Touchdown Jaguars!
Touchdown Jaguars!
Episode 91: Chiefs / Jaguars Preseason Week 1 Analysis
Ever wondered how the Jaguars' preseason opener set the tone for an exhilarating football season ahead? We've got you covered with a first-hand account of the electric atmosphere in the stadium and a deep analysis of key performances that made headlines. On this episode of the Touchdown Jaguars podcast, we dissect every thrilling moment of the game that saw Jacksonville emerge victorious. From quarterback Trevor Lawrence's promising plays to Brian Thomas Jr.'s deep-threat potential, we leave no stone unturned to bring you the inside scoop on the team's performance.
The special teams unit stole the show with young kicker Cam Little making an impressive debut and Parker Washington's powerful kickoff return. Coach Doug Pederson's glowing praises for these rising stars set a hopeful tone for what's to come. We discuss the crucial importance of ball security, especially in light of the new kickoff rules, and how these young talents are poised to elevate the special teams' performance. It's all about the energy and potential these players bring, hinting at a bright future for the Jaguars.
On defense, we focus on standout performances from Terrell Edmonds, Monteric Brown, and the promising backups who stepped up in the absence of key starters. The buzz around upcoming joint practices with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers adds to our excitement for the season ahead. We also explore the evolving strategies in NFL coaching, emphasizing how the Jaguars are adapting to leverage their players' strengths. As we anticipate a competitive season in the AFC South, this episode is packed with insights and excitement. Join us and get ready to feel the Jaguars' spirit!
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James Johnson and Phil Smith bring you the best and most up to date Jacksonville Jaguars news. "Touchdown Jaguars!" is a tribute to the prospective ownership group "Touchdown Jacksonville!" In 1991, the NFL announced plans to add two expansion teams and "Touchdown Jacksonville!" announced its bid for a team, and Jacksonville was ultimately chosen as one of five finalists. In November 1993, the NFL owners voted 26–2 in favor of awarding the 30th franchise to Jacksonville. James and Phil have been fans of the franchise ever since and have had the honor (and sometimes dishonor) of covering the team professionally since 2017. The rest as they say, is history.
Welcome to the Touchdown Jaguars podcast. Here are your hosts, james Johnson and Phil Smith. Hey everyone, welcome back to the Touchdown Jaguars podcast. I am your co-host, phil Smith, and joining me, as always, is your other co-host, james Johnson, and Jay. We have gotten to actual Jaguar football on the field. It happened, the game was played and we won. So overall it was a pretty positive experience.
Speaker 1:But we're here today to talk about our takeaways from preseason game one and plenty to talk about as we navigate these upcoming weeks heading into the regular season, where the games will finally count. And while these games don't necessarily count, when it comes to the scoreboard and the standings and all of that, there is still quite a bit to discuss and a lot of high stakes action going on in between the lines when it comes to roster spots, depth chart, all of this stuff. So we're going to talk about our takeaways from the game and super excited to do so, jay. We finally made it. We've got Jaguar football on the field and it just feels nice to be kind of back in the swing of things. You know, it's that time of the year where we just get into our groove, so I'm excited to be here with you and discuss all of that here tonight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and we don't have the Olympics to distract us either, because they were pretty entertaining this year so sad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. It depresses me. When the Olympics, you know, when they do the closing ceremony and all of that, it's like, ah, got to wait another four more years. But, as I was telling you, got to wait another four more years. But, as I was telling you, when the Olympics does return, it'll be here in America and we will be talking about football next time it returns as well, because apparently they're going to incorporate a flag football league with the NFL and probably some other, like professional players, into the Olympics. So that'll be dope and that'll be neat to watch.
Speaker 2:But I digress from my point. As you said, man, yeah, man, good to get back in the swing of things. It's always like you get that sigh of relief right from the first week of the preseason, especially if you get a win. As you said, these don't count. But at the same time you get a sigh of relief, in a sense at least. You know, I think, like me and you doing this for years as content creators and like media members, you get a sigh of relief in a sense that you know, if you come out with a win and, uh, you know a decent performance from the team, you don't have to answer a lot of questions and deal with a lot of tweets and whatnot about you know, just the fan base just going into doom and gloom mode after one preseason game if it went bad right or if it didn't go as planned. So, yeah, we get that sigh of relief from a lot of good things that we saw on the field, a lot of things that need to be cleaned up, but certainly some stuff to build on.
Speaker 2:Heading into the second preseason week, we'll have the Tampa Bay Bucks coming into town for some joint practices and that'll be nice, but we'll get into that next week. But yeah, man, I'm just excited about what I saw. Um, I did watch the game in the initial um live telecast and then, as you all saw, like in the morning, I went back and watched some of the I think maybe the first quarter or so and I put some tweets out about that. So I haven't done a re-watch, but I have at least seen it once. So, yeah, I'm just excited to talk about what I saw and also talk about your experience at the stadium. You know, being back in the stadium with some fellow Jags fans and just the energy and what have you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and I have not gotten a chance to go back and rewatch the game here today. I have been pretty busy but obviously I can talk about what I saw on the field in person, at least through the first three quarters. We did leave a little bit before the third quarter ended, a little bit before the third quarter ended. I just wanted to see a few things on the field and got to see those before we left for the evening. But yeah, we're going to discuss all of that. It is a really exciting time.
