An under-the-radar story out of the Miller Electric Center last offseason was the Jacksonville Jaguars’ plan for offensive tackle Anton Harrison.
After protecting the blindside for 23 of his 25 college starts at Oklahoma, the 2023 first-round pick spent his first two NFL seasons lined up on the other side of the formation. He’s done pretty okay for himself.
Houston Texans defensive end Will Anderson Jr., the league’s highest-paid non-quarterback, recently said on Randy Moss’ fishing podcast that Harrison
is the first name that comes to mind when he thinks of players who give him problems.
“We in the same class. And of course, we play each other more than any other tackle I go against, but he kind of remind me of LT [Laremy Tunsil] a little bit. Like they kind of like the same size, athletic build.”
The Jaguars considered putting Harrison back at left tackle because Walker Little’s eight-game audition for the role (following the Cam Robinson trade in October 2024) wasn’t all that inspiring.
Harrison was far from the only Jaguar to cross-train at two different positions last offseason, but in his regard, the team may have been hoping that he’d look good enough on the left side to make an immediate and permanent switch.
Jacksonville’s long-rumored goal of making Harrison its long-term left tackle was thwarted, however, when he sprained an ankle during training camp. There wasn’t any steam behind a position switch after that.
But what about now?
Head coach Liam Coen was asked after Monday’s OTA practice what the cross-training plan for Harrison looks like this offseason.
“We actually did talk about it a little bit last week. It’s something that you don’t want to mess with too much unless you’re going to make a change. I think you look at what Detroit’s doing with [Penei] Sewell, I mean, that’s going to be a long-term change that they’re making.
“It was something that we wanted to do a little bit throughout training camp, specifically, I remember in the mock game we did it. And that was a little bit more to see how the guys would react and see what that would look like. We absolutely will do that again. But, just, also trying to get him—it’s OTA No. 4, so we’re just trying to get a little bit more of that continuity and chemistry back before doing that.
“And look, if that was something he was super, like, ‘Man, I want to go play left, this is where I see myself as a player,’ that would probably push us more in that direction. But we’ve had conversations about it. He’s very comfortable on the right side. So, I would imagine we would do it again at some point.”
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