Jacksonville Jaguars 53 Man Roster - Offense

JT: Get out the Ginsu, it’s cutting time

Things are coming to an end for thirty-seven would be Jacksonville Jaguars players. This coming Tuesday is pink slip day. The hopes and dreams of several young men around the NFL will be crushed beyond repair. Too much? Not for some. For some they will never play another snap on the grid-iron. They will go on to become used car salesmen or office desk jockeys. Some will find success in other avenues of life while somehow, someway, Baker Mayfield still retains a starting job in the league. I know now that some things just can not be explained. Most of these wannabes, however, will be rostered by other teams. Heck, there are several the Jaguars wish they could keep beyond the designated 53 (see the wide receiver room), however good ol’ Goodell won’t allow it, and thus they will be relegated to the practice squad with the hopes that no other team sees the potential in them that Puggy Dederson does. Minus those who will not make the cut, we here on the First Coast are left with the ones destined to suit up on Sunday. Let’s take a look at who those lucky players will be.

Quarterback - Why not kick off this parade with what should not be a difficult position for which to choose. As it turns out, it might be tougher than we think. Or, at least, our job as the media is to make you believe so in order to meet our standard minimum word count. Starting off this position is, of course, the blond version of Lord Farquaad himself, Trevor Lawrence. Backing up T-Law is where the waters get a little murky. They say not to swim in murky waters but rookie sensation Nathan Rourke, out of Ohio, isn’t afraid of the sharks. My man escaped no less than 27 Cowboys (I too was surprised not to see a “too many men on the field” flag) to throw an on-the-money touchdown pass in this year’s first pre-season game. He scrambled better than Gordon Ramsey cooking breakfast and impressed the heck out of coaches, fans, and players alike (see Andre Cisco’s face after the above mentioned play). Yet, even after all of this Herculean fanfare, the question was asked, what can a rookie QB offer Trevor Lawrence off the field in terms of guidance, experience, and tutelage? The answer is…zip. Enter CJ Beathard. Beathard signed a contract extension to be Trevor’s back-up and he will remain Trevor’s back-up, even if the popular vote amongst Jacksonville fans leans toward Rourke. What I would like to see is a three quarterback situation heading into the regular season. I believe that if, god forbid, Trevor goes down for any extended period of time, Rourke gives the Jaguars a better chance at winning then does Beathard. But at what expense do we roster him? Who do we cut to keep Nathan? The trend in today’s NFL is to roster only two QBs and Jacksonville will continue that trend heading into 2023. Rourke will be the first casualty of the cut, after all we need more roster room for all our great wide receivers and injured linemen.

Running Back - Again, yet another position that comes with a question mark. Some might think that the issue at hand is whether or not Snoop Conner is going to make the team. I’m here to tell you that is not even on the minds of Trent B. or Dougie P. Hell, Conner isn’t even listed on the Jacksonville Jaguars ESPN depth chart (never a good sign). Snoop’s tenure ended when Tank Bigsby was drafted, out of Auburn, this year. He will be a practice squad player in 2023. The real question is will JAX keep both D’Ernest Johnson AND JaMycal Hasty? There is no question that Travis Etienne Jr. sits upon the top spot in this position but rookie Tank Bigsby is nipping at his heels. Not to become the starter per se, but to more split time and spell ETN throughout a grueling season. Pederson will prefer to have “fresh” legs throughout the entire four quarters. It is for this reason that JaguarsTalk believes all four running backs will remain on the roster, though, to hedge our bets ever so slightly we will say that thus far D’Ernest Johnson has proven to be more valuable than Hasty. And we may need extra spots for wide receivers or linemen. I’m sensing a trend here.