Speaker 1:To go back to what you were talking about with the Olympics. I got legit emotional when the closing ceremonies happened earlier today and I'm just not ready for it to go away. I do have the luxury and to work from home and you know I would log in in the morning First thing I would do turn on Peacock, turn on Gold Zone and just keep that on all day. So it's going to be a bummer to not have that anymore going forward. But yeah, like you said, jay, four years from now, you know flag football, maybe number 16 suits up and he's the quarterback and, you know, not only wins himself a Super Bowl here in Jacksonville but also comes away as one of the first NFL players you know to have a gold medal under their belt. As far as when it comes to the game of flag football, that'd be an interesting topic in the future, jay, maybe, like three or four players we think, could play for the Olympic flag football team. I'll be excited when we have those conversations over the next few years. But you guys are here to talk about the Jacksonville Jaguars or hear about the Jacksonville Jaguars, and we are here to discuss them. So I want to welcome in any brand new listeners and returning listeners to the show. Just as a reminder, everything you need in regards to where you can find social medias, the website, everything you need is in the link tree link of the show notes of this episode, so make sure you go check that out, as well as downloading the SeatGeek app and using our promo code TouchdownJaguars. If you're in the market for some Jaguar tickets here over the next few months, make sure to use our promo code. Save yourself $20 for all first-time users at SeatGeek. Shout out to them for sponsoring the show. But, jay, let's dive into this here.
Speaker 1:The Jacksonville Jaguars defeated defending champion Kansas City Chiefs. What's that meme where it's like this means something to me. You know what I mean. Like that's how I felt yesterday when the Jaguars came out victorious 26-13. Patrick Mahomes and the starters they only played, I believe, one drive Well, at least as far as Patrick Mahomes goes and Travis Kelsey the two names that people obviously were buzzing about. I was a little annoyed by the amount of Travis Kelsey gear that we saw in the stadium. We all know how that goes, because he's dating some pop star I'm not really familiar with her, but plenty of Mahomes jerseys and travis kelsey jerseys, uh.
Speaker 1:But our eyes obviously were focused on our quarterback as well as our group of players. Trevor lawrence played a couple series. He went three or four for 42 yards, a touchdown we had. Travis etn was the one that snagged that touchdown. Uh, from trevor lawrence. We also saw some good things from the special teams group as well as the defense.
Speaker 1:And yeah, jay, you made a good point. Like it's always good to just come away with the win and just avoid all of that doomsday talk for as long as you possibly can. Right, like how many years have we covered this team or even just been fans of this team? And they come out in the opening preseason game and look totally flat and you're like, oh my god, this team has so many holes. And while this team definitely does have some holes and there are things that need to be adjusted, tweaked or even upgraded, which will, I'm sure, address in this episode, you still came away from the game overall feeling relatively good. So, jay, wherever you would like to start, Actually, I'll set the tone here early and I'll just start with this, because this is one of the things you brought up in terms of special teams when you did your solo episode on the Thursday before the game.
Speaker 1:And, you know, very important for Cam little to come out and look good on field goal kicks, which he certainly did. His only miss was that 61 yard attempt at the end of halftime which had the distance. It was just as uh. Unfortunately, bucky brooks was not accurate, uh, it was a little wide right I believe, but he won three or four. On his field goal attempts and the big talk and what a lot of people are talking about on social media Parker Washington, right, taking advantage of these new kickoff rules and looking solid and looking good and doing so and you know Logan Cook doing Logan Cook things two punts that were pinned inside the 20-yard line. He looks like he is in midseason form. But let's talk about cam little and parker washington jay. How enthused were you by them and by their performance, uh, in their first uh game.
Speaker 2:Action of the year yeah, I mean yes, just, we'll just start, as you said, with special teams in general. And, and, phil, don't forget, when you mention the special teams now you have to mention pro bowl long snapper ross madison, with this group, you're right, you're right, absolutely right, one of the hardest hitters in the league, as we saw last year, right, um, but um, no, no, all jokes aside, and shout outs to ross too. Um, yeah, let's start with those two names Parker, washington, and we'll start with Cam Little as well. As you said, cam did have the one miss, but you know he had the power behind it and that'll come in time. You know that was something that Doug Peterson or he was somebody that Doug Peterson discussed in the presser afterwards, which I put a few quotes out from that, and you know he said it like hey, man, he practices his behind off and he has a strong leg, and we saw that, right, with all of the videos that people were putting out that went to training camp. You know the power has been evident, right, and they've spoken highly of him since day one, since they drafted him. The special teams coach has, and you know how they scouted him and he was really a guy that stood out uh to them when they went to his pro day and you know he was a guy they really, really wanted. You could tell that. You know the scouts were high on him and so on and so forth. And, yeah, it's just good to see your young kicker in his first game come out there confident, and I think we all knew he was pretty confident just from everything we heard in the preseason not on the field, not just on the field, should I say, but like off the field.
Speaker 2:You hear people like um, I forgot it was a um, one of the videos they posted on jadwarscom and, uh, they were saying um, it was a player in particular. I forgot who it was, but they were just simply saying man like cam is like one of the, the guys in the locker room that just doesn't shut up. So he's one of those guys. He's a talker. Um, he's a high energy guy, apparently, and we all seem to drip too right in the jaguars draft class photo shoot that they did as well.
