Jacksonville Jaguars @ Detroit Lions

JT: A Depth Problem

Your Jacksonville Jaguars have a problem. It seems for the first time in a long time, JAX has depth. Depth at wide receiver, depth at the offensive and defensive line, certainly depth at running back, even defensive back. Hell, they even have depth at the quarterback position. Doesn’t sound like a problem at all until you have to cut your roster by 37. This is a phenomenal problem to have. This is what you strive and work toward. This is why Trent Baalke has gone from clown to king. The Baalke masterclass has birthed a Jaguars team that can not only make the playoffs but seriously contend in January. Last season the success of Trevor and the boys was highly dependent upon the injury bug taking a hiatus from the First Coast. That won’t happen every year and Pederson and Baalke have built a deep enough team to weather whatever injury storm comes to town. That being said, we already have some bumps and bruises to contend with, especially on the offensive line. We’ll get to that in a moment. For now lets talk about the Jags main problem, deciding who to keep and who to cut.

There are a lot of NFL caliber, roster spot earning, wide receivers wearing teal right now. The starters are set folks. Calvin Ridley, Christian Kirk, and Zay Jones aren’t losing their jobs and Jamal Agnew certainly isn’t losing his fourth receiver spot. So who will step into that fifth and sixth receiver role? Will it be Tim Jones, a guy who was promoted off of the practice squad last season. #15 certainly deserved it last year but what about this year? The NFL is a picky league and we here in Jacksonville have a lot of new pass catchers from which to choose. Let’s take a look at a few of these guys. Against Detroit Tim Jones erased a huge Tank Bigsby run with a devastating (too heavy an adjective for the pre-season?) holding penalty. On the very next play, however, Jones came up with a huge, difficult catch for mucho yarderos. In addition Jones has years of First Coast experience and is a beast on special teams. Jones is a versatile, blocking specialist who is not going to lose his roster spot this year. Next up for a roster spot, in my humble opinion is rookie Parker Washington. Parker Washington was in the spotlight more than any other Jags receiver this past Saturday against Detroit. He had a nice third-down touchdown reception. He was the main/only punt returner on the field. He certainly proved that he could fair catch with the best of them (he started the game with three fair catches on the first three Detroit punts). Then he got a little cocky later in the game as he tried for a sliding catch sprinting forward into a gaggle of players, muffing the catch, resulting in a loose ball. A boneheaded play by a kid trying to make a team. Relax Mr. Washington, you’ve got a spot on Sundays in JAX. After Timmy J. and Parker Dubs, things get difficult. Elijah Cooks, an undrafted receiver out of San Jose State is playing for his NFL life this pre-season and he is certainly making the most of his time on the field. He had a 48 yard slant catch and a great TD catch later in the game that was unfortunately ruled out of bounds. Then there is Jacob Harris, Seth Williams, and Kevin Austin out of Notre Dame, plus a few others. Puggy D. has some difficult decisions to make at the WR position as several of the ones the Jags will end up cutting will be playing in a different uniform on Sundays. We have an embarrassment of riches in the Jags WR room, too bad we can’t keep them all.

Running back is a little easier, I think. Dougie P. likes to carry a nice RB stable into the regular season and the way D’Ernest Johnson is performing I absolutely can not see Snoop Connor getting a roster spot this year. The difficult choice might be between Johnson and last year’s back-up, JaMycal Hasty. Will Doug keep four to carry the rock in the regular season? ETN isn’t going anywhere, and from the looks of it, Tank Bigsby is solidly sitting in the second spot. Bigsby wasn't dazzling in this past outing, but he was sitting at 70 yards on 12 carries with a long of 17, late in the second half. He quietly amassed a very statistically solid game. I see Tank being used as a co-number one during the season. That leaves either Johnson or Hasty or both, who knows? What we do know is that Snoop Connor isn’t getting that roster spot he had last year. Sorry Snoop.

One other person that I wish to shine the spotlight upon in defensive back Gregory Junior. My man is making a play for the starting nickel spot. He had a very nice 37 yard interception return against Detroit. Not for nothing but Gregory Junior is just a ball magnet. I see Junior earning himself a DB roster spot come the inevitable cut down to 53.

I took some notes during the Detroit game pertaining to the Jaguars QB position. I’m going to copy and paste exactly what I said, partially because things that are written in the moment tend to have a little more feeling, or realism, but mostly because I’m too lazy to re-word everything, so here goes: “If we are being honest with each other, and frankly without honesty there is just no reason for this back and forth (it’s really just a forth with no back whatsoever). Beathard’s jersey number is starting to look as though it should equal his depth chart spot in the QB room. He is not impressive. He holds the ball too long, misses passes, throws the wrong pass, is late on passes, and under throws passes. And of course as I am typing this he throws a very pretty side armed pass to Williams for a first down.” Yeah, so that’s what I think of Beathard. Now of course I wouldn’t be saying any of this if not for third string quarterback and national sensation (too much?), Nathan Rourke. He is just fun to watch. He keeps his eyes down field and scrambles with the best of them. After the game, Dan Hicken, reported that according to Pug Dederson, Beathard is and will remain Trevor’s backup. It makes sense when you think about QB knowledge that can be transferred to Trevor Lawrence off the field. Experience that a rookie could never relay. Though I could see Rourke playing off the bench if Trevor were to ever, god forbid, get seriously injured.

I will leave you fine filks with some closing remarks. The Jaguars only played two starters against the Lions this past Saturday. Walker Little slid into the left guard position and Cam “PEDs” Robinson started at left tackle. Jacksonville’s linemen are quite banged up right now. Ben Bartch and Tyler Shatley are set to return soon but rookie Anton Harrison is nursing a shoulder injury (though will play this Saturday against Miami), while Cooper Hodges and Chandler Brewer are questionable. On the defensive line DeVon Hamilton has a non-football related back injury. The good news there is that we here in JAX have depth. Eddie Vedder Jeremiah Yellow Ledbetter has made a huge impact this pre-season. He was Pearl Jammin’ the hell out of the Detroit O-line leaving Teddy Bridgewater to pick himself up off the turf singing “oooohhhh, I’m Still Alive.” Jerem(y)iah certainly spoke in class on Saturday and provides the Jaguars with an Even Flow of back-ups to replace the injured. Man, I can do this all day folks. If you aren’t a card carrying 90’s grunge fan then the above will be lost on you…and you are missing out on life. Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.