in the pocket to defend him and then trying to mix and change your coverages cuz he sees it really, really well. You got a quarterback like that as a rookie. I mean, he can move around. Yeah. He can he’s going to keep you on your toes, kind of reset the he has a little bit of that Mahomes to his game. Yeah. I mean, he’s just a he’s a big strong kid, too. But, um, you know, he keeps plays alive in the He’s one of those guys keeps plays alive in the pocket, and he can really do damage down the field throwing the ball because he keeps the plays alive. You know, uh, it’s one thing to get out of there and scramble and get through. Um, which he does do a good job of that, but it’s it’s some of those plays that you look over the course of the season where he’s kept it alive and gotten big chunk plays down the field. Um, because he keeps his eyes down the field. So, he’s an aggressive player at that position and you got to have a good plan for him. What’s clicked for Antonio Johnson over like the past two weeks or so? I think that’s more just an accumulation of uh all the work that he’s put in, you know, um watching him every day from the spring till now, it’s little by little. And I think what you’re seeing is a lot of that stuff is manifesting and he’s got, I think, a lot of confidence in what he’s doing because it’s like anything else. if you do some of the same things over and over and over again, uh you can become a master at it. And I think he’s trending in a way where uh he not only knows what he’s supposed to do, he knows what everybody’s around everybody around him supposed to do. Um and he’s got some position flexibility, too. Um because he’s a big guy and a physical guy, he can play down closer to the line of scrimmage. Um you know, do some nickel type of roles and linebacker type of roles, those type of things. You’ve seen him do that. uh and has the ability to play back on the hash with some man coverage skills too uh down low. So, he’s really got a great skill set in my opinion and he’s um he’s progressed very very well and I think he’s doing a really good job for us. The way the pass rush responded after, you know, what Liam said after the Houston game over the last two weeks. Yeah, I think some of those um some of the rushes in in the last two weeks, the guys have done a very good job. There’s um you know some were we had them in the grasp too. You know that didn’t show up as sacks but definitely affected the quarterback and affected the outcome of the play. Uh and that’s we’re going to need that down the stretch. You know I think we’ve gotten a little bit better there. We got to continue to progress there. Um the guys are working their ass off to get that right. Uh I think our Dline coaches have done a really really good job with that. Matt Edwards and Derrick Leblanc have done a really good job with the plans. um and staying vigilant with the guys about how we rush, you know, and really I think when you’re doing a good job in the rush, it’s usually because there’s a team rush mentality and there’s um certainly a bunch of selfless guys in there who are trying to whether we’re running inside stunts or what outside stunts, whatever it is, uh trying to make sure that they execute the plan and get guys home even if it’s not themselves. Go ahead, John. How important is what you just talked about, camp, the rushing as a team and making sure you’re doing your role? Yeah, it’s tremendously important. You know, there’s some like there’s a rush the other day uh early in the game. Um you know, where we set up a little bit of a a spy deal based on the coverage that we were playing and they really executed it really really well. Uh I think it was the first or second third down of the game and Dennis came around and did a good job staying patient. But that’s really that’s a collective. That’s all four guys executing, you know, the call, uh, getting the rush, getting it moved to where we wanted to go and getting the guy on the ground because we did it correctly. So, they had a bunch of those, uh, over the last two weeks. And to be honest with you, we’ve had a bunch of those throughout the season and I think they’re starting to see uh, the fruits of their labor and some of that stuff’s paying dividends. Now, when you’re playing rookie quarterbacks, is the number one thing to do to confuse them? Is that is that the goal? Just confuse them to make them hold that ball a little bit more? Yeah, I think on the back end, even to speak to what you were just asking about the cover uh the pass rush, uh the coverage being tight and the coverage being able uh to do a good job disguising can often force the quarterback to hold the ball. So, those two things working together. Um I would say that that’s usually the case, but this guy is also, in my opinion, he’s a he’s a sharp kid. He’s he’s very mature. Um I don’t see him making a lot of bad decisions back there, which to me is the most impressive thing about him. He’s an impressive athlete, but um he’s impressive as a decision maker uh and knowing where to go with the ball. So, we got to do a good job of that certainly against anybody, but definitely against him as well. Look at talk to the guys about, hey, look, yeah, he’s the most sacked quarterback in the league, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to we’re going to get to him. Don’t like just look at that and assume we’re going to get home. Yeah, I don’t think you you ever can. I think they’re uh if you look at their games over the course of the year, they’ve been playing a lot of tight games. uh that you know they got the Seattle game down a one-s score game the other day. Um you look at them play Houston the the other day, two weeks ago or whatever it was 10 days ago. Uh they’ve done a really good job and and they’re fighting. They got their players playing hard. Um so we got to do a great job in the rush and nobody’s looking at this like that type of game. Everybody’s looking at it like this is uh we got to get our best effort and put our best foot forward to execute against these guys. How did for you last week? He did a good job. Uh I thought overall he did a good job. I thought both guys did. Um, you know, and I thought Buster overall did a pretty good job, too. So, um, having those guys in there and playing a bunch. Um, it’s given us I think it gives you a shot in the arm going down the stretch because, you know, like real football starts at Thanksgiving in this league. This is that’s kind of an age-old saying in the NFL, but uh, you getting down to the nitty-gritty here and and we got to be at our best. And you want to have guys who’ve played and they’ve been seasoned. You know, they’ve been battle tested and I feel like we have a bunch of guys who’ve done that cuz we’ve played pretty much everybody in the back end. Um, you know, Rayon Lane, I’d say the same thing. You know, in the back end, he’s done a good job from where he started out in the year. I I think he’s had tremendous progress. Um, and I would say the same thing about Christian. What do you need to see from Newsome? I think Greg’s just got to keep going the way he’s going. I don’t uh really need to see anything else. I got total confidence in Greg. um you know, love him as a player. I think he’s got a ton of skills, uh certainly when it comes to manto man and playing zone. So, yeah, I’m confident as as I possibly could be in any of those guys and especially Greg. Everybody talked about pass rush, but how much pride, how important is it to be playing the run as well as you guys are? Yeah, I think if you’re if you’re stopping the run, you’re making people uh onedimensional, and that’s important. I mean, I think there’s an emotional high that comes from uh big plays in the pass game, but there’s a physical high that comes from uh being able to run the ball on somebody. I don’t think there’s a more helpless feeling in football than somebody being able to run the ball and kick your ass down the field, you know. So, that’s something that um is very very important to us. We kind of hold sacred in our room, making sure that we’re doing a good job of that, you know, and when we’re not, uh it’s not good enough. It’s not acceptable. And I think the guys have taken to that, you know, to not stay blocked and do your job, do your 111th, uh, but then go do some more, you know, go find a way to get to the football. I think that’s a really important part of run defense. And I think our defensive backs and defensive backs coaches have done a very good job of that, of spreading that culture around the room because, uh, you know, in this league, they’re going to make the corners tackle because they don’t think corners can tackle and you got to have guys at that position that are physical enough to do it, that want to do it. Um, and you know, culturally there culturally there’s buy into that on our end. So that’s another thing like even asking about those guys. I think they’ve both done a really good job. I thought even in a run game, Greg had some physical reps the other day taking on pullers and all kinds of stuff. So yeah, to to your point before, I think both of those guys done a good job. Appreciate it. Happy Thanksgiving. After last week, there were the turnovers were probably up and down. Can that be as much of a a confidence building game for you and the quarterback and Trevor as even a perfect game because you see that he’s not going to get rattled by that kind of stuff? Absolutely. And I think you see especially when you have success on the other side of it, the resilience to go from one drive to the next drive, but additionally to know we can make mistakes and still overcome that. Not that we would ever want to do that, but there is an element of doubt sometimes for certain players when they go out there and make mistakes and say, even if I play well, can I play well enough to overcome that? So to be able to go out there and do your job and do it at a high level and know that that is enough to overcome a mistake in a game that you can go out that that’s freeing moving forward to say I can go play fast and I don’t want to make mistakes. We got to be better about protecting the ball, but if I do, we can play well enough to overcome those things, which is huge. Liam uh, you know, said he told Trevor after all the picks, each pick, just keep throwing it, keep chucking it. How comforting is that for a quarterback to know that, you know, he’s not going to that he can, he has a head coach that’ll tell him that and has the confidence in him to just keep firing it down there? It’s a huge deal. And I think Liam’s confidence in the quarterback, the offensive line, the coaching staff, everybody is one of those things that’s contagious. and it affects all the players, all the coaches, the whole organization because especially at the quarterback position, you’re going out there and the ball is in your hand every single play. And it’s not like it’s in your hand and you’re just like passing it on to even on plays where you’re handed off. You’re going up there and you’re making a decision that affects the outcome of the play, affects the outcome of the drive, and then affects the outcome of the game when you extrapolate it all the way out. So, a lot of guys can get in their head and take that and turn it into the weight of the world every single time they got to go out there and make a play, which turns into a mistake becoming, oh, that’s the that’s costing the team the game or I’m doing all this and it becomes this, you know, c like kind of this series of events where guys end up, you know, falling into bad patterns of habit and mental mental spaces. But to go out there and know like I can make a mistake and they still have confidence in me and I can go out there and play fast is huge for a quarterback to be able to go out and play at his highest level. Cuz if you’re going out there and then you know whether it’s retroactively or preemptively, you’re thinking I can’t make a mistake. I can’t do this and all the things I can’t do, you’re by default not thinking about all the things you do want to do and that you are trying to do. So it’s huge for him and he’s done a great job of handling that cuz one of those things that’s easier said than done. So you say it all the time and you preach it all the time, but