Speaker 2:I think that got a lot of eyes on them too. But yeah, man, it's just good for him in his first game and Doug said it they wanted to get him in some high pressure situations in his first game to come out with a for the most part, successful day. And you know, just show everyone how confident he is, because one thing about it is we've gone through I would share a kickers in in jacksonville and you want to talk about something that'll leave a fan base especially this fan base in doom and gloom mode coming out of the first preseason game. Look no further than kicker issues. That'll certainly do it, phil, right.
Speaker 2:So it's good to see our young kicker giving everybody that sigh of relief. You know in terms of how he looked and how confident he is and you know you could tell like this guy should be a staple for us in the future. And, um, you know like I don't throw around his term loosely you know, if he's on, we already know what our punter can do. We, we already know what our long snapper can do. You know Parker Washington is showing impressive things too. We're looking at one of the better special teams in the league. You know if everybody's on. So I guess I'll go on to Parker Washington, since I just mentioned him. Just, beautiful kick return, you know, and the first of its kind. Right, because they're implementing the new kickoff formation and the new kickoff rules and he had the first big one of of the NFL. Of course, they've been using that kickoff formation in other leagues, but he had the first big one in the NFL.
Speaker 2:Doug Peterson talked about him as well, right, and you know how how powerful of a run it was and how much authority he was running, with, which that'll be something emphasized too in this new kickoff rule. It's because it is kind of like the role feels more like a running back role now, right, because you know the two lines are so close to each other, the blocking formations are so close to each other. Sometimes it's about reading and reacting, you know, and you know, breaking a tackle or two, which he did, he broke one and tackle at least, and I think some other people kind of got their hands on him but weren't able to kind of like get him in the grass, but, yeah, powerful run, as Doug Peterson said. Like get him in the grass but yeah, powerful run, as Doug Peterson said, the only thing I would like to see is him hang on to the ball, even though you know he carried the ball through the ground. Still, we want to coach perfection here. Right, I said that earlier in the tweet. We want to coach perfection, possess the ball even through the ground.
Speaker 2:You know, and like, when you develop those kind of habits, right, those are the kind of habits that make good teams elite, and I'm sure they will stress that he made some several good cuts in that whole process as well. Man, he looked like a freaking, I don't know like Deion Sanders or something. I know that's that's a large name to put on him, but the way he was cutting left and right man. He looked great out there in terms of that kick return and I'm excited about him, not just I mean we'll get into the offense to feel, but not just what he showed, particularly in that kick return, but he showed some things on the offensive side too with the one catch that he got or he may have gotten more than one catch, but it was one highlight catch that he came out of the game with as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I said this over on Twitter, the energy was electric when Parker Washington made that kickoff return. Obviously, we'd like to see him one take it to the house, but also two hang on to the football. And, jay, we'll talk about that, I'm sure, again a little bit later in this episode in terms of just ball security with him. But, uh, yeah, to back it up a little bit more for Cam Little. Uh, it was just great to see that confidence and I really think he's going to be a just a spark of energy on this team.
Speaker 1:You know how long, jay, on this podcast, in every iteration of the podcast, have you been campaigning for the team to draft a kicker? And, you know, stick with him and develop him as in, instead of having this revolving door of kickers over time. You know, everybody in this franchise knows the struggle of finding wide receivers here, like when it comes to the Jacksonville Jaguars, right, but you can also talk about that revolving door and that just rotation of kickers that have been in and out of town and hopefully, you know this is the guy that will be around for, you know, a decade plus. This is the guy, hopefully, that they're going to give a big contract extension to and he's going to be an all pro pro bowl player for us for a very, very long time. And, yeah, I mean the enthusiasm around Parker Washington has been set up by the team right by his teammates, by his coaches, talking about how great he has been in camp. And we got to see it firsthand here this weekend, which is great, and you know you love to see it firsthand here this weekend, which is great, and you know you love to see how.
Speaker 1:You know we, we talk about this in the group chat. You know we know better than to be enamored by what's happening in training camp. Now, right, we, we have been, uh, fooled one too many times by training camp darlings. And that's not specifically a jaguar thing, that's just in general, right, when you talk about some of the guys from Jaguar past where we're like, oh, this guy is going to be, this guy's definitely going to be it.
Speaker 1:For me it was Jared Dillard, right, jay, I was on the Jared Dillard hype train for the longest time. Never amounted to anything. But when you get to see it in real game action and exactly what they have been saying and putting out there in terms of in the media and you see tangible evidence of it happening right before your eyes. It just makes you feel good. So it was a great start. Glad they were able to get that touchdown drive in the beginning. You know, I'm sure we'll talk about the drive sputtering there a little bit at the end in terms of the second drive with Trevor and the offense, but overall it was. It was honestly the perfect way to come out, force the field goal, get the big kickoff return and then cap off that drive with a touchdown. You really couldn't script kind of a better way to start the preseason for the team.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah, and that's something that you know. When you look at the team, right, you look for situations in terms of last year, right, it was situations where they just go kind of cold and you say they need a spark and it was a lot of those moments where a spark was missing and that's one of the things that will get you going. And you know that was one of the plays to start the game, you know. So that that starts things for the offense on a high note and obviously the offense took advantage of it and scored a touchdown on it. So you know, that's another thing to consider too is, you know, parker Washington has that spark ability to spark an offense or just spark the team in general. You know, when they they reach those cold moments and then, on cam, you know one thing that was worth noting for him coming into the preseason, right, that you wanted to see, which he did show us and which doug mentioned, but he came from a arkansas team I think, it was arkansas um, I might have got my wife's cross
Speaker 2:okay. So yeah, he came from an Arkansas team where, you know, you're kicking in high pressure situations. You're kicking in these loud, super loud stadiums like LSU stadium. You're kicking in these stadiums like Sanford Stadium, at UGA right, you're going to the swamp and kicking in these loud stadiums. So you know that's probably one of the reasons they wanted this kid too is like he's been in high pressure environments, he's heard environments or he's kicked in environments that are probably going to be louder than the ones he's going to see in the nfl, quite frankly. But you still want that validation, right, and that sigh of relief to see him do it on the NFL level and so far it's been good and hopefully it will continue.
