After a pair of disappointing seasons, the Jacksonville Jaguars are in the process of turning things around, and they'll take advantage of any opportunity they can get to get better. Head coach Liam Coen's latest comments are proof of it.
Coen met with the local media following Day 11 of training camp and said that everyone will play against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and that includes the starters.
"Yeah, we will play everybody," Coen told the press corps. "How long that is will kind of determine how things are going, a little bit. But everybody's going to play in this game."
On top of that, two-way star Travis Hunter will play on both sides of the ball.
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The Jaguars want to build toughness and evaluate the roster in the preseason
Of course, Liam Coen was referring to anyone who can play. Players who are rehabbing injuries won't suit up. With that out of the way, it's refreshing to see the Jacksonville Jaguars putting in the work to prepare for the season.
The new regime could have treated the preseason as an exhibition game. However, it will help them sort out the depth chart and bring clarity to a pair of position battles. But aside from assessing the roster, the Jags want to see players compete and get better. That's pretty encouraging when you take into account that the team lacked toughness and physicality in past years. In fact, Liam Coen says that tackling and fundamentals will be emphasized in Week 1 of the preseason.
"What the evaluation will be, will be fundamentals, alignment, and assignment. Obviously, situational football is going to come up, as we know, but we're about, you know, we're, we're playing a physical team, you know, a team that's been known for physicality, regardless if their first guys are in or not," Coen said (2:52 mark).
That's just how they play the game for a long time. And so that will be a great test for all of our groups that are going to play to see, you know, kind of where we're at from a physicality standpoint. It's live tackling that we all know is, man, it's hard to get that in a practice setting at times, so I think that'll be valuable for us as well."
All things considered, that's the kind of thing you want to hear from your head coach. Especially when you take into account that the Jaguars were routinely beaten at the line of scrimmage and struggled to tackle last year.
Just recently, tight end Brenton Strange said that he wants to impose his will when he takes the field. It looks like Liam Coen wants that mindset to spread across the whole team, and the Jaguars will have a chance to do it against the Steelers.
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