Right Guard battle heats up in preseason week 3

Incumbent starter A.J. Cann has had to fend off second-year player Will Richardson all training camp, and another step in the position battle was taken during Thursday's 22-7 loss to the Miami Dolphins.

One of the most talked-about position battles in the Jacksonville Jaguars training camp in 2019 has been the right guard position, despite fifth-year lineman A.J.  Cann, who has started the last three seasons, signing a three-year contract worth $15 million earlier this offseason.  

The player Cann has to fend off? 2018 fourth-round draft pick Will Richardson, who didn't appear in any regular season games his rookie year. Head coach Doug Marrone has called Richardson one of the best stories of this year's preseason, and Richardson was named a starter for the Jaguars preseason bout against the Miami Dolphins on Thursday. 

Marrone said Richardson was given the start because, since the two are in a tightly contested battle, he wanted to see how Richardson would fare in a starter situation. 

We went back and forth. The reason why is because we've seen A.J. Cann start before. So those guys are in a battlle. I've never seen Will start a game at guard. I mean, he's started a game in the preseason; but he's never started a game with the ones or anything of that nature - Doug Marrone.

Marrone made a great point here, seeing as to how Cann has started 59 games since being drafted in 2015. As Marrone later alluded to, some players react differently as starters, but the Jaguars already know everything they need to know about how Cann would react.

"I think there's a difference sometimes with some people. Sometime's there's not. So I said lets put him in there and start him with the ones and see how he reacts because we know how A.J. would react to that," Marrone said.

But, Marrone later clarified, the battle is far from over. As far as the Jaguars are concerned, Richardson and Cann are still fighting tooth and nail to be the week 1 starter against the Kansas City Chiefs, and Thursday's game did little to change that. 

"They are both battling for a job," Marrone said. "(Richardson) had a couple of offsides, which pissed me off. But we'll look at the film and see how he played."