Speaker 2:I mean, last time Doug Peterson had a really young kicker under his wing. The Jacksonville not Jacksonville but the Philadelphia Eagles went on to do good things with that young kicker. That was Jake Elliott. Remember that year that they went to the Super Bowl. Jake Elliott, who I think was drafted, or brought into the league at least by the Bengals, didn't work out. The Eagles grabbed him and they molded him into, you know, a kicker that has now earned an extension, right? So, yeah, we could be looking at a situation like that.
Speaker 2:We're not. Well, we're Doug Peterson. You know we always talk about him having his young quarterback right and his young pass rusher of the future, having his young kicker who he can be confident in. You know, coming in and doing those game-winning kicks when needed. That's also big and that's some things. We can look back at, you know, when the season is over and say, hey, cam Little won us that game at the. You know, at the end there, and you know, that might have been the one game or two games we needed to get into the playoffs. Time will tell, but it's good to show that so far he is as advertised.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure, big time takeaway. When it comes to special teams and just special teams in general, you know kick coverage looked pretty solid. There was, I think, maybe one that looked like it was going to get away from us as far as a Chiefs kickoff return, but I didn't see anything necessarily too alarming when it comes to the team overall. I guess the next thing we'll discuss here Jay, I mean it was only one catch, but it was the highlight reel catch of the evening and that's rookie Brian Thomas Jr making the grab adjusting in air man. Jay, it's almost as if somebody pointed that out in their scouting report when it comes to Brian Thomas Jr, so let me just hand the ball off to you, pun intended and talk about BTJ's big catch there. And maybe what did you see from him in terms of a mechanic standpoint?
Speaker 2:anything stand out from his performance and you know just what you thought of his, uh, his performance overall yeah, yeah, it's funny you mentioned that I put the meme out about, you know, one of the things we saw in the scouting report and yeah, I mean that that catch was the epitome of that blurb of the scouting report.
Speaker 2:Right, it's just fighting through traffic because he didn't like, in that play the db was still kind of there, you know, like dpi that's why, yeah, I mean, and like he really not only had to track the ball but he had to track the ball through a body being in front of him, like it wasn't an easy catch by any means. Um, so, yeah, that was quite impressive to see. Um, it was another target that went his way, but it was broken up. It looks like I have to go back and look at it, but it was one of those targets that was towards the sideline and it was kind of hard to see because the dv made it like a good break on it. Um, and the 20 all 22 wasn't available at the time when I was like looking at the first few snaps that he was in, but I'll go back and look at it. But he had another target from CJ, but actually, but all of that said man, yeah, it was good. Of course, like he was one of the things that you know I mentioned in the, or one of the players I mentioned in that podcast before the game of you know who I want to see, of the players I mentioned in that podcast before the game of you know who I want to see, and of course you mean with him being the first round pick you. You want to see what he can do and how he looks.
Speaker 2:Um, again, he only played what like 12 snaps, so his time on the field was limited. It wasn't like he had a lot to work with uh. But for him to come out of the game with at least one catch, and one significant catch where he showed the explosiveness and the deep threat ability that this offense need uh is huge, is real huge, and I think I saw somebody mention it might have been darian chill shout outs to him on x or twitter. Um, but somebody mentioned he. I think thomas might have been the only first round receiver with a catch in the preseason. I have to go back and look and see if that was accurate, but if he was, I mean, that's a big feather in the cap of Jags fans that we could brag about for the week. Whatever the case may be, but yeah, man, we just want to continue to see that relationship develop With the Bucs coming into town. That'll be a good test for him because you know, at some point, man, you get tired of like and you get accustomed to practicing against your own team. It's always good to switch it up and see. You know how everybody looks against different personnel right and different rosters and what have you. And I think this week presents a good opportunity for him.
Speaker 2:If Brian Thomas could get a few good impactful catches in the practices against the Bucs and in the game against the Bucs, that would be huge and he would certainly be trending in a direction that we want him to be trending in because you know he kind of started the preseason slow or training camp slow, should I say.
Speaker 2:And then you know, these last few weeks you've heard about him, you know here and there Brian Thomas on the deep pass from Trevor Lawrence, brian Thomas on another deep pass from Trevor Lawrence, brian Thomas with a one-hander or something like that. So he's starting to find his footing and you know he's a guy that you know I've said this he's a little bit more of a project than the other receivers but if he continues to improve on a week-to-week basis, we could be looking at a player who helps trevor lawrence in a lot of different ways and then, you know, in a lot of different key moments, heading into a regular season where we're going to have probably what's looking like going to be a close afc south race between us and the houston texans yeah, and then seeing the reaction of the sideline after he got that catch was great as well.
