After Wednesday off, your Jacksonville Jaguars took to the Miller Electric practice fields on Thursday to kick off their preseason, week two, mid-week simulated scrimmage. As a note, a preseason week two scrimmage feels unique, and a first that I can recall in recent Jaguars\u2019 offseason history. After a physical Tuesday practice, a Thursday, closed-to-the-public scrimmage may be the teams\u2019 attempt to prepare for Sunday\u2019s 1 P.M. matchup against the New Orleans Saints while also establishing a more physical culture in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n
Here are our notes from Thursday\u2019s Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a> training camp scrimmage.<\/p>\n The early arrow for the Jaguars\u2019 starting offensive group seemed to be pointing up, as the offensive line unit kicked off the day with what was arguably their best period of OL vs DL 1-on-1s, with quality wins from Anton Harrison over Travon Walker and Josh Hines-Allen, Walker Little over Hines-Allen, Robert Hainsey over Davon Hamilton, and a few others. The day really seemed to be shaping up as a day belonging to the offense.<\/p>\n However, on the other field, Jaguars 1-on-1s were occurring between the receivers and defensive backs, where defense pretty convincingly won the day, with the best play coming from Travis Hunter versus Dyami Brown.<\/p>\n Trenton Irvin beat Christian Braswell for a touchdown catch. Otherwise, it was pretty much all defense, with Jarrian Jones forcing an incompletion to Brian Thomas Jr and Jourdan Lewis having similar success against Parker Washington.<\/p>\n At this point the scrimmage then kicked off with Lawrence\u2019s opening pass to Brian Thomas Jr falling incomplete – a drop by Thomas, with a defending Travis Hunter in coverage. However, from this point on the starting offensive group would move quickly down the field via accurate throws from Lawrence sprinkling a heavy dose of Travis Etienne in the run and pass game. The early drive would end with a beautiful Tank Bigsby walk-in touchdown, using his vision to find the cut-back lane, with nothing but green grass in front of him.<\/p>\n However, from this point forward the day belonged to the defense and the referees with sacks from Josh Hines-Allen, Yasir Abdullah, Jordan Jefferson, Ethan Downs, & Danny Striggow (who had a sack last week vs Pittsburgh). To add to this list, Dawuane Smoot also had a sack that was called back for pass interference.<\/p>\n That didn\u2019t stop the action with DT Austin Johnson securing a tipped ball interception off of Nick Mullens. S Daniel Thomas almost came away with a near interception as collided with WR Joshua Cephus, popping the Mullens\u2019 pass in the air for the incompletion. Additionally, S Andrew Wingard had a diving Trevor Lawrence interception called back due to the defense jumping offsides, resulting in the free play pass attempt. The defensive highlight of the day had to have been CB Jarrian Jones wrapping up the day with a magnificent pass breakup on a deep, Brian Thomas Jr pass attempt from Lawrence where Thomas had Jones stacked yet Jarrian found a way to get his hand in there to impact the ball. Jones had two other pass breakups on the day as the starting corner role with Campbell out.<\/p>\n When he wasn\u2019t fighting for the ball Jarrian was, well\u2026fighting. For the consecutive days,<\/a> the team had a camp skirmish – today between Jones and RB Bhayshul Tuten. After a 15-yard Tuten rush, where Bhayshul lowered his shoulder on Eric Murray, Jones knocked Tuten over late in the play. After a few words, punches were thrown and then they were then separated by teammates.<\/p>\n QB Trevor Lawrence spoke with the media about the story of the Jaguars\u2019 2025 training camp so far, penalties:<\/p>\n \u201cA little sloppy offensively. I thought we started great, had a long \u2013 I don\u2019t know how many plays it was \u2013 had a long drive to start. Went and scored. And then from there, the defense picked it up a little bit, and we had some mistakes. Just self-inflicted wounds. It has kind of been the story of camp, trying to clean up some of that stuff pre-snap. Just have to clean up the operation, the mistakes that the defense doesn\u2019t inflict on you, you do on yourself. So all those mistakes, we\u2019ve just got to get better and cleaner, but I thought there was some good competition, guys flying around. So, there were some good, some bad. We\u2019ll watch it. We\u2019ll learn from it all.\u201d<\/p>\n To Lawrence\u2019s point, after an EverBank Stadium scrimmage with many flags, a Tuesday practice the following week with eight flags, and the Pittsburg matchup with an additional eight flags, the team on Thursday had 9-10 penalty flags thrown, including:<\/p>\n Walker Little false startWyatt Milum false startIllegal formation<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the team also had anywhere from 6 to 9 drops (depending on your perspective of a drop vs PBU):<\/p>\n Joshua Cephus (2-3)Hunter Long (1-2)Brian Thomas Jr (1)Trenton Irwin (1)Austin Trammel (1)Tank Bigsby (1)<\/p>\n And while Lawrence\u2019s day was pretty sharp, independent of the drops, Lawrence later continued, discussing the team\u2019s offseason season of miscues and