The first week of Jaguars training camp has already stirred up the kind of offensive line anxiety that tends to show up fast in late July. That’s understandable. The ground game has been a focal point, the line was a talking point all offseason, and five practices into camp, fans are already trying to read the tea leaves.
But the smartest takeaway right now is patience.
Yes, Jacksonville wanted more from its run game after the 2025 season, when the unit improved from the 2024 version but still faded in the second half. The Jaguars returned the entire offensive line from a year ago, yet improving the rushing attack was still clearly a priority this offseason.
Through camp’s opening stretch, the results have been uneven. Bhayshul Tuten has flashed a long run almost every day, while the rest of the production has been much harder to find, aside from Chris Rodriguez Jr. bowling over Caleb Ransaw on Monday.
That unevenness, though, is not a reason to hit the panic button.
The pads only came on during Day 5, and the Jaguars are still in the phase where technique and emphasis matter more than clean box scores from practice. Head coach Liam Coen said Monday that the staff is focused on getting the line to be “thicker on combinations a little bit” and not letting the unit get stretched too thin by the design of the play.
“Yeah, just being thicker on combinations a little bit. Sometimes, based on the scheme, the O-Line will think they have to maybe get on an angle because of where the ball's going.
Say it's outside zone, they feel like they just have to run because it's outside. Well, no, let's take care of the down first and be a little bit thicker through combinations so that we're moving the line of scrimmage," Jaguars head coach Liam Coen said after practice on Monday.
He added that the work has been deliberate since spring, and that camp is now giving the staff a better look at how it’s coming together.
"I think that's something that we've been very intentional about, whether it's with wide zone, mid-zone, duo; those are the only three plays we have in right now. Just being more intentional about chipping on our combinations and being a little bit more vertical so that we're not just running, all right, sideline to sideline, and getting thinned out on the at the line of scrimmage and the point of attack.
So, I think that that's something that those guys have worked diligently on since the spring. And once you get into training camp, you're able to see it a little bit more.”
There’s still plenty of time before the Jaguars have to sort this out for real in Week 1 against the Cleveland Browns. The line can keep building, the health can keep improving, and the run game can keep taking shape. If the same issues are still there once the opener arrives, then the reaction will make a lot more sense.
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He has already logged two passes defensed and an interception on defense, along with one catch on offense during the preseason, a small sample that still hints at how the Jaguars might use him. For a team trying to build something bigger than a camp storyline, the real intrigue is how far this two-way workload can go once the practices get more physical and the reps become harder to come by. [Read more 🡒]