After Wednesday off, your Jacksonville Jaguars took to the Miller Electric practice fields on Thursday to kick off their preseason, week two, mid-week simulated scrimmage. As a note, a preseason week two scrimmage feels unique, and a first that I can recall in recent Jaguars’ offseason history. After a physical Tuesday practice, a Thursday, closed-to-the-public scrimmage may be the teams’ attempt to prepare for Sunday’s 1 P.M. matchup against the New Orleans Saints while also establishing a more physical culture in Jacksonville.
Here are our notes from Thursday’s Jacksonville Jaguars training camp scrimmage.
Practice Observations
The early arrow for the Jaguars’ starting offensive group seemed to be pointing up, as the offensive line unit kicked off the day with what was arguably their best period of OL vs DL 1-on-1s, with quality wins from Anton Harrison over Travon Walker and Josh Hines-Allen, Walker Little over Hines-Allen, Robert Hainsey over Davon Hamilton, and a few others. The day really seemed to be shaping up as a day belonging to the offense.
However, on the other field, Jaguars 1-on-1s were occurring between the receivers and defensive backs, where defense pretty convincingly won the day, with the best play coming from Travis Hunter versus Dyami Brown.
Trenton Irvin beat Christian Braswell for a touchdown catch. Otherwise, it was pretty much all defense, with Jarrian Jones forcing an incompletion to Brian Thomas Jr and Jourdan Lewis having similar success against Parker Washington.
At this point the scrimmage then kicked off with Lawrence’s opening pass to Brian Thomas Jr falling incomplete - a drop by Thomas, with a defending Travis Hunter in coverage. However, from this point on the starting offensive group would move quickly down the field via accurate throws from Lawrence sprinkling a heavy dose of Travis Etienne in the run and pass game. The early drive would end with a beautiful Tank Bigsby walk-in touchdown, using his vision to find the cut-back lane, with nothing but green grass in front of him.
However, from this point forward the day belonged to the defense and the referees with sacks from Josh Hines-Allen, Yasir Abdullah, Jordan Jefferson, Ethan Downs, & Danny Striggow (who had a sack last week vs Pittsburgh). To add to this list, Dawuane Smoot also had a sack that was called back for pass interference.
That didn’t stop the action with DT Austin Johnson securing a tipped ball interception off of Nick Mullens. S Daniel Thomas almost came away with a near interception as collided with WR Joshua Cephus, popping the Mullens’ pass in the air for the incompletion. Additionally, S Andrew Wingard had a diving Trevor Lawrence interception called back due to the defense jumping offsides, resulting in the free play pass attempt. The defensive highlight of the day had to have been CB Jarrian Jones wrapping up the day with a magnificent pass breakup on a deep, Brian Thomas Jr pass attempt from Lawrence where Thomas had Jones stacked yet Jarrian found a way to get his hand in there to impact the ball. Jones had two other pass breakups on the day as the starting corner role with Campbell out.
When he wasn’t fighting for the ball Jarrian was, well…fighting. For the consecutive days, the team had a camp skirmish - today between Jones and RB Bhayshul Tuten. After a 15-yard Tuten rush, where Bhayshul lowered his shoulder on Eric Murray, Jones knocked Tuten over late in the play. After a few words, punches were thrown and then they were then separated by teammates.
QB Trevor Lawrence spoke with the media about the story of the Jaguars’ 2025 training camp so far, penalties:
“A little sloppy offensively. I thought we started great, had a long – I don’t know how many plays it was – had a long drive to start. Went and scored. And then from there, the defense picked it up a little bit, and we had some mistakes. 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. So all those mistakes, we’ve just got to get better and cleaner, but I thought there was some good competition, guys flying around. So, there were some good, some bad. We’ll watch it. We’ll learn from it all.”
