Jaguar Report

Jaguars OC Press Taylor and WR Calvin Ridley Set Record Straight on Perceived Route-Running Issues

The Jaguars have a details issue, not a route-running issue, says offensive coordinator Press Taylor. Is he right?

Evan Reier

After the Jacksonville Jaguars' 31-27 loss to the Cleveland Browns last Sunday, there’s an air of urgency. A primetime clash with the Baltimore Ravens aside, the Jaguars are on a two-game skid during the critical part of the season.

While the defense certainly had its issues, it was puzzling to see the offense score 27 points but still look mistake-ridden. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence threw three interceptions, with many of them being due to clear communication errors.

Fingers were pointed by the Jacksonville fanbase, with some claiming that wide receivers like Calvin Ridley or Zay Jones were running the wrong routes. On Thursday, offensive coordinator Press Taylor made the case for why that isn’t exactly true.

“I think there was a big difference in running the wrong route and not being on the exact same page with running a route. We have not had wrong routes; it has not been this person doesn’t know what they’re doing, they’re running the wrong route, things like that,” Taylor began.

The 35-year-old coach then listed off the situations for all three INTs. One was due to the ball being thrown earlier than expected, another due to a zero-blitz forcing a go-route, but the timing off the throw was later than anticipated. The final explanation was that a post-route was taken a “little flatter” than drawn up, leading to an easy setup for an INT.

Essentially, Taylor’s explanation is just that timing was “barely” off and the Browns were able to fully capitalize. He also said that he believed that Lawrence’s injury and time away from weekly preparations affected how in-sync the team was. In any case, the Jaguars OC isn’t putting much blame onto the receiver group.

That may be fair, but the numbers show that the Jaguars WRs aren’t consistently getting open. Jaguar Report’s Daniel Griffis highlighted this on X, showing that Parker Washington was the only pass catcher getting more than 4 yards of separation on average.

Calvin Ridley and Zay Jones, the Jaguars’ key downfield threats, only averaged 2.4 and 2.57 yards of separation respectively. As John Shipley pointed out, that led to Lawrence completing just 9 of 27 attempts when targeting the two receivers, throwing for just 82 yards and three interceptions in the process.

But it’s difficult to get open when the opponent doesn’t respect the balance of your offense. The Jaguars offensive line received an abysmal 27.8 pass block grade from PFF while the rushing game averaged 2.9 yards per carry.

The Jaguars could not establish the run, letting the Browns cheat against the pass. The Cleveland pass rush could pin its ears back while the secondary got to “cheat” against a WR group that was missing Christian Kirk and was having communication issues. It was a recipe for disaster.

And the frustrations with the situation have bubbled to the surface. On the day before DTaylor’s explanation, Ridley spoke on the matter, but was clearly annoyed with the perception of him running the wrong route.

“I needed to look a little earlier, that was it. That was pretty much it on the play, just get my head around a little faster,” Ridley explained on the INT. When reporters asked follow-up questions, he repeated similar answers before also expressing his frustration with some of the officiating.

Injuries to Lawrence, Kirk and the offensive line have played a major factor. But what those losses are exposing is that the Jaguars’ have systemic issues in their offense and the pressure is on to address that in the final four games.

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Evan Reier
EVAN REIER

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