JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After looking over the injury list and assessing the last week of practice, head coach Liam Coen is putting the starters back on the field for Sunday’s preseason game against the Saints.
The team announced Saturday that the Jaguars are planning to get the starters some work during the second preseason game of the year (1 p.m. at New Orleans).
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Coen was weighing the possibility of getting Trevor Lawrence and Co. some playing time at New Orleans but had to see where the team stood on its injury front before determining the game plan. The starting offense played just one series against the Steelers and managed a field goal.
Judging by that game as a whole and a challenging week of training camp practice, there’s no question that Jacksonville needs all the work it can get before the regular season opener against the Panthers on Sept. 7.
Penalties and drops have remained an issue throughout the week of camp, peaking during Thursday’s full scrimmage, where there were no fewer than six drops by pass catchers. False starts by linemen or receivers are an ongoing issue, too.
“I just thought, again, the same issue that has crept up a number of times has been the pre-snaps, and we have six drops again. May have been an eight? I almost thought it was eight,” Coen said. “So, that’s fatigue. That’s lack of concentration when you’re getting fatigued and tired.”
Lawrence was noticeably frustrated by those issues after Thursday’s scrimmage and said then that he hoped to play against the Saints. The drops, he said, could be attributed to players trying to make a play before they have the ball, as well as things that can be fixed.
“Just self-inflicted wounds. It has kind of been the story of camp, trying to clean up some of that stuff pre-snap. Just have to clean up the operation, the mistakes that the defense doesn’t inflict on you, you do on yourself,” Lawrence said. “So all those mistakes, we’ve just got to get better and cleaner, but I thought there was some good competition, guys flying around.”
As the preseason moves along, Jacksonville is inching closer to when the games actually count. The injury list has started adding more and more names, including presumptive right tackle Anton Harrison and cornerback Tyson Campbell.
Harrison was banged up during the scrimmage and worked off to the side on Friday. Campbell was dinged during the preseason opener.
Rookie first-round pick Travis Hunter came up slowly after attempting to make a diving catch during the scrimmage and was held out of Friday’s practice as a precautionary measure with an upper body injury.
That’s why Coen wanted to take some extra time to determine what a lineup against the Saints could look like with the injuries.
He didn’t want to risk substantial injuries to players like Lawrence, receivers Dyami Brown and Brian Thomas Jr. or running backs Tank Bigsby and Travis Etienne if they had to play with a second- and third-team players working in front of them.
“So we kind of need to just make sure that we’re, if we are putting, Trevor, we make sure we’re protected and we have the right guys in front,” he said. “Same with the runners, things like that. Just making sure that we’re not putting people in vulnerable spots because we are injured.”
Coen’s first offseason has definitely shown some different looks than what former coach Doug Pederson’s offensive system looked like.
Etienne has lined up out wide more often, and the staff has tried to mix things up with him and then Bigsby in the backfield. Free agent signee Brown has struggled a bit in camp at times, but he’s taken quite a few receiver handoffs, too.
“We’re not predictable, and that’s going to be really big for us moving down the line because at some point, the season is going to come down to just executing,” Etienne said. “I feel like with him moving me different places and him getting me the ball, I feel like I’m never going to be out of the game. I’m always going to be in the game and be able to make plays and be a spark for them.”