To Lawrence’s point, after an EverBank Stadium scrimmage with many flags, a Tuesday practice the following week with eight flags, and the Pittsburg matchup with an additional eight flags, the team on Thursday had 9-10 penalty flags thrown, including:
Walker Little false start
Wyatt Milum false start
Illegal formation
Unfortunately, the team also had anywhere from 6 to 9 drops (depending on your perspective of a drop vs PBU):
Joshua Cephus (2-3)
Hunter Long (1-2)
Brian Thomas Jr (1)
Trenton Irwin (1)
Austin Trammel (1)
Tank Bigsby (1)
And while Lawrence’s day was pretty sharp, independent of the drops, Lawrence later continued, discussing the team’s offseason season of miscues and penalties:
“It’s pre-snap stuff. There’s always a little bit of that in camp, but the amount we’ve had has been a little too sloppy for the offense that we want to be. If we want to be a great offense, you have to be really smart, not make those mistakes that hurt yourself. Obviously, execute. And I think the execution has been actually decent once the ball is snapped, but the other stuff before the snap, you don’t ever get a chance if you don’t do that right. So, there’s been some stuff that we just have to lock in on the details. For me as a quarterback, have to operate a little cleaner. Let’s get up to the line faster so guys can communicate and think and have time to process and remind each other of the cadence. All those things. It’s all of us in it. We just have to be sharper.”
As a key note, Lawrence confirmed that while the decision doesn’t fall on him, he expects to play on Sunday versus the New Orleans Saints:
“Yeah. I expect to play. And that’s kind of the mindset in the preseason is expecting to play, and it’s always kind of a variable number of snaps. You don’t really know exactly what it’s going to be, but expecting to play. I’m not sure if the result of today’s practice would or wouldn’t have changed that, I don’t know as far as what Coach [Head Coach Liam Coen] is thinking, but I’m prepared to play from what’s communicated to us. We’re prepared to go and play a little bit. So, it’s just another opportunity for us to get better.“
On the special teams front, K Cam Little went 3 of 3 on the day with a long of around 40-45-yards with the players running wind sprints after practice.
On the injury front, while not participating in the scrimmage, CB Tyson Campbell was back on the sidelines during practice. However, RT Anton Harrison left the scrimmage early and did not return to play. As an additional injury note, the team announced prior to the scrimmage that DT Maason Smith has been activated from the teams’ PUP list.
Presser Observations
Offensive coordinator Grant Udinski and quarterback Trevor Lawrence both met with the media post-scrimmage. Here are a few additional key quotes from their media availability:
Coach Udinski speaking on the various offensive line combinations the team has seen:
“I think one of the questions you guys asked last week was about the flexibility of the offensive line. I’d probably still look at it like that. We have had some injuries, guys go in and out, even temporary injuries where guys miss a drive, and those have been opportunities for other guys to step up and play different positions. So, you probably see out there today, we have multiple guys play on different sides, play guard, play tackle, inside, outside, different centers. So, it’s great that those guys have the ability to do that, and we have the chance to get that type of work.”
Udinski speaking on Brian Thomas Jr’s visible recent camp frustration:
“I think that he holds himself to a high standard, which we appreciate and when he doesn’t play to the standard that he holds himself to, sometimes that comes out in frustration. This is what practice is about. You’re trying to improve on things. You’re trying to put yourself in challenging situations. If you’re going out there and just succeeding at everything every single day, you’re probably not pushing yourself hard enough. So we expect there to be some element of frustration with every position, whether it’s a receiver, whether it’s an offensive line, whether it’s mentally or physically. Most guys are going to be in a situation at some point throughout the course of a practice, throughout the course of a training camp where they probably push themselves maybe beyond their limits, or maybe they just don’t perform to their standard. So, I think that frustration for all of us, coaches, players included, it becomes a part of the process of growth, whatever we’re doing.”
Lawrence discussing the LeQuint Allen’s pass protection ability:
“He’s done a great job ever since he came in. It’s been something I’ve noticed is his pass protection. He’s picked it up really quickly. The biggest thing is, yeah, he knows what to do, but the way he does it, he’s really physical, violent, meeting linebackers at the line of scrimmage, and that’s huge. You get these games with these linebackers trying to pick off our centers and guards. The sooner you can meet them, the more physical you are, it knocks them off their game. They’re trying to run, and you can pass it off. And that’s a killer for a group up front. If you get picked on a game, it could be a four-man, five-man rush, and you should be blocked. And if we get picked, then it’s an unblocked hitter on you. So, he’s been a really key blocker for us in pass protection.”
You can watch the full press conference here.
Stay tuned for more updates from the Jacksonville Jaguars’ 2025 training camp!