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00:00Hey everybody, it's in-game live game day here on Sports Grid. Adam Kaufman, Brady Cannon.
00:25We have got you here on the grid for the next three hours. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be a lot of football, not unlike last night where we began our tour of the AFC South. We talked about the favored Texans, whether or not the Colts have a chance to unseat them atop the division, but we just kept saying there's one more. There's one other team, and I don't mean the Titans. We'll get to them a little bit later on this hour.
00:48There's another team that has a chance to maybe upset the apple cart and take first place in the AFC South, and that is, of course, the Jacksonville Jaguars.
00:57Before we get to our first guest, let's show you some odds and let you know where things stand entering the season, at least right now, as we get ready to close out July with Jacksonville.
01:06This is a team that enters the year with mild expectations in terms of Vegas, the over-under of 7.5 wins at the moment, even money to the over, minus 120 to the under, plus 310 to win the South on FanDuel, 34-1 to win the conference, meanwhile 75-1 to win the Super Bowl.
01:25To make the playoffs, it is considered an uphill battle, right around plus 190, meanwhile minus 235 to miss the playoffs.
01:33Why? Because there are questions. There's a new general manager, James Gladstone. There is a new head coach, Liam Cohen, comes over obviously from Tampa.
01:41A new offensive coordinator is in the mix as well. We're looking for a rebounding year from Trevor Lawrence, and of course, the Heisman Trophy winner is in the house now.
01:51What side of the field is he going to play on? Will it be both? He's been doing both in training camp so far. That is Travis Hunter.
01:57Let us bring in our guest to help us break it down. Boots on the ground from Jacksonville for ESPN.
02:03He is Mike DiRocco on Twitter, at ESPN DiRocco, has covered the Jaguars for a good long while. Mike, welcome to the program. How are you?
02:12I'm good, guys. How are you today? And thanks for having me, by the way, too.
02:16Absolutely. Welcome. Look, I mean, this is going to be a fun season.
02:20I hope. I mean, I have talked, you know, bias all out in the open. I'm not the biggest Jaguars guy.
02:27I don't really like Trevor Lawrence. I'm not a huge fan of this team. Probably put them in the other categories, as a matter of fact.
02:33But if I'm, you know, really, you know, getting sort of amped up about something, boy, do I love Travis Hunter.
02:40And I want to see him do well. I think he is the story, obviously, entering this season for the Jaguars.
02:46You know, you trade up a bundle to get him. Number two overall pick. Let's talk about him and what reasonable expectations are.
02:53And I think for people out there that are thinking about betting markets that involve Travis Hunter or obviously season-long fantasy, best ball, that type of thing.
03:02How is he going to be utilized on this team?
03:04Well, the people I talk to around the league are in disbelief.
03:11They refuse to believe that the Jags are actually going to play him on both sides of the ball.
03:16And that's pretty much across the board, the people I've spoken with.
03:20In Jacksonville, however, the people inside the organization are adamant he is going to play both sides of the ball.
03:27But I don't know what the snap number is going to be.
03:31You know, could he play 100 snaps in a game?
03:33Absolutely. That is something that they've talked about in the organization.
03:37It would not be a shock to see that happen.
03:40But how it breaks down, that's really the kind of thing that we need to watch as training camp goes on.
03:45Because I've been tracking his snaps pretty much the first four practices.
03:51And he's played more on defense, 83 snaps, I think 47 on defense at this point.
03:55So slightly more on defense.
03:57But, you know, I think this is going to be more of a matchup snap division, if that makes sense.
04:05You know, for example, week two, they've got the Bengals and Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins.
04:10So I wouldn't be surprised if in that particular game, it would be heavily, more heavy toward defense as opposed to offense.
04:19But it also kind of depends, too, on how do some of those other corners develop?
04:23Offensively, is D.M. Brown a guy that can be the number two?
04:26Is Parker Washington, who's, you know, basically fighting for the number four spot, can he be a guy that is involved in the offense a little bit more?
04:34What does that give them?
04:35Do they need Travis Hunter more on the offensive side of the ball?
04:38So all that's got to kind of play out.
04:39But the one thing I'm 100% sure of is he definitely will play both sides of the ball in games.
04:45And if I had to guess on a snap count, I'd probably say somewhere in that 70 to 80 range, you know, would be a safe number to kind of expect him to play each week.
04:57Well, as someone who followed the Colorado Buffaloes, that is certainly going to be exciting to continue to track the career of Travis Hunter, the Heisman Trophy winner.
05:06Different from Adam, I'm pretty neutral on the Jaguars, but I like Travis, or excuse me, Trevor Lawrence.
05:12I want to see him do well.
05:14I think the more great quarterback play we have in this league, the better it is for the league.
05:19And it seems like we've been waiting for him to break out forever.
05:23And maybe it's put up or shut up time at this point, Mike, you know, with Liam Cohen in as head coach, what the great things he did for Baker Mayfield last year.
05:33Do we think we can get to that point that we've all been waiting for for so long on this guy?
05:40Yeah, I mean, that's the question.
05:41It's the key to the entire season, to be honest with you.
05:43Now, you know, should we expect Trevor Lawrence to throw 40 touchdown passes, 4,500 yards?
05:49Yeah, I don't think that would be something that we should expect.
05:52I think the two biggest issues with Trevor Lawrence, number one, he's got to prove that he can stay healthy.
05:57He hasn't done that the last two seasons.
05:59And he's got to play consistent football at a high level over the course of a season because he hasn't been able to do that in his career yet either.
06:06He had a really good stretch at the end of 22, really good stretch at the first part of 23.
06:12Over that 17-game stretch, I think he was 13-4.
06:15You know what I mean?
06:16But when you look at that, I think that was only like a 26-touchdown season, if you would look at that 17-game season.
06:24So he's not been a high-volume touchdown guy.
06:27But this offense, the one thing that Trevor Lawrence has talked to us about significantly or consistently in the spring and now is going up to the line of scrimmage and feeling like with this offense, there's an answer for everything that he sees.
06:42And that clearly indicates that there wasn't that answer in the last three years with Doug Peterson and Press Taylor.
06:49So he's really excited about the offense.
06:52But again, what do they get out of Travis Hunter?
06:55And can he stay healthy?
06:57You know, week three is a big game in terms of the reminder of his importance to this franchise.
07:05They're playing the Texans in week three.
07:08Aziz Alshier hit him late last year.
07:10That knocked him out the rest of the year.
07:12He missed the last, what, seven games of the year.
07:14So that's the game that I've got my eye on that's going to be fun to kind of watch and see what happens there.
07:19But he's got to be healthy.
07:21If he can't do that again, then they're going to have to start thinking about maybe another option going forward.
07:27Current fan duel odds on Trevor Lawrence, 3,700.5 passing yards and 22.5 touchdowns.
07:35And, you know, if you look back through his very brief career, the four years, of course, last year couldn't stay healthy, as you mentioned, only played in 10 games.
07:42Touchdowns in general, that's been, you know, a tougher market to hit.
07:45So long as he's healthy, the yard shouldn't be an issue.
07:48But you look at what he has around him.
07:49Obviously, we have some questions in Hunter just in that he's unknown.
07:54I think Brian Thomas is obviously a really compelling player in terms of the run game.
08:00I like Bigsby, ETN, if he can stay out there on the field.
08:03But in terms of the pass catchers specifically, and the loss of Evan Ingram, which I think is really significant,
08:07he was really a safety blanket for a large part of last year when Lawrence was out there for him.
08:13So, you know, I don't know.
08:15People are going to want to defer to Liam Cohen and his offensive genius and what he accomplished there in Tampa with Mayfield and that whole group.
08:21But can he replicate that?
08:23Does he have enough weapons to replicate that?
08:26Yeah, right now, the answer would be no.
08:29Now, look, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, that's at another level.
08:32That's one of the best duos in the NFL, without question.
08:35But Godwin was banged up a lot last year.
08:37Bucky Irving emerged as their top running back and really one of the best young backs in the league.
08:43So, Travis, ETN, Tank, Bigsby, they're okay, solid duo.
08:49Who's going to emerge after Brian Thomas shoots?
08:51Because I think he's one of the top ten receivers in the league already as a young guy.
08:55But if he can get that run game going, that'll be a significant boost.
08:59And that's what he did in Tampa.
09:00They went from, I think, last to fourth.
09:02And if he can make that same kind of improvement to Alabama.
09:07We are previewing the Jaguars 2025 season with ESPN's Mike Duraco.
09:11Stay with us.
09:12More on the other side.
09:13We are looking ahead to the Jacksonville Jaguars 2025 season with ESPN Jaguars reporter Mike Duraco.
09:20Kind enough to hang with us here on Sports Grid.
09:23And, Mike, we've talked a lot about the offense.
09:25We'll get to the defense, too, because, you know, you got naturally with the new coaching staff,
09:29new OC, new DC, again, the new GM, the new head coach.
09:32It's just everything is new with some very important holdovers like Trevor Lawrence.
09:37But, you know, a defense that was absolutely awful last year that will try and, you know,
09:41make things look a lot prettier with some talent that is still around for this upcoming season.
09:46But defense does play into this next question I'll ask you here, which is, you know,
09:52this team, it went just, you know, 4-13 straight up, 10-7 against the spread for the bettors out there wondering.
09:58So it was a team that, you know, played close games, but in those close games didn't fare well.
10:02Just 2-8 in one-score games.
10:05Now, normally I would recite numbers like that and say,
10:08so, I mean, this season could have gone way differently.
10:10Could have been a playoff team.
10:12Watching them game to game, I don't feel that way.
10:14I think it was more than, you know, not being able to close out games.
10:18I think just there were too many injuries.
10:19There were too many things that were working against them, including poor coaching.
10:23So the fact that everything is turned over going into this new year,
10:28is there anything we can take from last year's inability to close out those close games into this new season?
10:34Or was that just totally separate from what we're about to see?
10:39No, I think there's a couple of things you can look at.
10:42Number one, clearly there was not enough veteran leadership in that locker room
10:48to kind of shake those guys out of that issue.
10:51I mean, and I wrote about that after the season ended.
10:55Really good guys in that locker room.
10:57Christian Kirk, Evan Ingram, guys like that.
11:00Really upstanding guys.
11:01Hard-working guys.
11:02Lead-by-example guys.
11:04But when Doug Peterson was in Philadelphia,
11:07he had guys like Lane Johnson who would grab you by the face mask and let you know,
11:12hey, we've got to shake out of this.
11:14This is unacceptable.
11:15This is not going to work.
11:16Start playing like we can play.
11:17And they really didn't have a lot of that last year.
11:20And I think the addition of new defense coordinator Anthony Campanile is going to be a huge benefit for this team.
11:28That team did not respond to Ryan Nielsen.
11:31It was just a bad scheme.
11:34He had those guys like Josh Allen, Trayvon Walker, Andre Sisco, the safety.
11:38He had a bulk up.
11:40None of them were playing at the weight that they played at usually.
11:43And it just didn't work for them.
11:45And guys were getting tired, run down.
11:47They weren't on the field at the same time.
11:49It was really just kind of a mess.
11:51And I just think the addition of Campanile and just an injection of enthusiasm,
11:58I think, will make a significant difference there.
12:01But if there's still a problem with that stuff in the locker room, then that could play over into this year.
12:10But, you know, we'll have to see how that plays out.
12:12They just need to have some success early because they haven't had that the last couple of years.
12:16Michael, Adam talked about, you know, the one-score games.
12:21They really did have some bad luck.
12:23Just one and four in field goal games.
12:26The turnover differential, minus 15.
12:29You know, sacks is basically neutral.
12:33You know, that stuff tends to, you know, water tends to find its level.
12:37You will come back to the norm.
