After a long seven month offseason that was headlined by a big free agency pool and Deflategate, everything has been settled and fans can finally get back to regular season football.
The Jacksonville Jaguars have struggled in recent memory by only recording seven wins over the last two seasons under the tutelage of head coach Gus Bradley. Will that begin to change with a Week 1 matchup against the Carolina Panthers? Around the team, the players and coaches have shown an immense amount of confidence heading into the regular season, hoping to finally get over the hump after these two disappointing seasons.
It all starts with the quarterback position, and there has not been any more confidence in the coaches and fans at the position since David Garrard was at the helm in 2008. Blake Bortles had a fantastic preseason, headlined by the game he had against the Detroit Lions where he completed 20-of-29 passes and threw for 246 yards and a touchdown. He is in year two of his NFL career and with his second offensive coordinator, as many would think would deteriorate a quarterback, it has seemed to help Bortles a lot and he talked about what he likes about the new offense.
“The versatility of it – the fact that we can do so many things and ‘Oly’ [Greg Olson] has been good about accommodating who we are. We have a good tight end room, so we were in a lot of ‘13’ early and stuff until Julius [Thomas] went down. So, he’s able to put the guys on the field where our strong suit is and be able to still run the same schemes and concepts that we would if we were four- or five-wide.”
The Jacksonville Jaguars offense have been upgraded in the offseason with the free agent additions of Julius Thomas, injured for at least the first three weeks of the season, right tackle Jermey Parnell and center Stefan Wisniewski. However, their wide receiving corps will be something to watch Week 1. They are headlined by many young players, including second-year players Allen Robinson and Allen Hurns, as well as another second-year wide receiver Marqise Lee, who is expected to miss the first week of the season with a right hamstring injury.
The young, yet talented weapons look to make an impact for the Jaguars, but the major concern in last year's offense was protecting the quarterback. The offensive line allowed over 70 sacks over the course of last season, with Blake Bortles being sacked 55 of those times. The additions of Parnell and Wisniewski have made an impact right away for the new offensive line, as the entire unit has only allowed two sacks.
“I think the guys that played a lot last year – Luke Joeckel, [Brandon] Linder, Zane Beadles – we’ve seen really good improvement from them," head coach Gus Bradley said. "I think that year of experience helped them, especially Luke and Linder. The players did great work in the offseason and improved there. I think the acquisitions, to bring guys in like [Stefan] Wisniewski and Jermey Parnell has really, really helped us as an offensive line group. Their experience and professionalism has brought a certain standard to that group. That’s been very good. On top of that, the scheme. ‘Oly’, the scheme he brought in, the conviction. It’s a definite system and these guys have really worked hard and studied and done a good job of buying into that.”
The running back position for the team has a new starter in rookie T.J. Yeldon, who only played a single game of the preseason and had eight carries for 10 yards and a touchdown, as well as a reception for 13 yards. However, the rest of the running back corps have not taken being down on the depth chart negatively.
“We’ve been getting a good push. Everybody has been assignment sound and moving guys off the ball," Jaguars running back Toby Gerhart said. "It’s a mindset. It’s something we’ve all bought into. We want to be physical, aggressive, and you’re not going to stop us. We have that mindset that we’re going to get this no matter what.”
The Jaguars carry the physical mindset that they want in both Yeldon and Gerhart, but they have a nice, speedy change-of-pace running back in Denard Robinson, who led the team last year in rushing yards before a foot injury sidelined him. The Jaguars have valuable depth in their running backs, who will all be looking for playing time in the upcoming season.
For the Jaguars defense, it may go down as unheralded with plenty of young talent, as well, but maybe it is a bit deserved. They will go on with the game without star defensive tackle Sen'Derrick Marks, who is still nursing a torn ACL despite being promoted to the main roster last Saturday, and the offseason loss of first round draft pick Dante Fowler Jr. The rest of the defensive line will try to maintain its ground on Sunday, as they will look to contain dual-threat quarterback Cam Newton and running back Jonathan Stewart.
“I look at it as every week we have a challenge ahead of us," newly acquired defensive end Jared Odrick said. "We have another team coming into our home, or we’re going there, and we have to be able to stop professional football players from doing their jobs. We have to do it better than what they do. So, the thing is I don’t look at the caliber of offense and say, ‘Well this is a better offense, so it’s a better test.’ There are talented guys. You need to bring it every game no matter what ranked offense it is.”
It should not be a surprise if the pass rush of the team will be limited for the first few weeks of the season, but the defensive line will still remain confident to try and apply pressure to Newton on Sunday.
However, an intriguing storyline to follow on Sunday is how the Carolina Panthers wide receivers will look on Sunday, as Corey Brown and Ted Ginn Jr. will start for the Panthers. The Jaguars secondary has been reorganized with the new acquisition of free safety Sergio Brown, as well as two new starting cornerbacks in former Green Bay Packer Davon House and second-year pro Aaron Colvin.
The Jaguars are confident and ready for this game. The fans want to finally be excited for a start to the season. The Jags have not won their opening game of the regular season since 2011 against the Tennessee Titans when Luke McCown was the starting quarterback for the team. Will they finally start the season off with a win? Time will tell on Sunday for the Jags.