JaguarsTalk: Offseason Team Activities - Take 1
JaguarsTalk: O is for Organized, T is for Training, scratch your temple. The last A, well that’s not that simple
Am I the only person who thought they knew what OTA stood for but then recently realized, nope? Offseason Training Activities, right? Makes sense to me. In my mind it sounds a lot better than Organized Team Activities (I have also heard “Other Team Activities.”) I mean, I would hope that the team is involved in these practices, seems the players would be the ones most apt to apply that which is learned at said brouhaha. That seems like a given. Then we have organized which seems equally as, duh, as well, to me. Why would any professional team have an unorganized practice? I don’t think any sports team, no matter the level of expertise, would hold a practice without it being organized. Maybe I’m wrong, but we here at JaguarsTalk played team sports since we were youngins and never do we remember any practice being unorganized. It requires some level of organization just to set a time, date, and location for literally anything. It would seem to me that the first two words that comprise “OTA” are givens, as they are both naturally expected in such a scenario. So we can throw those two away and just call these elective practices, activities, which is evidently the only word that I got right. Yay. For. Me. If we were to take a trip in the way-back machine to visit the NFL, in its infancy, and the NFL were to ask me to make up an acronym for these pre-season gatherings, I would have called them “Offseason Training Practices” brought to you by Naughty by Nature. Then we would see which players were really down with OTP. Ok so that was a horrible stretch I needed to take in order to reach that joke but, hey, you know me.
Okay enough of that. Wasting an entire paragraph to make a horrible 1990s Naughty by Nature joke was out of line. Won’t happen again, until it does. Let’s get into OTAs. No pads are involved and nobody is supposed to be hitting or tackling anybody. There are seven on seven drills and 11 on 11 drills. While these practices aren’t mandatory it was very encouraging to read that the majority of Jaguars players made the decision to partake. Now I would love to provide numerous columns on a daily basis explaining how well Etienne’s injury has healed. How well is he cutting and planting and exploding off his Lisfranc foot? I would also like to go in depth on QB/WR chemistry. How is Lawrence hooking up with Christian Kirk, Jones Jr., just Jones, or more importantly those WRs fighting for a spot on the team? Chemistry is unbelievably important between a QB and a WR. Take, for example, Brady and Gronk. They were a decent combo (I really wanted to type “they are a decent combo.” Am I the only one still holding out hope that Gronk yells for his mom to get his football pants…again?) They just seemed to know where the other would be, when to throw, when to cut, when to turn around, etc… That chemistry accounted for the most touchdowns by a QB-TE duo in NFL regular season history. You also have Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison, Philip Rivers and Antonio Gates, Steve Young and Jerry Rice, etc…Now, Lawrence and Kirk are not on this list, nor will they probably ever be (I’m playing the odds), but neither are Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams and I would argue they are a pretty good duo. My point being that Lawrence and (insert a receiver’s name) could end up being a great TD duo and that chemistry starts right here during the OTAs.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our boy from Notre Dame. This beast of a wide receiver received a very hefty, $230,000 guaranteed, three year contract (according to ESPN), and he technically hasn’t even made the team yet. I would say that the club has definite interest in Kevin Austin Jr. being a member of the Jags this upcoming season and it sure would be nice to see, first hand, why they feel that way. There are many other stories that need to be told about this years OTAs, but alas we here at JaguarsTalk are yet to be considered “media” (I blame Amber Heard) and thus I am reporting to you based upon my hours of reading other. I will spoon feed them all to you here and save you the time and annoyance of clicking around the WWWs for your OTA fill.
The first stop we are making on Ozzy’s Crazy Train today (it’s shaping up to be a musically themed column) is with the defense. It seems that the number seven pick in the 2019 draft is a different kind of animal this year. During the offseason Josh Allen took it upon himself to not have an offseason. He worked out at Exos Athletic Training and improved his movement, skills, and his mindset. Ladies and gentlemen he has rebuilt himself. Exos had the technology and Allen had the capability. Josh Allen is better than he was before. Better. Stronger. Faster. (Anyone get this one. I am dating myself a bit here). Exos coaches world class athletes to “transcend self-limitations and be extraordinary when it matters most.” Allen, already a beast of a rusher, is now moving better, feeling faster, and concentrating on being a complete football player. Not only does that bode well when paired with the athleticism of the newbies by his side, but he can help them to become more complete. He can help coach them up to be more like Lee Majors (which is kind of ironic since they are all much more than six million dollar men). According to Senior Writer John Oehser (John, you ever get Drew Carey? Maybe it’s just the picture on the Jags site), after many players had gone home for the day on Monday, Allen stayed to work with teammates who were as eager to learn from him as he was to impart what he spent his offseason mastering. “I got the knowledge and I can spread that knowledge,” said Allen.
The Jaguars passed a large defensive milestone during OTAs this week. The last unsigned defensive draft pick, linebacker Chad Muma, is now officially on board. This means that all of the defensive muscle that will wreak havoc on opposing quarterbacks can focus 100% on gelling and excelling. Speaking of excelling it seems that nose tackle DaVon Hamilton had one hell of a start to OTAs by intercepting Trevor Lawrence at the line of scrimmage. He stole a page out of Chad Muma’s college playbook and returned that INT for a pick six. I like that Trevor Lawrence shook it off with a smile and clever comment but I don’t like that he threw the INT in the first place. Let’s get those out of his system now. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, though, since it’s really difficult to assess line play during no contact drills. The good news is that Jacksonville’s defensive line seems bigger, (wants to be) more physical, faster, and judging by the way I’ve read they performed, they sound eager to don the pads. The Duuuval defense has made marked improvements during the offseason and this will pay dividends for the Jacksonville offensive unit.
When Lawrence is not playing from behind, when he is not forced to throw every down, he may be able to make some actual football plays this year. It seems, from early reporting, that he was connecting well with wide receiver Christian Kirk. They had a nice long bomb and some good short yardage grabs. Lawrence commented on how he feels things are gelling rather quickly. When asked to elaborate, he commented Dr. Scholls style (circa 2009), “I’m gellin’ like a felon. You want some melon?” Though we all remember that Ellen had the melon, I’m still pretty excited to hear positive vibes coming from both the Jags offensive and defensive side. Kirk was showing speed at the wide receiver position and Etienne was operating at 100% (without pads). While I am not ready to get excited about number one just yet, no bad news is good news at this point. We can go all in on Etienne around game three of the regular season. I want to see that foot hold up under sustained weekly poundings. Rounding out the offense are players such as Austin, Evan Engram, James Robinson, Snoop Conner, Laquon Treadwell, Zay Jones, Chris Manhertz, my main man Scherff. None of these guys are greats (‘cept Scherff) but they are all so good that they will give Lawrence what he needs to be successful. When it comes to blocking, running, catching, better pass protection, opening holes etc, I’d rather have a solid group of “really goods” over a couple of “greats.” From everything being reported at TIAA Bank Field thus far, I’m certainly down with OTAs. More to come.
If you, too, are down with OTAs, then explain it. Take it frame by frame it, in the comments section: