Jacksonville Jaguars’ OTAs: Offense in ‘learning phase’

In the early stages of OTAs, the Jacksonville Jaguars’ new-look offense is in the “learning phase.”

As the Jacksonville Jaguars implement their new offensive and defensive schemes, the team is still very much in the “learning phase” of the offseason, as head coach Liam Coen put it after Monday’s practice.

“We’re working towards playing in September, obviously,” Coen said via Big Cat Country. “At this point, it’s strictly how much can we actually learn from everyday. We’re not evaluating maybe some of the things you would normally evaluate in a game, right? Or in the season. How many mental errors did we have? How much can we continue to be disciplined with our communication, formations, alignments, assignments?

“Are we going to catch every ball and throw every ball out here in the first day of Phase 3? I would assume not. But more in terms of the operation, the communication, are we understanding what we’re trying to get accomplished out of the calls? It’s a learning phase, not necessarily a competitive phase.”

During this time of the year, in general, defenses are almost always ahead of where offenses are at. Adding to that, as Trevor Lawrence pointed out, is that Coen’s offense can put a lot on the plates of the offensive players. But by doing so, the scheme also provides the players with a lot of the answers to what the defense is doing as well.

It’s one thing to learn the playbook on paper and know what to do correctly in the meeting rooms. It’s entirely different, however, to be able to replicate all of that on the field when everything is moving incredibly fast and the defense is presenting the offense with different looks.

“We want our guys to come out here with a growth mindset,” said offensive coordinator Grant Udinski. “We’re out here to improve. So, of course, we’re out here trying to win games come the fall, but the No. 1 priority right now is just to improve, and in order to do that, you have to be willing to fail and have that growth mindset.”

After the first OTA practice on Monday, when Coen was asked what the offense looked like, he said “young,” referencing that the scheme is very new and there have been relatively few opportunities to rep it on the football field at this point.

However, that’s to be expected, given where we are in the offseason. The key right now, as both Coen and Udinski mentioned, is about learning and growing from any mistakes.