2026 NFL training camps are about to kick off around the league, turning America’s attention back from fútbol to football.
Travis and I will be out at the Miller Electric Center throughout the next few weeks to report back on your Jacksonville Jaguars. While he monitors several positional battles, I’ll be keeping an eye on two players in particular.
TE Nate Boerkircher
Jacksonville’s skill player lineup for 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WRs) looks impressive on paper. The starting receivers will be Brian Thomas Jr., Parker
Washington, and Jakobi Meyers; the top tight end will be Brenton Strange; and the lead running back role will rotate between Bhayshul Tuten, Chris Rodriguez Jr., and LeQuint Allen Jr.
The Jaguars are equipped for lighter packages as well. 10 personnel (1 RB, 0 TEs, 4 WRs) would allow Travis Hunter to play alongside those aforementioned wideouts, while 21 personnel (2 RBs, 1 TE, 2 WRs) — specifically, “pony” packages that field two receiving-capable backs as opposed to a tailback and a fullback — is another potential wrinkle to create schematic advantages.
But what about when the offense wants to put heavier bodies on the field?
Liam Coen could experiment with jumbo packages that add an extra offensive lineman to the equation, as he did on BLANK snaps in his first year as Jaguars head coach, but that was more so a necessity than a luxury. During the middle of the 2025 season, Strange was placed on injured reserve, Hunter Long and Quintin Morris missed five combined games, and Johnny Mundt was at one point a healthy scratch. A lack of tight end availability gave way to more jumbo package opportunities.
Plays with extra offensive linemen will still be part of Coen’s offense, but he’ll want to scale back those looks in favor of ones with multiple tight ends.
The return of 12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TEs, 2 WRs) and 13 personnel (1 RB, 3 TEs, 1 WR) to a league ruled by three-receiver sets is perhaps the top schematic story of this offseason.
Jacksonville re-signed Morris before selecting two tight ends, Nate Boerkircher and Tanner Koziol, in a draft that saw 22 tight ends in total go off the board (most since 2002).
As a nearly-25-year-old prospect with just 38 career receptions, the selection of Boerkircher at No. 56 overall originally caught observers off guard. He’s an intriguing athlete, sure, but a near-top-50 selection? For someone who projects to be a No. 2 tight end? Really?
Really.
The Jags liked Morris enough to bring him back, and Long is still on the roster, but they’re hoping to see Boerkircher earn a Week 1 role as a complementary piece to Strange.
During OTAs in June, Coen hinted toward a larger receiving workload for his top tight end so long as Boerkircher can hold up as a blocker.
“As much as man, we love Brenton Strange blocking and he’s so tough, he wants to do it, he’s physical, he’ll bite you. He also missed some time last year … when you look at when he has production what our record looks like, it’s kind of interesting to see. And so, allowing Brenton to continue to do what he does well, but also to maybe take some of that wear and tear, some of the pounding that it takes when you’re blocking the Travon Walkers of the world and Josh Hines-Allens of the world, getting him matched up more on those linebackers and safeties and now he’s an advantage for us. Now we have an edge. So, we always feel good about Strange blocking at the point of attack, but we needed some help there. Being able to provide Strange an option to go maybe split out or go block other people that maybe keep him out of some of those one-on-one big situations, I think that’s going to help us tremendously.”
I’m prepared to be underwhelmed by Boerkircher’s impact in the pass game for the duration of his rookie season. However, if he can hold his own in the trenches as early as training camp, I’ll feel much more comfortable about the flexibility of Coen’s offense entering the 2026 season.
EDGE Travon Walker
At the NFL’s annual league meetings back in March, Coen revealed a bold goal he set for Walker.
“I had an almost two-hour meeting with him at the end of the season. Just what that looked like in terms of dominating. You know, I was with Aaron Donald in L.A., and we literally had to take him out of practice in order for us to gain yards on offense. And so, if you want to get where you want to go, and where we want you to go, and where you can go, I need to be taking you out of practice so that we can operate on offense. I want that kind of destruction and mindset and mentality. And he was on the same page about it.”
“Not talent, not anything about their length and size and anything that way. It’s just habits. Elite habits, elite practice preparation, game preparation, that. Those habits. The way that you practice on a day-to-day basis. I’d better be taking you out of the practice for us to operate. You should disrupt the entire thing in order for us to operate. I want that.”
Let’s see if we get it!
Walker does have a lot of momentum entering this season, and not just because he’s $110 million richer. After ranking top-15 among all NFL defenders in sacks (2) and pressures (12) through the first three games of last season, he sustained the first of several injuries in Week 4, but continued to play relatively well nonetheless.
The former Bulldog offers defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile the type of X’s and O’s advantage that Coen is hoping to get out of Boerkircher. On The Brent & Austen Show in April, Campanile said Walker’s versatility “is really what enables us to do a lot of the things that we do.”
“A guy like Travon lets us play so many different fronts over the course of the game with the same personnel grouping that it makes it hard for the offense to ever get a gauge on what you’re going to be in in terms of the front. It’s one thing in the backend, you know, to be multiple and changing coverages and all that, but to be able to come out and be in over defense, be in under defense, be in bear, be in 6-1 defense, you know, be in loaded fronts. You really have to have a guy who’s versatile enough to do that.”
The now-healthy and wealthy Walker started to flash those AD-like habits at OTAs, to the delight of his head coach. “Travon Walker showed up in a big way, especially when we got into some competitive situations, doing what I challenged him with, which was to dominate. Through the first two days of minicamp, he didn’t lose many reps.”
Jacksonville’s roster is stocked with high-potential first-round picks. Walker, Anton Harrison, Brian Thomas Jr., and Travis Hunter are already significant contributors, but to take a leap in the NFL hierarchy, the Jaguars will need these players to take a leap individually. It starts with the guy who just got paid.
Jaguars fans, let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
