The Jacksonville Jaguars kicked off day one of Organized Team Activities on Monday, opening the team's first offense versus defense action under incoming playcalling Head Coach Liam Coen and Defensive Coordinator Anthony Campanile. While the humid Jacksonville sun came ready to play early on, Coen's offense started off slightly sluggish.
Here are our takeaways from OTA day one and Coen's post-practice media availability.
Takeaways from Day 1 of OTAs:
A young team is looking, well...young
With the Jacksonville Jaguars opening their inaugural OTAs under Coen and GM James Gladstone, this allowed media (and the players themselves) their first opportunity to witness Coen's Jacksonville offense against an opposing unit. However, the offense seemed to need a little time getting their feet under them, with multiple overthrows, misfires, drops, and one false start throughout the early practice drills against air.
Back to back incompletions to BTJ to end the period (one high throw & the other pretty catchable).
That's why we have practice ♀️ pic.twitter.com/L7w3G6u9HR
— Big Cat Country (@BigCatCountry) May 19, 2025
Whether it was Sophomore WR Brian Thomas Jr or Rookie WR/CB Travis Hunter (who also had an early drop in the opening drills), the offense began the day slightly "off." However, they would pick things up momentarily in the 7-on-7 period with multiple pretty clean periods of efficiency, before again struggling with turnovers or miscues in the multiple 11-on-11 periods.
#Jaguars OTA Day One Turnovers
Ints:
-2 Trevor Lawrence
-1 Nick Mullens
-1 John Wolford
Fumbles:
-1 by Bhayshul Tuten
-1 by Nick Mullens
It's day one of throwing against a defense after QB Trevor Lawrence’s off-season surgery. A lot of dropped balls & overthrows to clean up
— . ℍ (@TravisDHolmes) May 19, 2025
Of the days' four interceptions, one Trevor Lawrence int was the result of a tipped pass off of WR Parker Washington's hands with the other Lawrence interception an overthrow of Travis Hunter. Lawrence spoke with the media after practice,
“I really just sailed one to Travis over the middle. He did a nice job. He had a cross route, I had him open and just sailed it a little bit. Sav [S Darnell Savage] picked that one off, he was behind him. The other one was just me and Parker [WR Parker Washington] being on the same page on a curl route. I tried to throw it away from a zone defender underneath, and we were just a little bit off on what each other was thinking. This is the time of year when you work that stuff out. Obviously, you never want to have interceptions. You never want to have balls on the ground, you want to be clean. But on the other hand, you want to see the miscommunication or some of that so you can fix it now and not carry that over later on. We will fix that stuff, and we will get it cleaned up.”
Still early in the learning phase
To Lawrence’s point, the team is currently in their first day of a learning phase of the off-season, in a new offensive scheme, with multiple new receivers, and a quarterback that is reacclimating after an off-season surgery and only recently throwing, in his first reps against coverage. The early days of the off-season, while wearing shorts and helmets, im general should never be heavily weighed, especially considering the forementioned obstacles.
Nevertheless, while perfection is always the end goal, the process of overcoming obstacles is probably much more important to a young team. In other words, the offensive growth moving forward and how they bounce back should be key early on. Coach Coen, when asked about his thoughts on the offense gave a similar reply.
"We’re working towards playing in September, obviously. At this point, it’s strictly how much can we actually learn from everyday. We’re not evaluating maybe some of the things you would normally evaluate in a game, right? Or in the season. How many mental errors did we have? How much can we continue to be disciplined with our communication, formations, alignments, assignments? Are we going to catch every ball and throw every ball out here in the first day of Phase 3? I would assume not. But more in terms of the operation, the communication, are we understanding what we’re trying to get accomplished out of the calls? It’s a learning phase, not necessarily a competitive phase. Do you want to be cleaner? Absolutely. Do you want it to look perfect? Yes, we all do. That’s just not the reality at this time in this phase.”
However, it wasn't all bad news offensively. Free agent addition WR Dyami Brown probably had one of strongest days of any player on the offense, with 5-6 catches on the day in all levels of the field. He also added a rush that would have likely gone for 30-plus yards, untouched. Additionally, UDFA WR Eli Pancol also had an extremely efficient day, with 5-6 chain-moving receptions and one longer one.
Bad day for offense means great news defensively
Round one goes to the defense, with Anthony Campanile’s unit showing up to capitalize on offensive miscues and occasionally causing the mistakes through great plays being made above the Xs and Os.
#Jaguars Defense
Ints:
-S Darnell Savage (overthrow)
-CB Jaarian Jones (tipped by Parker Washington)
-LB Ventrell Miller (a dang good play)
-CB Zechariah McPherson (missed the play)
Fumbles:
-Josh Hines-Allen with the Tuten scoop and score
— . ℍ (@TravisDHolmes) May 19, 2025
In addition to the turnovers, Sophomore CB Jaarian Jones had multiple pass breakups (PBUs) in Monday's 11-on-11 period, with free agent S Eric Murray also making a PBU on the deep seam throw and later ripping out a near-completion to Brenton Strange from Lawrence.
Not to be left out of this unpadded affair, the defensive line joined the action with Josh Hines-Allen scooping and scoring a touchdown of his own via a Bhayshul Tuten fumble. Coach Coen raved when discussing the defenses' early performance.
"I thought just from a communication standpoint, punching the ball out. Doing it in the right way, though. We had a couple of guys trying to be intentional about getting the ball out and getting their hands on the football, something that we’re actively trying to be intentional about this whole offseason. I thought the defensive staff has done a great job of communicating that in the meeting settings, bringing it out to the practice field. I thought they did a nice job setting the line of scrimmage, playing with length on the D line. The ball was out. I mean, the ball was on the ground too many times for us offensively, but hey, on the flipside of it, that’s the first time as a head coach you have to be very neutral in those moments where I’m kind of ticked off that the ball is on the ground from an offensive standpoint. But ultimately, man, the defense did a nice job of getting the ball out today for us.”
Joint practice with Miami
Coach Coen also confirmed that the team currently has one joint practice scheduled for this season, their pre-season week three opponent, the Miami Dolphins.
“One as of right now. One as of right now. Miami.”
That matchup date, and the accompanying joint practices, are still TBD. However, it will likely take place sometime around the week of August 18th, in Miami.
What are you looking forward to from the team over the coming weeks, BigCatCountry? Let us know in the comments!