Unless teams are assessing a player or position in particular, they tend to rest the starters during the preseason finale. This makes sense when you take into account that they want to be as healthy as they can for Week 1 of the preseason. The Jacksonville Jaguars, for their part, already made a decision, and head coach Liam Coen spoke about it in his latest media availability session.
Coen met with the press corps after the joint practice with the Miami Dolphins and said that the Jaguars will rest their starters for Week 3 of the preseason. Here's the skinny.
"We're NOT going to play our starters. You know? We've got them the two weeks of work in the first two games," Coen responded when asked whether the starters would play against the Dolphins (7:25 mark). "In an ideal world, looking back, like you, if you had the joints earlier on, you wouldn't play and wouldn't play maybe a series in the third, and that's what we did in Tampa last year, and I like it."
Coen continued, "But it'll be a lot of young guys getting some quality work, and there's a lot of guys that we got to that are going to play, that are fighting for a roster spot, or fighting for a roster spot, potentially on somebody else's team. And so this is valuable tape, a great challenge. That's something we're going to obviously go up against. We're all going to go up against, but it's a good opportunity for those guys as well."
Based on his comments, it looks like the Coen saw everything he needed from the starters in the joint practice and training camp.
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Why Liam Coen is making the right call by resting the Jaguars starters vs. the Dolphins
All things considered, Liam Coen is making the right decision. While there's a random element to injuries, teams can minimize the risk by resting their starters in what's pretty much a meaningless preseason game.
Moreover, the Jags need to sort out the roster, and by keeping their starters on the sideline, the team's brass can figure out the bottom half of the roster and whether they will need to address a position on the waiver wire.
It's hard to tell from an outside perspective, but something like 10 roster spots may still be undecided. The preseason finale will bring clarity to the situation.
When you add it all up, resting their starters is a no-brainer for the Jaguars.
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