Speaker 1:Uh, you know, you saw gabe davis, christian kerr trev get up there and uh, you know, you just want to see that unity. Obviously, early on it's you know, everything is fresh, everybody is you, the records are zero and zero. It's a little bit easier to see things like that, but it's just again when you were talking about a position like wide receiver, where, like you said, jay, he was having those struggles early on and now it seems like they're building up that chemistry. You know it's a big deal, I think, when it it comes to when you're talking about a franchise like the Jaguars and the history that we've had, you take those types of wins and you take that kind of energy and you run with it. You know, I think it's it's, it's OK to get kind of latched on to things like that, even though it's just one catch, you still feel pretty good about it. But, jay, I guess we'll transition here because I do want to ask you about, you know, just the the performance of the quarterback.
Speaker 1:Obviously, trevor Lawrence was going to be the big talk. You know how does he look in in the couple series that he played. Obviously, he got the touchdown pass. Travis Etienne, there was the instance where he took the sack on the second drive and you and, if you're in the same circles as us, john Shipley was talking about this, as well as a few other people on Jaguar Twitter, where I think it was the I don't know if it was the play where he took the sack, but it was a different play where Evan Ingram is running wide open, and those are just things where now, at this point in year four, wide open, and those are just things where now, at this point in year four, that I feel like he should be adjusting to or noticing and picking out right away. Is that an overreaction or what was your takeaway from his performance overall on the day for the two drives that we did see him out there?
Speaker 2:yeah, you know, laurie fitzpatrick kind of pointed it out to that play where he missed ingram and yeah, that's frustrating man to see him take that sack. And you know, maybe you could get it to ingram there. Um, instead of just kind of trying to go for something deeper, you can get it to ingram there. Ingram can make something happen after the catch. But even if he can't, you know you're in a situation where the the kick's easier for cam little, who we just praised, who has a, you know, obviously has a strong leg. So you know, you, just, you at least have a chance at some points, even though it would have been a long kick. Um, again, maybe evan ingram get you some yards after the catch you never know. Um, but laur of pointed out, with Trevor, you know he's always focused on the deeper threat, right, and that clearly showed itself there. And what I will say with that is that's kind of a gift and a curse, right, that's the kind of thing that'll win you a Super Bowl, you know, if you have the offensive line and the weapons to have that mentality, and it's the type of thing that could lose you some important games too if you, you know, don't have the talent around you and you need every point right. You know you're in a situation where every point is crucial and you know a field goal could be the difference between you know you may be going to the playoffs or whatever the case may be, or winning the extra game for crying out loud. You know, just to kind of give everybody example, what I'm talking about is the Jaguars almost had double digit wins last year. They were one win away from having 10 wins Right, and sometimes the margin of error is so small where you can't miss those opportunities to put points on the board is what I'm saying. So you know, for Trevor, you would hope in the regular season and this is a positive take out of it. Maybe in a regular season he doesn't take that set Right and he understands the gravity of the situation and he gets the ball to Evan Ingram or at least gets it out of his hand, whatever the case may be, but nonetheless, you know that's something that Trevor you know has to in a regular season. Let's hope we're not revisiting, you know, the same conversation talking about it overall, though, with Trevor Again, didn't really see a lot of snaps out there, so like it's kind of hard to make an evaluation on him.
Speaker 2:What I will say is what I liked, and what's a very important aspect for this team, is his connection with gabe davis. Right, um, they took one from them which he hit gabe davis on the sideline, um. And then there was one where he hit gabe davis. Stood right in the too, had a little pressure come in the middle, stood right there in the pocket and hit Gabe Davis, who was bracketed between what looked to be a safety and a linebacker in front of him. Went right over the linebacker's head like, right, like, I freeze-framed it and I was actually going to put this on Twitter, but the linebacker's hand was like right there, just outstretched hand, just perfect dime over his outstretched hand. It gave Davis beautiful pass, man. And that is the kind of stuff that you know when you look at Trevor Lawrence, that you know gives you positive vibes about him.
Speaker 2:Heading forward, is those kind of pinpoint, accurate passes.
Speaker 2:Hopefully it's more of those moments than it is, moments where it's like ah, trevor, don't take that sack, whatever the case may be. But you know, like I said, he wasn't really out there too long, can't really like put too much into it. But I will say I did really like what I saw out of him and Gabe Davis in terms of their connection. And just Gabe Davis translating from the standpoint of what we were saying about what he was in Buffalo. Translating from the standpoint of what we were saying about what he was in Buffalo right, a possessions guy. Each attempt to Gabe Davis was either for a first down or would have been a first down in the case of the one that was ruled out of bounds. So that's huge for this offense. If you tell me that every time Trevor Lawrence is going to Gabe Davis is going to be a first down, that means that we could be in for a very, very good season and you know that's what you hope for when you, you know, put some money into a receiver in the offseason.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a lot of excitement surrounding Gabe Davis on my end as well. And as far as that connection and like you said, I mean, like I said earlier, just the synergy of the wide receiver room, I think at least I can, I least I can speak for you, jay where we certainly wanted to see Calvin Ridley back, but it just felt like there was something a little off in the wide receiver room last year. And listen, it's easy to say that now that he's gone and of course he also signed with a division rival, so that doesn't help either, but it just seems like early on there's just a lot of synergy within that group between the quarterback as well as the wide receivers. So I I think again, when you're talking from a optic standpoint and what you want to see from the outside, looking in, that's only a positive for the relatively like casual football fan. When you're just trying to base it on for lack of better term vibes alone, you just come away from it feeling pretty good. I think there's a good healthy competition for who the fifth and possibly sixth wide receiver is going to be, and you know you just you feel like the, the core group is kind of set in stone and you feel good about that group as well, even though brian thomas jr is a rookie, I think, when you align him with a gabe davis as well as a christian kirk, that's that I mean. People are talking a lot about the, the group in chicago, and for good reason, I understand it keenan allen, um, dj moore and uh and and then pairing them, you know, with roma dunze.
