Jaguars Training Camp, Day 5: The Good, the Bad and the Great
Who stood out for all of the right and wrong reasons during the Jaguars' Saturday practice?
We are one day closer to real football, with the Jacksonville Jaguars conducting their final practice without pads on Saturday morning.
You can read here for our full breakdown of the fifth day of Jaguars training camp, but in this space we are continuing a new series we will hone in on with each turn of camp: The good, the bad and the great.
So, what was good about the Jaguars' Saturday practice? What can be classified as great? And what was downright concerning? We take a look below.
The Good
- The Jaguars are one day closer to full pads, which means the contact and intensity have increased. After the first few days of camp were limited in terms of contact, it has been nice to see the competition really ramp up between the offense and defense over the last two practices. This has meant smaller passing windows and running lanes for the offense, which has given us a fuller picture at what the offense and defense actually look like.
- It looks like Devin Lloyd (hamstring) and Darious Williams (shoulder) are both relatively close to returning. Neither went through a full practice on Saturday, but both took full part in stretches, something that hasn't always been the case this week and something that some of the other injured players on the roster didn't do. Williams went through individual drills and sat out team drills, but it doesn't look like the wait to see either back at 100% is too far away.
- "There’s really no timetable on Devin. He’s still out there getting the mental reps and progressing on the sidelines just like we talked about," Jaguars defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell said about Lloyd. "The other two—really other four—guys have gotten opportunities to get out there to play and show what they can do with the first unit, second unit, with whoever they’re playing with, just an opportunity to get out there and show their abilities and see what they can do and just keep putting that good foot forward.”
The Bad
- Evan Engram. The Jaguars' first-team offense hasn't had many drop issues throughout camp, but Engram has had two bad drops in the last two practices. One of these led to an interception on Thursday -- Trevor Lawrence's only interception through the first four days of camp -- while the other led to the Jaguars' offense failing to score during a two-minute drill on Saturday. Engram is clearly going to play a lot for the Jaguars' offense so the volume of targets will be there, but the fact his drops keep coming up in the worst moments has been a tough pill to swallow.
- The second-team offensive line had some rough moments on Saturday in running drills. It can be said that most backup offensive lines in the NFL are substandard, but the Jaguars' second-unit's struggles were disappointing considering there are three players on that line who have started games in the past in Will Richardson Jr., Ben Bartch and Wes Martin. The loser of the right tackle battle will provide depth, but the Jaguars may need even more.
The Great
- The Jaguars are seeing almost their entire rookie class make an impact in training camp so far, and the upside is that is because the Jaguars have given them chances to actually win their jobs. The Jaguars were unwilling to let most of their rookie draft class do so last year, so the fact you can already pencil in Travon Walker, Devin Lloyd and Luke Fortner as starters. Then you see Snoop Conner and Chad Muma getting some key reps with the 1s and Montaric Brown already establishing himself as the second-team cornerback and it is hard not to be impressed by what the rookie class has proven so far.
- The Jaguars' defense has recorded two turnovers over the last two practices after not recording any in the first three. After a year where the Jaguars were the team with the fewest takeaways in the entire NFL, it has been encouraging to see veteran and rookie cornerbacks alike get their hands on passes over the last several days.
- “Oh, it is [a confidence boost] anytime you get an interception or a turnover, or you call the turn, you punch one out, it's always a good sign. And that's one of the focuses and we're going to keep working on it," Caldwell said.