for him to go out there and do it is really what’s so impressive. The wide receiver room, I mean, I guess the pecking order has shifted over the course of the year. How much of an impact can that have on like the passing game, finding that that consistency? Liam said he was find like starting to build more and more confidence in the group. Maybe it’s cuz you guys found those pass catchers you want out there a little bit. I think there’s a lot of things that go into it. Hopefully, regardless of who’s out there at receiver, more time on task and more time together is going to produce a better product. In the pass game, it’s going to produce more chemistry between those guys. Just pitching and catching or understanding the space I got to get to, the timing I got to get there, the way I’m releasing on a certain route, the way this release pattern distributes versus this coverage, it plays out like this versus that coverage plays out like that. But there is an element of guys having a certain chemistry and finding what guys are good at certain routes and certain concepts. what routes are good for the quarterback, what routes are good for Jacobe, Parker, BT, Deami, all of our guys. So, as we get better as a unit, it should naturally improve. But finding those guys and finding what they do well together, what they do well with the quarterback does make a difference for those guys when it’s playing on time and playing in rhythm, all those things we talk about. How’s Basil progressed, especially over like the last two or three weeks? He he’s progressed really all year. here. I mean, even since the spring coming in where he was, a ton of stuff for him to learn that was very different from what he had done in college, and he’s embraced that. And him and really the entire running back room have attacked that in a really, really impressive way. I mean, the amount of extra work he puts in with extra walkthroughs, extra film study with coach Morton. He’s up here on his off days getting extra lifts, working on technique and fundamentals, trying to refine his craft on his tracks, being disciplined with his cuts, his reads in the run game, his understanding of the protection schemes. Really, all areas of his game, I could point to different facets and say that he’s made improvements. Now, some of it you don’t always see because he hasn’t gotten a ton of, for example, targets in the pass game, but when we’re out there on the practice field, I can see him continue to improve where I feel confident that he has the ability to do certain things in that area of the game. Same thing in the protection. He hasn’t had a ton of snaps and opportunities to go up there and fit up complicated protection, you know, pressure pickups and things like that, but I know from what I see in walkthroughs in practice that he does on the field that he’s capable of that. So, it’s it’s one thing to improve in the run game, which he has done a ton of. He’s always been a he’s always had the talent. You saw the the balance, the strength, the speed, the burst, all those things from day one, but all the nuances and details of the game have improved. But it’s it’s really exciting to see a guy who hasn’t had a lot of opportunities in some areas of the game still work so hard to improve those areas. And I mean the way that whole room and coach Morren gets those guys ready to go. The way they attack it, the way they practice is is awesome for for me. It’s awesome for the whole team. It’s awesome for the unit. How’s been for you? Great. He’s been great. We talked about it last week. He was going center, guard, tackle, left tackle, right tackle. There’s certainly plays in the game from last week that he would want to that he probably wants back that we all want back. Every guy’s got those. But for him to go out there and do what he did and be able to play different positions, communicate, communicate with different guys, different schemes, different blocks, it’s totally a different fit of some of those blocks, even from left to right. Like, yeah, combination between a guard and a tackle might be the same combination on paper, but the actual mechanics of fitting up with my left shoulder my right shoulder is a totally different feel for those guys. So for him to do that week in and week out is another another area I know I’ve said impressive with those backs. He would fall under that same category. Strange just getting him back. I mean he got caught a pass I think the first pass of the game. Yeah. Um how good was it to get him back kind of in the flow in the mix of things really quickly. Huge. Like we mentioned before we got him back. He adds a ton of value in attacking defenses in the pass game and the run game. He can do so much from a route standpoint. You saw that’s a deeper route. He has a bunch of underneath catches where he’s catching and running. So, he can really run a pretty full route tree from a tight end perspective. I mean, he can be flexed out and running routes that receivers run. And then in the run game, he’s in line. He’s off the ball. He’s slight, you know, he’s going back and forth in the back field. He’s motion and doing a bunch of things. So, he adds an element of variety that lets us play in a bunch of different sets and different personnels and still do similar things out of those personnels or vastly different things out of those personnels because he is so capable. Did you realize just how valuable he was going to be to the offense when you first came in? Uh, that’s a great question. I probably did not. I wish I I wish I did, but I mean, the more and more you’re around him and the more you see the physicality and the explosive ability in the run game or with the ball in his hands, the more you realize how special of a player is and how much he adds to our offense from an attacking standpoint. Anything else? All right, awesome. Thank you, guys. Happy Thanksgiving, guys. Really appreciate you guys being

Jaguars Defensive Coordinator Anthony Campanile and Offensive Coordinator Grant Udinski speak with the media on Thursday of Week 13 in the 2025 NFL Season.

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