Speaker 1:I think having that kind of veteran synergy in the uh, you know, in the receiver room, can only be beneficial.
Speaker 1:So I think that has a lot to do with why the chemistry seems to be so solid early on, even though, jay, I mean, let's be honest, there's a lot of turnover in the wide receiver room.
Speaker 1:Right, no more Jamal Agnew, no more Zay Jones, calvin Ridley gone and we're bringing this new group in and I think it's solid that everybody is feeling pretty good about it. And then, obviously, you know, evan Ingram returning to being part of that group and that veteran presence is only going to be incredibly beneficial for not only Brian Thomas Jr, but you're talking about a guy like a Bretton Strange who you want to see take a step forward. You know, luke Farrell had a nice catch. He's been here, a nice constant presence here. Those are the type of guys that you need to fill out your roster that are also going to be just good lifelines for Trevor right or a good source of veteran leadership on this team. I think, when you look at all that I think that's a big reason why people like ourselves are feeling pretty good right yeah, yeah, and you said it too.
Speaker 2:You know me and you wanted calvin ridley back. But also with that, you know and this shouldn't be the case with one a veteran back, but with that, we know we, or we knew, a lot would have to change from how things look last year to this year, even with keeping him right. So you know that that's something to consider. There is like, yeah, calvin Ridley had like a thousand yards and he was a big time target for Trevor, but still, as you said, something was missing and a lot had to still change for them to get where they need to be, even with signing Calvin Ridley. So, losing him and replacing him with a rookie and Gabe Davis, you know somebody who has a different skill set. Losing him and replacing him with a rookie and gabe davis, you know somebody who has a different skill set than him. And you know and in the case of thomas, you know somebody a little bit cheaper than him, although not as polished, but cheaper than him, and, um, great, a better physical ability. When you talk about height, weight, speed, perspective, you know that the move could be one that we look back at and say like, hey, man, like yeah, they lost Calvin Ridley. But it didn't take them long to get back on their feet, you know type of thing. So we'll see, we'll monitor that.
Speaker 2:Nonetheless, still one thing that hasn't changed is, even with losing Ridley, our excitement didn't change Once we, you know, saw that we got Brian Thomas in the picture and drafted him. So that excitement is still validated now, not just for him but for Gabe Davis as well, after what we saw from those two yesterday and hopefully, you know, things will continue to go in the right direction with them. Because again, you know, training camp kind of started slow for both of them, right, and if I can recall, gabe davis might have missed some days in training camp, but I could be wrong on it, but if he was there I don't remember hearing his name much. And then, you know, as the days go by and you know we're in double digit days of training camp now we're starting to hear more of Gabe Davis and Brian Thomas. Not only that, but now that the pads have gone on too. So that's normally a good sign, like when the pads go on, you're hearing about your receivers. That means you're trending in the right direction.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%. But, jay, what about any type of defensive takeaways here that you saw from Saturday night? You know a lot of people talking about Terrell Edmonds, monteric Brown, yasir Abdullah got involved there on Saturday as well. As far as the defensive side, what kind of takeaways did you see on the other side of the football that maybe we should be looking at going forward, whether those be positives or negatives.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wish we would have and I've kind of alluded to this on the Touchdown J or Twitter handle. I wish we would have got a better showing out of the starting defense. I put that cut up of where Pacheco ran for like 15 yards and so on him. But you know something to keep in mind. You know Eric Armstead isn't there yet. He should be back soon, according to Doug Peterson. So that'll help the interior of the defense and we'll see where things go when he's added into the mix, but wish we could have had a little bit better showing out of the starting group, um. Another thing to consider there too, though, is the jaguars didn't have tyson campbell too, so they were, you know, out, um, they were without, should I say, their starting corner. Who they believe in, you know to a great. Obviously they just gave him a contract. But also in terms of the defense.
Speaker 2:Now, what I will say is I like a lot of what I saw out of the deep, of the backups, right, the people that will help this team on a rotational basis, perhaps Travis Gibson, who, you know, we went into this offseason saying like the Jaguars need a third pass rusher, the Jaguars need a third pass rusher right. And you know a lot of us were saying, including myself, like let's go get Yannick, or you know, let's go find somebody out there who isn't signed yet, Kind of like what we did with my guy, that's Arden Key. We kind of got him a little bit later. Now it wasn't in the offseason, but it was kind of later after free agency. It was kind of one of those late free agency signings, kind of like that a little bit. You know we were saying like let's get that third pass rusher. And you know this team, you know they'll take an extra step with that third pass rusher. Lo and behold. You know the Jags have been saying the whole time, or at least showcasing the whole time, that they were really, really high on Travis Gibson, who they signed in free agency.