12:39But I wonder if it's too far of an adjustment here.
12:42And I know Trevor Lawrence was out for a lot of games last season.
12:46They only won three games last season.
12:48And now Las Vegas is setting the number at seven and a half.
12:52You know, if you're going to go over that, you're saying this team is going to win eight games.
12:56Even though they had some bad luck and that should turn.
13:00And you mentioned the new defensive coordinator and feeling that that could turn as well.
13:04Is that enough to get this team to eight, possibly nine wins and challenge the Texans for the division?
13:12I could think they would challenge the Colts for the second place team.
13:18I don't know about challenging for the division.
13:20But, you know, look, that was not really a three-win team last year.
13:24If Trevor Lawrence is there the whole year, if they don't deal with losing Evan Ingram and Christian Kirk for most of the year.
13:31I don't know how much you guys watched Mac Jones play last year, but that was painful.
13:37This offense just could not get out of its own way.
13:40I mean, they got a chance to win a game and it's fourth, I want to say, in like 12.
13:47And Mac Jones is throwing a three-yard check down.
13:50I mean, that is the kind of stuff that was going on last year.
13:54So I don't necessarily think that they're that far away from being a team that can win eight.
13:58And the feeling in their building is sort of the same way, that, look, we had a little dysfunction going on last year.
14:05We had a ton of injuries.
14:06We get rid of that stuff, get back to just playing solid football, keep some guys healthy.
14:12Then they feel like they're around a 500 team.
14:15And that's probably really where they were last year, to be honest with you, had those guys not gotten hurt.
14:20As a Patriots fan, I've seen plenty of Mac Jones.
14:25So I get it.
14:27Believe me, sir, I get it.
14:29There's still some bobbleheads.
14:31He was a pro bowler by default, because enough guys said no.
14:37But doesn't that speak enough to, you know, Josh McDaniels and his role as OC and, you know, people leveling up their expectations in year two for Drake May?
14:45All of that.
14:46We'll get to our Patriots preview down the line.
14:48But, you know, Mike, this Jaguars team, maybe you kind of already answered this, and that being Trevor Lawrence.
14:54But ultimately, with so many changes, again, the whole new coaching staff, Hunter coming in, obviously Lawrence hopefully being healthy for this season.
15:03Some pieces that turned over on offense, no Kirk, no Ingram, and so on.
15:08What's the X factor for this team to be one that has expectations for a wildcard playoff berth or maybe even unseating the Texans in the division versus another five-win season?
15:21Well, Lawrence is one, for sure.
15:22But the other one who is the play of the offensive line, especially along that interior, you know, Brandon Sheriff at right guard and Mitch Morris at center, guys at the end of their career,
15:32they were beaten up.
15:34Sheriff, I don't think, has been healthy since the moment he got here, you know, four years ago or three years ago.
15:39So that was an issue.
15:41But they added Patrick McCurry, Robert Hainsey.
15:43They drafted a kid, Wyatt Milam, who may end up winning the starting job at left tackle, or excuse me, left guard.
15:49That should help them be much more physical and be able to run the ball.
15:53They really couldn't run the ball last year either.
15:55So if those guys can protect Trevor Lawrence up the middle, which is where a lot of the pressure came over the last two years,
16:02and they can run the ball at least to be a middle-of-the-pack run team, they got a chance.
16:08They have a chance.
16:11Mike DeRocco, again, ESPN Jaguars reporter on Twitter, at ESPN DeRocco.
16:16Mike, we really appreciate you taking the time, obviously, and, you know, giving us, as I always like to say,
16:21the boots-on-the-ground perspective on what's happening in Jags training camp.
16:24It's going to be an interesting season.
16:26Hopefully, we'll bug you again down the line.
16:28Absolutely.
16:29Thanks for having me, guys.
16:31Absolutely.
16:32So we have one team left to talk about in the AFC South.
16:35That is going to be the Tennessee Titans.
16:37We will do that coming up later this hour when we come back to get some thoughts from Brady and I
16:41on what we think of the Jags coming up.
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