The regular season is officially here, with the Jacksonville Jaguars opening the Miller Electric Center practice fields for their first practice of the 2025 regular season. Here are our key takeaways from Monday’s Labor Day practice, Head Coach Liam Coen’s post-practice media availability, and some additional updates from the Carolina Panthers.
Jacksonville Team Captains Announced
Head Coach Liam Coen kicked off Monday’s post-practice media availability with the announcement of the 2025 Jacksonville Jaguars permanent team captains.
- QB Trevor Lawrence
- C Robert Hainsey
- DE Josh Hines -Allen
- LB Foye Oluokun
- CB Jourdan Lewis
- P Logan Cooke
- The seventh game day captain spot will be a rotating week-by-week role
Hainsey
and Lewis being named as captains is notable, with both being new, free agent additions to the roster. The remaining four captains have all been with the team for multiple seasons. Coen also confirmed that the captain agreement was reached via team vote:
“Yeah, we did a team vote before we left for the mini-break there and the nice thing is you didn’t have to fudge it to get kind of what you wanted. It was pretty clear. Pretty clear based on the votes and the ballots that these were the six guys that got the most. There was a ton of guys that you could’ve bumped up potentially, you just don’t have enough spots, you only have six of them, but it was cool to acknowledge the amount of people that did receive votes throughout the team. That was nice to see, especially some of the guys that may not have ever been voted for in the past that did receive some votes. It kind of shows that those guys are making an impact. It wasn’t hard to get to the six guys.”
Injuries Hit Carolina Hard
While Coen did not directly provide an update on the injury front for Jacksonville, neither CB Montaric Brown nor OL Wyatt Milum participated in Monday’s practice, with Brown working out on the sidelines. Cole Van Lanen was again full participant after returning to practice last Thursday. However, the Panthers have not been as fortunate as Carolina traded veteran WR Adam Thielen to the Minnesota Vikings last week, to then days later place WR Jalen Corker on IR with a quad injury. The trade and subsequent injury opens the door for significant snaps for rookie Tetairoa McMillan, second-year WR Xavier Legette, and recently re-signed veteran WR Hunter Renfrow. Coach Coen touched on the Panthers’ wide receiver room recent shakeup:
“I think T-Mac being a rookie, we know we liked him coming out of the draft, we know what some of those traits are that he can do with some of the one-on-one opportunities as well. And then Legette can really run. Big, physical receiver. Hunter Renfrow has won in the slot here for years. What does that look like? I think they’ll probably remain within what they do. I don’t know if it’ll drastically change how they operate. Maybe we’ll see a little bit more 12, 13 [personnel], just for depth reasons alone, for sure. So, I don’t think it’ll drastically change things for us, but Coker is a good player. He did a lot for them in terms of the run game, blocking, but also, he has some wiggle and can run. Coker and Hunter are different players. I think that’s probably where you’ll see a little bit of a different usage out of those players that will and can affect how we play a little bit, but I’m not sure it’ll have a huge, drastic issue on the gameplan.”
Losing multiple pass catchers in less than five days this close to the start of the regular season is normally a big loss, however that’s not the end of the injury list for Carolina. Left tackle Ikem Ekwinu also had an appendectomy last week. His healing status is currently up in the air, per Panthers’ Head Coach Dave Canales:
“He had appendicitis. He wasn’t feeling good, and then ultimately went to the hospital and they said, ‘We’ve got to do surgery here. We have to remove this.’ So he had his appendix removed. He’s day-to-day. We’ve seen these things turn around in a little over a week — they can be longer. It just depends on each individual body, how you respond to the surgery, how your body heals the right way.”
Canales advised that the team will consider Ekwonu as “day-to-day” up to gameday. “That’s something that we’re gonna have to keep our eye on as we go,” Canales stated. If Ekwonu is unable to go, Yosh Nijman would be the likely candidate to fill in at left tackle. Nijman, has 25 career starts, with three coming in 2024.
A History with Carolina
Jacksonville will be opening the 2025 regular season with somewhat of a foreign opponent, as Jacksonville has only faced Carolina eight times, with the series tied 4 to 4. However, Coen faced the in-division Panthers twice while with the 2024 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which he discussed:
“We definitely go back and look (at the Panthers’ defense) because I don’t think the overall structure will change. I do believe that we will see some unscouted looks for sure whether it’s a personnel grouping or whether it’s a blitz or coverage or something along those lines. I don’t think they probably altered their entire structure, so yeah, you definitely go back and look at what was successful twice last year playing those guys. What fits, what we’ve done well up to this point and we can kind of use those schemes or concepts to our advantage, but they’ve definitely added some players via pro-free agency and the draft as well. So, you’re just curious to see maybe how they’re going to utilize those players, if that impacts and effects their defensive structure at all.”
Coen’s Buccaneers went 2 and 0 versus the 2024 Panthers, winning a week 13 26-23 overtime thriller in their first matchup before a 48-14 week 17 Tampa Bay demolition over the then three-win Panthers. While Coen may be able to glean a few items from Carolina’s 2024 game film, Coen also was of the belief that Carolina would attempt to do the same in reviewing the prior year’s matchups with the Bucs.
“I would think that they probably have an idea of watching the Tampa stuff that it’s probably not going to go too far off of that. It’s just more, ok, what personnel groupings are we going to major in, especially early on in the season in game one. What that looks like for us. And then the personnel is obviously a little bit different. I think that both teams are able to go and look at some of the stuff from last year and be able to use that, either to the advantage or man this is something that we didn’t do well that they took advantage of that we need to improve upon so that it doesn’t happen again.”
Undecided on if Hunter will start
Rookie WR/CB Travis Hunter, in the early portions of training camp participated on both sides of the ball religiously, before missing he final two preseason games and was limited in multiple practices after sustaining an upper-body injury on August 14th. While Coen previously advised that the team was treating the injury cautiously and did not want to risk Hunter further aggravating the issue, general manager James Gladstone, confirmed on Wednesday that Hunter was full go on the Miller Electric Fields. So, while we know that Hunter will play, and will likely not be medically limited, the team is still working through the details of if the Heisman Trophy winner will start on both sides of the ball.
“We’re still working through it right now. He obviously missed a lot of time there that can impact playing anybody, nonetheless a rookie that misses quite a bit of time so what that usage looks like we’re still working through.”
The matchup between Hunter and McMillan will surely be one to watch.
For those interested, the full media availability can be watched here.
