Jaguars Clearly Modeling New Offensive Line After This Team

The Jacksonville Jaguars have a template for the types of trench players they want on offense, and it's on the other side of their own state.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Kyle Trask (2) pitches the ball to running back Bucky Irving (7) during the first quarter of a preseason NFL football game Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. The Jacksonville Jaguars defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20-7. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union] / Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK

James Gladstone and Liam Coen clearly share a vision for the types of players they want on the offensive line. Look no further than the 2024 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In late January, Coen submitted an official request to interview Buccaneers offensive line coach Kevin Carberry for the Jacksonville offensive-coordinator role. Tampa Bay blocked it. Undaunted, Coen pursued assistant offensive line coach Brian Picucci for the same role. Again, Tampa Bay blocked the request.

The former Buccaneers offensive coordinator, Coen had to wait until free agency before he landed someone directly associated with the Tampa Bay offensive line. The Jaguars this week signed center Robert Hainsey, who started one game for the Bucs last season. It wasn’t just any opportunity, though.

“Robert got one opp to start this past season, versus the New Orleans Saints,” Gladstone said Thursday, “and I'd encourage anybody and everybody to watch that game and understand why it was a player of interest. Think about the intangible elements in the back of your mind as it relates to a performance on the field, and you'll see that clear as day in that game.

“Robert was not going to allow that opportunity—he didn't know how many he was going to get last season—to make it so that by the time that pro free agency kicked off, that bell rang on Monday, that he was going to be given an opp because somebody saw exactly what we did in him. And that's a player that does not quit. The whistle blows and he's playing through it, and that's something that we really, really value.”

Hainsey only got one start because Tampa Bay got outstanding play up front from its five primary starters: Tristan Wirfs, Ben Bredeson, Graham Barton, Cody Mauch and Luke Goedeke. That group, according to Next Gen Stats, played 61.5 percent of the team's snaps in 2024, the NFL’s fifth-highest mark for any five linemen. And over the final six games, as Tampa Bay overtook Atlanta for the NFC West title, that quintet played 96.3 percent of the offensive snaps.

Coen said at the scouting combine earlier this month that he architected his Tampa Bay offense on mental and physical toughness. They set a goal to improve the league’s worst rushing offense, and wound up finishing fourth in the league.

“It was buy-in,” Coen said on Pardon My Take. “It was all about toughness, physicality, the way that we wanted to play the game; our style of play. I mean, Mike Evans is digging out support on safeties. He doesn't have to do that. And so, we got him to that point. There was immediate buy-in. I think that that's where it all kind of stems from.”

Teams with multiple games where their QB took Zero Hits last season:

🛡️ Buffalo Bills - 4
🛡️ Tampa Bay Buccaneers - 4
🛡️ Jacksonville Jaguars - 3
🛡️ Denver Broncos - 2
🛡️ Los Angeles Rams - 2
🛡️ Washington Commanders - 2
🛡️ Arizona Cardinals - 2 pic.twitter.com/SO2C3wtmsX

— The 33rd Team (@The33rdTeamFB) March 16, 2025

Hainsey’s free-agent class in Jacksonville includes Patrick Mekari, a nasty and versatile technician who will likely start at guard. It also includes tackle Chuma Edoga, who’ll provide depth as a swing tackle behind Walker Little and Anton Harrison. Hainsey figures to replace the retired Mitch Morse at center.

“I do think that we answered some questions there with our decisions here in pro free agency,” Gladstone added Thursday, “addressing both center and guard, as well as the tackle position. Clearly, by signing three of those players, and that being the most at any one position over the course of the free-agent window, we're setting the standard for what we're actually looking to do and that doesn't count offensive line out of the equation in the draft, either.

“But at the same time, that's another position that does have attrition throughout the course of a season, so we'll never feel like we've got enough.” 

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