JACKSONVILLE – Jaguars players received a surprise when they arrived at EverBank Field for practice Friday.
The surprise at practice? That there was no practice.
Head Coach Gus Bradley, pleased with the players' overall approach and progress made during 2014 organized team activities, canceled the last of 10 scheduled OTA practices at the Florida Blue Health and Wellness Practice Fields on Friday.
Instead, the team held a team-building day with bowling and other activities at Latitude 30 on Jacksonville's Southside.
"It's great for Gus to do this, to give us our last OTA off," Jaguars quarterback Chad Henne told jaguars.com Friday. "It's a chance to see guys outside their element, have some fun and bond a little more."
Bowling life — Geno Hayes (@55_AlwaysLive) June 13, 2014
Bradley, in his second season as the Jaguars' Head Coach, had praised the team after the last five OTA practices this week and last week. He said Thursday after the ninth OTA practice that the team had a better handle of the offense, defense and special teams than at this time last year.
The Jaguars held nine OTA practices over the last three weeks – three each week – and will hold their mandatory three-day minicamp Tuesday through Thursday.
The sessions Tuesday and Wednesday are open to the public, but fans must register for free tickets at jaguars.com/practice.
"They were pretty excited," Bradley told jaguars.com. "We've had really good practices. We wanted to make sure we have a good minicamp coming up, and it gave us a chance to talk to them about what we expect next week and how we're going to go about doing this. It's a nice little break for them."
