JaguarsTalk: Organized Team Activities - Take 3

JaguarsTalk: Roll Camera - Speed - OTAs, Take 3 - and…Action

There have been numerous questions, concerns, rantings (that may be a little strong), but definite over-analysis by many Jaguars fans concerning the teams play during OTAs. Many have heaped praise on the defense. They are unbelievably fast, they say. Quick on their feet. Others are worried about the offense. Lawrence is tossing too many INTs. If this was a real game he’d be getting sacked way too often. The offensive line doesn’t seem able to protect. The Jaguars spent too much money on Brandon Scherff at the expense of the rest of the line. And we could go on and on. But folks, settle down. These are OTAs. They aren’t even mandatory (though 90%+ of Jags have been at The Bank everyday, which is impressive). They can’t even wear pads. There is no hitting allowed. No blocking. No tackling. No checking off the line. No stiff arming. No lowering the shoulder. No piling on. No pancake blocks. No arm wrestling. No overly aggressive handshakes. No harder than usual high fives. Even the obligatory “ata boy” is frowned upon. No frowning. And most certainly no actual playing of football.

We, as Jacksonville fans, want Trevor Lawrence to throw all of his interceptions now, in the pre-pre-pre-season, during OTAs (I wanted to type it out but who can even remember what it actually stands for). What it doesn’t stand for is Actual. Game. Time. Games that count. I see no AFC South opponents on the field. Derrick Henry isn’t blowing past Fatukasi and stiff-arming Devin Lloyd. DeForest Buckner isn’t breaking through the line and dropping 295 lbs on top of Trevor Lawrence and Kevin Byard isn’t sitting on a telegraphed deep ball ready to take it yard? Five hole? To the house! Either way, I have been watching ESPN SportsCenter rather intently for the past 30+ years and I can honestly say, without hesitation, that I don’t remember ever seeing an ESPN Top Play coming out of voluntary Organized Team Activities (I guess I do remember).

OTAs are where coaches and players learn the new schemes or practice the old ones. It’s where players get comfortable with one another, get their football feet back under them. Players coming back from injury get to gently work up to full speed without getting crushed and re-injured. And yes, defenses will look faster than offenses when the offense can’t hit them to slow them down. This will cause some quicker throws from the QB which may be incomplete or, god for bid, intercepted. But it will also cause the quarterback to learn to think more quickly in adverse conditions, without the worry of injury (hopefully). OTAs should stand for Overanalyzed Training Activities. For fans, this is a time to get excited about the new found, on-paper, abilities of your team. It’s not a time to stress about kinks, because kinks are precisely what get worked out during OTAs. I understand that there is nothing else to talk about concerning the NFL right now. I get it. I write about it. I, too, analyze the OTAs. But it’s my job (I use that term loosely). What I don’t do is put too much stock into anything that occurs during OTAs, save for injuries. Injuries are the only thing that really matter during OTAs. Unfortunately the Jags had a couple of doozies the other day. Back-up QB C.J. Beathard is the most notable with what appears to be a groin injury according to Jaguars.com. Ironically the attempt to prevent injuries by the wussification (real word, promise) of OTAs is exactly why one can not get too worked up about OTA performance.

Football is a contact sport and OTAs are two hand touch. Nobody is judging a skydiving competition based on a dirt dive. The success of the Tampa Bay Lightning isn’t being questioned because Vasilevskiy got nutmegged by his son while kicking the soccer ball around (this example may be a little apples to oranges but I think you get the point. If not here’s another). I’m not getting worked up about the Celtics chances against the Golden State Warriors in Game 3 of the NBA Championship because Jaylen Brown missed a three pointer during an off season game of horse. I am however getting worked up about the Celtics ability to play a defensively decent third quarter, so they don’t poop the bed again, Amber Heard style. Our point here is a simple one folks. I can repeat myself until I am blue in the face but there is no way I can say it any more clearly and concisely than this:

“We in here talkin’ about practice. I mean, listen, we talkin’ about practice. Not a game, not a game, not a game, we talkin’ about practice. Not a game. Not, not, not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like it’s my last. Not the game. We talkin’ ‘bout practice, man. I mean how silly is that? We talkin’ ‘bout practice. We talkin’ ‘bout practice man. What are we talkin’ about? Practice? We talkin’ ‘bout practice man. We talk, we talkin’ ‘bout practice. We talkin’ ‘bout practice. We ain’t talkin’ ‘bout the game. We talkin’ ‘bout practice man. Well we talkin’ about practice right now. We talkin’ ‘bout prac…Man look I hear you. It’s funny to me too. I mean it’s strange, it’s strange to me too, but we talkin’ ‘bout practice man. We not even talkin’ ‘bout the game, the actual game. When it matters. We talkin’ ‘bout practice.

Thank you Allen.

As always you fine folks are more than welcome to practice your comments below…