penalties:<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pre-snap stuff. There\u2019s always a little bit of that in camp, but the amount we\u2019ve had has been a little too sloppy for the offense that we want to be. If we want to be a great offense, you have to be really smart, not make those mistakes that hurt yourself. Obviously, execute. And I think the execution has been actually decent once the ball is snapped, but the other stuff before the snap, you don\u2019t ever get a chance if you don\u2019t do that right. So, there\u2019s been some stuff that we just have to lock in on the details. For me as a quarterback, have to operate a little cleaner. Let\u2019s get up to the line faster so guys can communicate and think and have time to process and remind each other of the cadence. All those things. It\u2019s all of us in it. We just have to be sharper.\u201d<\/p>\n As a key note, Lawrence confirmed that while the decision doesn\u2019t fall on him, he expects to play on Sunday versus the New Orleans Saints:<\/p>\n \u201cYeah. I expect to play. And that\u2019s kind of the mindset in the preseason is expecting to play, and it\u2019s always kind of a variable number of snaps. You don\u2019t really know exactly what it\u2019s going to be, but expecting to play. I\u2019m not sure if the result of today\u2019s practice would or wouldn\u2019t have changed that, I don\u2019t know as far as what Coach [Head Coach Liam Coen] is thinking, but I\u2019m prepared to play from what\u2019s communicated to us. We\u2019re prepared to go and play a little bit. So, it\u2019s just another opportunity for us to get better.\u201c<\/p>\n On the special teams front, K Cam Little went 3 of 3 on the day with a long of around 40-45-yards with the players running wind sprints after practice.<\/p>\n On the injury front, while not participating in the scrimmage, CB Tyson Campbell was back on the sidelines during practice. However, RT Anton Harrison left the scrimmage early and did not return to play. As an additional injury note, the team announced prior to the scrimmage that DT Maason Smith has been activated from the teams\u2019 PUP list<\/a>.<\/p>\n Offensive coordinator Grant Udinski and quarterback Trevor Lawrence both met with the media post-scrimmage. Here are a few additional key quotes from their media availability:<\/p>\n Coach Udinski speaking on the various offensive line combinations the team has seen:<\/p>\n \u201cI think one of the questions you guys asked last week was about the flexibility of the offensive line. I\u2019d probably still look at it like that. We have had some injuries, guys go in and out, even temporary injuries where guys miss a drive, and those have been opportunities for other guys to step up and play different positions. So, you probably see out there today, we have multiple guys play on different sides, play guard, play tackle, inside, outside, different centers. So, it\u2019s great that those guys have the ability to do that, and we have the chance to get that type of work.\u201d<\/p>\n Udinski speaking on Brian Thomas Jr\u2019s visible recent camp frustration:<\/p>\n \u201cI think that he holds himself to a high standard, which we appreciate and when he doesn\u2019t play to the standard that he holds himself to, sometimes that comes out in frustration. This is what practice is about. You\u2019re trying to improve on things. You\u2019re trying to put yourself in challenging situations. If you\u2019re going out there and just succeeding at everything every single day, you\u2019re probably not pushing yourself hard enough. So we expect there to be some element of frustration with every position, whether it\u2019s a receiver, whether it\u2019s an offensive line, whether it\u2019s mentally or physically. Most guys are going to be in a situation at some point throughout the course of a practice, throughout the course of a training camp where they probably push themselves maybe beyond their limits, or maybe they just don\u2019t perform to their standard. So, I think that frustration for all of us, coaches, players included, it becomes a part of the process of growth, whatever we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Lawrence discussing the LeQuint Allen\u2019s pass protection ability:<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s done a great job ever since he came in. It\u2019s been something I\u2019ve noticed is his pass protection. He\u2019s picked it up really quickly. The biggest thing is, yeah, he knows what to do, but the way he does it, he\u2019s really physical, violent, meeting linebackers at the line of scrimmage, and that\u2019s huge. You get these games with these linebackers trying to pick off our centers and guards. The sooner you can meet them, the more physical you are, it knocks them off their game. They\u2019re trying to run, and you can pass it off. And that\u2019s a killer for a group up front. If you get picked on a game, it could be a four-man, five-man rush, and you should be blocked. And if we get picked, then it\u2019s an unblocked hitter on you. So, he\u2019s been a really key blocker for us in pass protection.\u201d<\/p>\n You can watch the full press conference here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Stay tuned for more updates from the Jacksonville Jaguars\u2019 2025 training camp!<\/p>\n