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.”
Notes & Quotes
- Campanile has been bringing a special guest to practice: legendary defensive line coach Pete Jenkins, who has nearly four decades of football coaching experience including 22 seasons in the SEC and three in the NFL. “He’s kind of been everywhere I’ve been since I was in Miami, and like, he’s the G.O.A.T.,” Campanile said. “So much of what I believe comes from Coach, and he’s honest. He comes in here, and he’s ripping my ass and ripping everybody—he’s just telling the truth. We got him in here kind of just watching everything, making sure we’re doing a great job with the drills and training the guys the right way. He’s done a pretty good job for all the teams in the SEC the last 10, what, 20 years, 30 years. So hopefully, having him here, I know it is going to help us.”
- When asked what he’s specifically looking to improve in his game this offseason, Travon Walker replied, “Obviously, I’m a big power player, I just feel like I need to start playing with my length a little bit more. If I play with my length a lot more, it’ll keep guys from getting on me so much and having to bench press and having to use my strength all the time. I just start off locked out, I feel like I’ll take advantage of a lot more of my reps.”
- Jacksonville’s pair of sixth-round rookie wideouts continued to flash. Josh Cameron had a strong sideline snag against Montaric Brown to move the chains during a two-minute period; CJ Williams went full extension while keeping his feet inbounds for a touchdown during a redzone period. All of a sudden, the team’s receiver room is as deep as it’s ever been.
- Ameer Abdullah looks good! Sporting three-quarters-length pants, the spry 33-year-old had consecutive long runs down the right sideline in 11-vs-11 team drills. The only other positive run I recall came from Bhayshul Tuten. Abdullah is competing with DeeJay Dallas and UDFA J’Mari Taylor to make the 53-man roster as RB4.
- Right (maybe left?) tackle Anton Harrison got knicked up during team drills, but it wasn’t bad enough to depart practice, and Lawrence was sporting an arm sleeve on his throwing shoulder (as he did last offseason) simply because he’s throwing so much. Arik Armstead and Chris Rodriguez Jr. had scheduled days off. Unfortunately, in more significant injury news, linebacker Jared Bartlett was carted off the field with an apparent right leg injury.
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