Speaker 2:And he was a guy that showed up like in that first drive where I mentioned with the starters. He was one of the standouts actually, even though he won't necessarily be a starter. He was in on like three consecutive plays on that first defensive drive. He, in one play I think he, yeah, he was rushing up the field to go get Patrick Mahomes. Patrick Mahomes got it out so fast he got out to Travis Kelsey. Travis Gibson just had to make a beeline, turn it around and just go tackle Travis Kelsey himself, which was that's kind of neat. You don't typically see an edge guy having to tackle a tight end, but he went out there and made the play right. And then next, next, very next play, travis Gibson gets in on a run stuff behind the line of scrimmage on. I think it was Pacheco. So, showing up in the run game very next play. And then in the third play where, um, it was third down where Patrick Mahomes threw it to I think it was a running back and the running back dropped it. Um, gibson was in on the pressure there too, uh, to get Patrick Mahomes to kind of, you know, throw that a little bit quicker than he wanted to. So all of that said man Gibson, look good, and he's a guy I'll be watching heading forward. He's going to only get more snaps, you know, as the preseason prolongs. So that's a good thing and I'll be watching him.
Speaker 2:Chad Mooma man, chad mooma played very instinctively, man, I like what I saw out of him. He's a guy that you know, we had questions about, you know, and a lot of people were saying, like why on earth did trent balky draft him after drafting devin lloyd? Right, and you know, here here's a guy in this new scheme. They've talked about his versatility and how that he help them from many spots, which is huge. That means we're going to get more use out of a third round pick from two years ago, right, so that's good.
Speaker 2:But he just played very instinctively. You know it went a lot of thinking for him. It was one tackle he made on somebody coming out of the backfield, got him right there in their tracks, didn't let him get an extra yard. None of that Stopped them right in their tracks. That's what you like to see and that's something that this Jaguars defense has missed. We're always missing tackles and allowing yards after the catch. But Chad Mumu was there, right there on the spot. No wasted movement Stopped the ball carrier right there after the catch and he also got in on uh a run stuff behind the line of scrimmage getting downhill, you know, maneuvering through the traffic, making a play in the backfield. So I like what I saw out of him as well. So, yeah, those were just two guys that uh stood out to me personally.
Speaker 2:Um, I I think down the road from the starters we might see a little bit more of not just in terms of snaps but also, um, just impact plays as well, because again down the road, eventually somewhere they're going to get eric armstead back and tyson campbell back.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, one other thing to feel is, you know, I want to say, with the new defensive scheme, I know it's not like a lot of game planning, but I do think like, especially when you look at the backups and the younger players, a lot of them seem like they felt a lot more comfortable and nobody was kind of confused as to where to go and what their assignments were and all of that stuff. Everybody felt pretty decisive on what they were asked to do. When you know, a lot of those young guys made plays in the, you know, second, third and fourth quarters, um, so that was something also that I took out of this situation is just, it looks like ryan nielsen has possibly simplified things for them, but again, it's kind of hard to tell because they don't do a lot of game planning, but it did look like things were simplified, especially for the younger players yeah, listen, I mean the impact that ryan nielsen appears to have had on the defense overall cannot be understated.
Speaker 1:I mean we had that sound bite that went a little viral of trayvon walker, right, talking about how he is not going to miss dropping back into coverage. It just seems like he has put these guys in places that they are most comfortable, right, and Jay, tell me if I'm wrong, but like I feel like you know, football players are very much creatures of habit. You know they want to be put in situations that are familiar with them and, yeah, sometimes you want to push them to go a little bit outside of their comfort zone. But when it comes to doing what they do best, it shouldn't really be that difficult of a task to put them in said situation. So it seems, like Ryan Nielsen, I mean you say that it's maybe simplifying, but I think you know, maybe it is also just putting them in familiar positions where they know they can excel right, like, at a certain point, you know, getting to this point, I would say, this level of football.
Speaker 1:I think each and every player knows that you know what they do best in the situations that they are, that they are best suited for. So when you take them out of that comfort zone and not necessarily because so when you take them out of that comfort zone and not necessarily because so when you take them and put them into situations where they know they're not really going to thrive, then you're going to get performances like we saw last year, like is that an an oversimplification of it? Like it's just ryan nielsen knowing where to put these guys and how to get the very best out of them.
Speaker 2:Because that seems like what's happening, even though, again, it's a very small sample size early on and the defense isn't even at full strength yet well, yeah, I mean, you make a good point about, you know, football players wanting to be, you know, creatures of habit, right, because we, we live in the generation of football where comfort is key. Back in the day, they used to force in. A prime example of this is not just every position, but the best example of this is like quarterbacks, right back in the day, they used to, you know, make the quarterback transfer his game and to the pro game, right, and what they found in that process is that coaches was getting fired and the quarterbacks were coming out as busts. And you know, somewhere down the road I want to say around 2010 ish, somewhere around there they started to get it like let's start putting these quarterbacks and players in general in positions that make them more comfortable. You know, let's bring more of the college game to the, the NFL game and make them more comfortable, because obviously that formula from before wasn't working.