Wide Receiver - And here is where things get the trickiest of tricky. Let’s get the easy roster spots out of the way. Christian Kirk (because he is the Jags #1 until unseated), Calvin Ridley, Zay Jones, and Jamal Agnew. From here things get fuzzy, but not so fuzzy that you can’t see the fifth and sixth spots going to Tim “Him” Jones and Parker Washington. TJ has experience and big play ability as a receiver and on special teams. He has proven himself to be an excellent blocker as well as a downfield threat. Parker Washington seems like he is involved in almost every play of the pre-season thus far. Every time I see #11 on the field I get so excited that Marvin Jones Jr. is back in JAX, and then I remember that he has left us. Alas, as I have said many times before, Washington will be to Jacksonville what Wes Welker was to New England. Give it some time and you will see. Pederson doesn’t play a kid as much as he has played Washington unless he already had himself a roster spot. It is here where the wide receiver waters become down right opaque. Nominations for the award of seventh wide receiver include the top four, Kevin Austin Jr., Seth Williams, Jacob Harris, and Elijah Cooks, not so closely followed by Kendrick Pryor and Oliver Martin. Four or five of these guys are good enough to be rostered in today’s NFL. Only one, maybe two will make the Jaguars. If you are going to have a problem, this is a good problem to have. My gut tells me Notre Dame’s Kevin Austin Jr. makes the leap from practice squad to roster this year and he is accompanied by big bodied rookie Elijah Cooks. KAJ brings more experience in the system, and Cooks is a big, strong pass catcher with a 4.5 40 yard dash, who can flat out ball. As for the rest of the WR room, Baalke would love to keep them all on the practice squad but most of them will be poached and rostered elsewhere throughout the league.

Tight End - Less difficult to discern than wide receiver is the position of tight end. Evan Engram signed his long awaited big money deal this off-season, so there is no doubt where he sits on the depth chart. Doug Pederson loves to run two tight end sets and second round draft pick, rookie Brenton Strange out of Penn State has proven to be handsy, but in a good way. Not only can he catch, but he can also block. In an era of the “wide receiver-ish” tight end (see Travis Kelce and even the Jaguars own Evan Engram) Brenton Strange is a hybrid of sorts. This, coupled with the fact that Baalke used a second round draft pick on the 247 pounder, means he’s definitely on the team. Now, following the running back formula above stating that keeping guys fresh in the fourth quarter is the way to win games, I think the Jaguars keep both Luke Farrell and Gerrit Prince on the roster this season. Luke is a big blocker out of Ohio State and Prince is much the same. Though I see Gerrit catching more passes this season than Farrell.

Full Back - What? Yep, that’s right, the Jaguars have themselves a fullback. Derek Parish is a 6’1”, 241 lb full back. Or is he? He is also listed as a tight end. But if you take a quick look at his Wikipedia page they say he is a defensive end but then list his position as running back. Yet if you head to Jaguars.com, the 240th pick is said to be an edge rusher. My man seems to be a jack of all trades. This rookie out of Houston has me quite confused. I literally don’t know what to think here. Let me watch #43 this Saturday night against Miami and give you my final opinion then. I am tentative to give him a spot because, you know, wide receivers and lineman.

O-Line - Along with Keyser Soze, we have the rest of the Usual Suspects. Walker Little, Ben Bartch, Luke Fortner, Brandon Scherff, Anton Harrison, Cam Robinson, Cooper Hodges, and Cole Van Lanen. Normally NFL teams keep nine offensive lineman but the Jags are pretty banged up at this position and Cam Robinson is suspended for the first four games for doing his best impression of Mark McGuire and Barry Bonds by failing a drug test for PEDs. Hodges is hurt, Josh Wells is questionable, Chandler Brewer is hurt and Anton Harrison, who will be starting in place of Robinson, is nursing a sore shoulder. I have no idea if the ninth O-lineman will be Blake Hance, Darryl Williams, Josh Wells, Coy Cronk, Bobby Evans, or Samuel Jackson. I didn’t even know Samuel Jackson played for the Jaguars. I hope to god his middle name starts with an “L.” If it does than he, for sure, should get a roster spot. “Get these MFing Titans out my MFing stadium!” Alas, due to injury and Cam’s stupidity, I want the Jags to keep two more offensive linemen. JaguarsTalk is going with B-Lock-a Hance, my brother Darryl, and my other brother, Darryl Williams.

***Future JaguarsTalk coming back to this past column to correct the blood thinning mistake of forgetting Tyler Shatley. Sadly, this means we say goodbye to Darryl Williams. Upon reading the newly posted defensive column, you will find other offensive players get the boot as well. I’ve got to keep you on your toes somehow. ***

Well that about does it for the Jaguars offense. We here at JaguarsTalk are rostering 28 offensive players. We selected an extra wide receiver, tight end, and offensive lineman. This means we very well may not have a clue what we’re talking about, OR we may just be the smartest people (not) in the room. We will see what, if any changes we need to make when we come out with our defensive roster picks. On the chopping block (if necessary) are: Darryl Williams, Kevin Austin Jr., JaMycal Hasty, and Gerrit Prince. Injuries and a suspension plague a Jaguars team that was extremely healthy all last season. Stacking up that line to protect Jacksonville’s most valuable asset might not be a bad idea this year… just sayin’.

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