Welcome Into the Jaguars Kitchen

The Jacksonville Jaguars are looking for innovate ways to connect their team while scattered. First up, a cooking contest.

Doug Marrone is deferring the judgement because he knows he’d be biased.

“For me it's gonna be easy, you do a brisket or you do something like that I'm all in. Prime rib maybe.”

Instead the Jacksonville Jaguars head coach will let others make the final call as the Jaguars rookie class and roster hold their first annual virtual cooking contest. It’s the latest in a line of efforts to connect a team that relies on chemistry while being scattered across the country.

“This week we're having a cooking challenge where you gotta take a picture of your ingredients or a picture of you cooking it or your presentation…each week we're doing something a little bit different like that, so I think you got a chance to show a little bit of your personality. I know on some of the meetings, prior to the meetings starting, I know a lot of the players have been talking about what they're preparing, so I'm kinda excited to at least see the visual of it. This is about presentation which is also another important element to dining so I'm looking forward to it.”

Public Relations Director Tad Dickman thinks offensive lineman KC McDermott is currently the front runner right now with a brisket. Which is really no surprise to Marrone.

Submissions have been coming from all over the food spectrum!

Winner will be announced on the @Jaguars’ team meeting on Monday, after being voted on by a panel of judges including Team Nutritionist Mindy Black. https://t.co/YgT3Jy1YSX pic.twitter.com/xTTUtG0H1k

— Tad Dickman (@TDickman89) May 15, 2020

“You always gotta go with the biggest guys. So it's gonna be an O-line and D-line. You know, some of these other guys it'll be like Kale salad and something like that, I mean. But I'm not judging it, so I'm not the judge of it.”

The judge of it will instead be a panel headed by Team Nutritionist Mindy Black.

Like every team in the NFL, the Jags are looking for any possible way to keep their team in touch while everyone is still quarantined at home due to the spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19. But unlike most other teams Jacksonville is notoriously young. They don’t have years of history and leadership as a strong foundation. Instead they’re heading into training camp (virtually or otherwise) with a camp roster that has 18 guys with more than five years of experience.

Thus was born the cooking contest, among other things.

"I think the challenge was to make sure we have some fun with this. It's not all just Xs and Os and all of that, so I think when you challenge the coaches and you challenge the players that way, I think that can open it up. I think you're still missing a little bit of the body language, the spark in maybe someone's eyes. Things that when I was a teacher - or any of us that have ever taught -, when you're in front of that classroom you get a feel for that. I think it's a little bit more difficult to do here but I think we're all learning. I think for us, this is all something that is new. It's been challenging, but it's also been fun.

“My goal is that you want to see the personality come out. So, we're doing some things and some contests that weekly have nothing to do with Xs and Os, but gives someone the chance to show their personality.”

In addition to cooking contest, Marrone isn’t above picking on his guys about some of their off the field activities as he learns more about them. And he’s working hard to get quarterback and aerospace engineer Josh Dobbs into space.

“I’m always like ‘Josh, you gotta get in there and you gotta bring some stuff back.’ If you look, like you know I’m a big memorabilia guy. And there’s stuff like that has come from space that’s on auction sites that go for a lot of money. So I’m always like ‘hey Josh. We gotta get you to space buddy. We gotta make this profitable somehow.’”

It’s moments and conversations like that, and contests and the pre-meeting chats that are as the blessing in disguise during this online offseason. Even when facilities are reopened fully, there are aspects of his new reality that Marrone and staff are looking at taking with them into the future. Because when everything else is stripped away, this has served as a reminder of what’s at the core of building a team.

“I think it’s important that you understand your players. Obviously we understand the importance of a professional relationship but I think some of these guys are really doing some interesting things that when you talk to them about it, are pretty fascinating and I think that in this day and age we put so much on sports and their ability to play on the field and that’s only gonna last so long so I think there’s some great stories with some of these players about how they’re preparing themselves for life after football.”

Until they can be together again to work at the on-field aspect though, the Jacksonville Jaguars will continue to find new ways to bring together a separated team, learn about each other and maybe even find a new cook.

“It'll be interesting,” laughs Marrone.

“I'm sure [offensive lineman Brandon] Linder gone and took pictures of him catching his food, or shooting his food, whatever it may be. Hunting or fishing, and then preparing. So, I'm looking forward to seeing what some of these guys do."