Speaker 2:So now you see it where, you know, almost every coach that's, that's what you hear out of almost every coach's mouth now it's like we want to do what makes this player comfortable for the most part. You know, like you said, you'll never like be able to do 100 what makes them comfortable, but we want to make this player comfortable like you never really heard that from coach speak back in the day, right? Phil. I mean you've been watching this game a long time, right, and we've seen a lot of quarterbacks and just players in general come through and especially as Jacksonville Jaguars fans end up as butts, right, and a lot of that. You know it wasn't just the Jaguars, but a lot of that with teams in general was they were trying to. You know they were putting too much on the plates of these players, players.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I mean for ryan nielsen to come in and, you know, just make everybody as comfortable as possible in terms of just schematics and simplifying stuff. That's huge and you know I think that will. Again, we talked about how the jaguars were just one game away from having double digit wins, that those are the kind of small things that get you that extra win when things are simplified and you know everybody knows where they can, where they're supposed to go, and you, those are the kind of small things that get you that extra win when things are simplified and everybody knows where they're supposed to go and people are put in position to make that one extra defensive play or that one extra pick, six that can turn nine games into ten. So that's huge and I can only hope that it continues, heading forward from this point on with Ryan N know Ryan Nielsen and you know how everybody is looking in the new scheme.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we know better than anybody that the margin of error in the league is so small. And you know you're talking about the difference of going nine and eight, missing out on the playoffs altogether, losing the division, and you know, like you said, winning 10, 11 games in a division that's going to be extremely competitive, obviously with all eyes on houston. And you know this does seem to be the type of situation where the jaguars do thrive, right like there is a nfl darling within the division. You know, I think probably equivalent in the nfc is probably the detroit lions, maybe the green actually, you know, probably the green bayers. When you talk about a young quarterback and a young roster, the Packers are probably that in the NFC. So you know, when you're talking about a team like the Jaguars coming in and so being so heavily favored in 2023, and then you know Houston coming out of nowhere, doing what they did they got a quarterback that seems like they could be a superstar. This is a position in which the Jaguars have always thrived. Because we are in this small market, because people are always counting us out. You know the Jaguars are going to Jaguar. Nobody wants to pay attention to us. You know national media doesn't want to talk about us National pundits. They don't want to come here. So this is one of those situations where Jacksonville does thrive, you know, and will continue to do so. You know, no matter what the attention is and what the outside chatter is, or how little the chatter is, I guess I should say.
Speaker 1:But, jay, as we kind of get closer to the hour mark of this episode, anything else you want to kind of point out? We kind of just freestyled this episode. We too are in preseason mode here for the Touchdown Jaguars podcast. So as we get a little bit closer to the season, you know, things kind of figure themselves out. We of course want to make sure we start getting to the point where we highlight opponents as well. We're going to try and work in all of that as we, you know, get through the season. But anything else you want to highlight, anything else you've jotted down from Saturday night, you know, obviously we're very much looking forward to the week ahead with Tampa as they come in for the joint practices and then culminating in the game on Saturday. Anything else you want to discuss here towards the end of the episode?
Speaker 2:No, man, I think we got it all for the most part, especially with us coming on the one-hour mark. So yeah, I don't want to prolong it too long. I will say this one thing that I did kind of didn't, um, that we didn't mention here tank bixby. How good he looked. That's another like important part, because I feel like it's worth mentioning, because we've been tanks, uh harshest critics here too. So, like when he does well, like you want to put that out there he had a a great game running the ball and you know he just kind of showcased that, him and the backup offensive line.
Speaker 2:I got some cuts of Walker Little doing his thing too, but him and that backup offensive line kind of brought some physicality that we've lacked. So he'll be somebody to watch heading forward. So shout outs to him. But yeah, I think we pretty much hit on all of it, man, as always. So shout outs to him. But yeah, I think we pretty much hit on all of it, man, as always. You know where you can find the content. You can always find us on the Twitter handle, of course, at TD Jaguars pod, and then of course, the Web site is wwwtouchdownjaguarscom. So yeah, hopefully we'll be able to provide some preseason analysis on the website as well, but we definitely will have some on Twitter, as we already have and will be adding to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is the best place to keep up with everything in terms of content during the week. It is where we are the most active as far as sharing news. I say it every year and Jay, you know he does his best as well to kind of keep it updated. But we will try our best for those of you that follow us on Instagram to try and keep that as active as possible. It's just so hard to manage all these social media accounts, as you got some of you might know. You know I also cover you know I also have another podcast. I also have other things that I work on, jay, as well. So we are going to try our best to cover Instagram.
Speaker 1:As far as another party, I don't foresee us making a Facebook page or anything. That's the worst of all the social media sites. If you still use Facebook as your primary social media platform, leave that please. I'm not saying, come to Twitter. You don't necessarily have to do that. That's also a disaster. But get off facebook is what I'll say.
Speaker 1:Jade, this needs to be the year where we convince boogie to just run instagram. Uh, we'll see if he actually does it. I doubt it, but we we need to look into that for sure. But uh, yeah, once again, reminder, link, tree, link, show notes of this episode. Everything that you need is in there, and if you could use our promo code touchdownjaguars, to save yourself $20 on the SeatGeek website off of your first purchase, all that is incredibly beneficial, along with leaving us five-star reviews on Spotify, apple Podcasts, wherever you can. All of that greatly appreciated Folks. That is my co-host, james Johnson, I am Phil Smith and we are back, baby. As far as football goes, we have Jaguar football. We're going to cover it from now until the very end, hopefully culminating in a Super Bowl win. So do not forget to tune in to Touchdown Jaguars for every Jaguar touchdown and we'll see you next week.