Week 1 gave the Jacksonville Jaguars an early look at how this roster wants to function, and the snap counts told a pretty clear story: this was a game shaped by the scoreboard, the run game, and a whole lot of late reps for depth players once the Browns were buried 31-0.
That’s why the numbers need a little context. Jacksonville essentially shifted into cruise control, and every active player got on the field in the blowout win - even backup quarterback Nick Mullens. Still, there were some real takeaways buried in the rotation, especially at tight end, running back, and along the offensive line.
Head coach Liam Coen pointed straight to rookie tight end Nate Boerkircher when he spoke Monday at the Miller Electric Center.
"Boerk [TE Nate Boerkircher] played the most of any rookie tight end, I think in the NFL and played a ton of snaps, did a lot of really good things in the run game," Jaguars head coach Liam Coen said on Monday at the Miller Electric Center.
That showed up in the snap count. Boerkircher was on the field for 38 snaps, good for 67%, and he finished just one snap behind Brenton Strange.
He also logged more snaps than each of the Jaguars’ top three receivers. The production wasn’t about route volume - Boerkircher ran only 10 routes and drew the lowest target rate, 10%, among players who were targeted - but that wasn’t really the point.
Jacksonville leaned hard on its tight ends as blockers, and Boerkircher fit right into that plan.
Brenton Strange and Quintin Morris did their usual work in the run game, but Boerkircher turned that role into a major part of his Week 1 workload. With the Jaguars controlling the game and leaning on the ground attack, his blocking helped keep him on the field.
The same kind of game flow also affected the receiver rotation. Josh Cameron got 19 snaps and CJ Williams had 10, part of the broader picture of Jacksonville easing through the second half with the outcome long decided.
At running back, Bhayshul Tuten appeared to take the lead role over Chris Rodriguez Jr., at least for now. Tuten played 28 snaps, or 49%, while Rodriguez was on the field for 23 snaps, or 40%. Tuten also finished with 16 touches to Rodriguez’s six.
That split wasn’t perfectly clean, though. Rodriguez saw more snaps in situations where Jacksonville used play-action out of heavier personnel packages. Even so, Tuten’s usage stood out, and Coen made it clear Monday that the rookie left a strong impression.
“I think Tuten ran his tail off. He ran hard.
The first run of the day, the first play of the day, I think we maybe had a chance to keep that thing inside, but there was a little color that he did see that allowed him to bounce it. I don't think he missed many reads, personally," Coen said on Monday.
"I thought he ran through arm tackles a ton. ... He ran his tail off, like I said, and if we can continue to get him to run like that and then, okay, you break one more of those tackles in the open field, and we know he can go when he does get some of those creases.
I was pleased with it. I think more at the end of the game, some of that probably took us down from an average standpoint when we were running it out at the end of the game.
But when it was still really a ball game and we were running and passing, I thought we were efficient in being able to keep us on schedule.”
There’s still a wrinkle coming with LeQuint Allen, who played just one snap as he gets healthier. If his role grows, the backfield picture could change again. For now, though, Tuten looks like the back on the rise.
The offensive line rotation also offered a notable development with Cole Van Lanen, who returned Sunday and started at right tackle after missing time with a Jan. 4 knee injury that kept him out all offseason. Van Lanen played 63% of the snaps, then Walker Little took the final 21 snaps to close the game out in the second half.
That may not be the exact setup once the Jaguars face the Denver Broncos in Week 2, since this one was already out of hand by halftime. Coen said the plan was to ease Van Lanen back in.
“He did well. He was confident, held his own.
Got the work that we wanted him to get, knowing that he hasn't played a ton. The plan really was if he was going to be able to go, that we would try to just limit it to a half, and get him that work," Coen said.
"And now we've got all this week of him being able to take those reps and get more conditioning so that he's ready to go. Obviously, going into Denver, that's something we have to be aware of as a team, especially Cole not having played a ton, but he was pumped.
He was excited, he was happy about the way he performed, that he went out there and let it rip and cut it loose. I was pleased with him.
He did some really good things for us.”
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