JaguarsTalk: Jacksonville Jaguars Open OTA’s to Media. Are We Media?
JaguarsTalk: Put us in Coach
Has anyone ever seen a release of an injured animal back into the wild? Maybe on some Animal Planet show, sure, but ever in person? I did, one time, and it probably doesn’t even count. I was at work and one of us noticed a small bird had its foot caught on the glue strip of a mouse trap out by our engine bay. Poor guy was struggling to get loose. Being the concerned and caring crew that we were, it became our mission to free this fella from said predicament. We wanted to avoid injury and thus took great care in carefully removing its fragile foot from the sticky death meant for Speedy Gonzalez and friends, who terrorized our sleeping quarters night after night. It was touch and go for a moment but eventually we succeeded and the tiny bird flew to freedom never to be seen again. Not a thank you, not a tip of the wing, no tower request for a fly-by. Simply ungrateful creatures. This was such a great story that I almost forgot the point. Which is this; the Jags have some very important little birds who had their feet caught in a mouse trap and we need to see if they can fly again.
Travis Etienne Jr. ran a 4.31 40 yard dash with a 33.5 inch vertical leap. His broad jump was 10’ 8”, but I have zero clue when he would be doing a broad jump during a football game, so why? His 40 time and his vertical, however, play pivotal roles between whistles. You’ve got to quickly accelerate, hit the hole fast, and then explode past the secondary reaching top speed before scoring the game winning touchdown. That is scenario one. Another plausible occurrence might be a poorly thrown outlet pass to Etienne in the flat. My man will need to plant his injured foot and jump into the air, gazelle-like, in order to catch the ball, giving all Trevor Lawrence fantasy owners an extra point for the week. Both of these scenarios occur multiple times throughout every football game, minus the game winning Jacksonville touchdown part. But we can dream. Without dreamers there would be no season ticket holders and without season ticket holders how would I get paid the big bucks (read:$0.00) for these enjoyable columns. What I am slowly getting to is that there exists a multitude of reasons why we need first hand information relating to these injuries. This isn’t your grandfather’s NFL anymore. An injured player doesn’t just hurt the team and maybe a few people who placed a bet on that game with brass knuckles Bobby, the Bayonne bookie. Nowadays, an injured player hurts ticket sales, multiple revenue channels within the organization, and the multimillion dollar business of fantasy football. His injury hurts his stats but also affects the stats of his QB, WRs and the list goes on and on.
Etienne carries a name of French origin, so does his, somewhat rare, season ending injury. According to Cedars-Sinai.org, Lisfranc Joint Injuries affect the bones, ligaments, and cartilage of the foot. “This area of the foot is important in transferring the force from your calves to the front of your feet.” Um, that sounds like it could negatively affect every aspect of a running back’s game. Now there are different degrees of severity with a Lisfranc injury but Etienne’s was severe enough that he never saw the field. His feet are his career and I, for one, want to see, first hand, if this 215 lb. little bird can still fly.
James Robinson is another of Jacksonville’s running backs that suffered a major injury to one of his money makers. As an aside, this is why Joe Theismann insured his legs with Lloyd’s of London prior to his play date with Lawrence Taylor. He understood that he couldn’t play if he suffered any substantial injury below the waist. Robinson injured his achilles. Some would argue that it is more important than an ACL (see: John Elway, Philip Rivers, and Joe Namath. Pretty decent careers, all with no ACL). Robinson tore his achilles last year ending his season, and in 2020, his rookie campaign, he suffered a season ending ankle injury. I’m not feeling all warm and fuzzy about the possibility of an injury free 2022. Maybe the brass knows more than they are letting on about the progress of these injuries (or lack thereof) and that is why they traded up in this year's draft to snag Ole Miss running back, Snoop Conner.
The guy was part of a running back by committee game plan in college so he isn’t beaten to a pre-NFL pulp. In addition, Snoop averaged over five yards per carry, which we would be happy with, all the live long day. Snoop was a value pick in the fifth round and Pederson/Baalke knew it. They had him on their radar from the beginning. Snoop is a smash mouth runner with plenty of juice still left in the tank and he was selected to back up Etienne and Robinson. Or was he? Could be that those in charge are, at best, “hopeful” that both Etienne and Robinson can still produce at their pre-injury levels. Unless, however, we get in there to see with our own eyes whether Snoop is more than just a back-up, we may not really know how far along Etienne and Robinson have really come until the regular season begins. At that point Etienne may be sitting on many a fantasy team roster which might lead to an eventual waiver wire dash for the Snoopster. So we need to see with our own JaguarsTalk eyes how this pair of work horses have progressed. Thus, as May 23 approaches, the question remains, are we media?
As always comments, questions, petitions to get JaguarsTalk a media pass are always welcome below: