Day 6 of Jacksonville Jaguars training camp was ruled by the defense.
Antonio Johnson, Jarrian Jones, and Eric Murray came down with interceptions. Jabbar Muhammad dominated at the catch point. Travon Walker, Zach Durfee, and Bryan Thomas Jr. (you read that right) all had would-be sacks of Trevor Lawrence. Branson Combs delivered the hit of the day on a pass breakup at the goal line. The defense won six of nine reps during redzone drills.
The ascending Parker Washington continued to impress from an individual standpoint, as he was literally unguardable during 1-vs-1 drills and made a tough catch during redzone drills — but his feet were just barely out of bounds because he had to leave the ground to make the catch. On a deep crossing route during team drills, a pass from Lawrence went just past his fingertips.
It wasn’t a complete disasterclass from the offense, but they clearly weren’t clicking. Lawrence never found anything close to a rhythm and the running game couldn’t get anything going between the tackles.
“There’s definitely some meat on the bone there,” defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile said after practice in regard to his top-ranked run defense from last year.
“I thought today, for us defensively, was a little bit better than yesterday. But that’s what you’re trying to do, you’re trying to build a callous and, just honestly, entering blocks the right way, entering tackles the right way, all the fundamental things that are important to winning and playing good football.”
With pads on for the second straight day, the Jaguars have more opportunities to become more physical as a team.
“We just want that for everybody,” Campanile said. “We want that to be the culture of the room … [if] we’re not performing physically and we’re not violently finishing, trying to whoop the other guy’s ass on every play, it’s going to get called out. And if you are, it’s going to get celebrated. And I just think that’s a good culture to have, and hopefully we’re trending that way, but our players believe in that. From the defensive backs all the way down to the D-line, they all believe in that. And they’re great guys to coach, honestly, because of that. They’re great. We have great, great dudes here. Great dudes.”
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