JACKSONVILLE – Mitch Morse remains completely confident.
The Jaguars' veteran center doesn't like being 0-1. But he absolutely believes in the Jaguars' ability to respond – and he likes how they have done so this week.
He believes in it because he believes in his new teammates.
"I just think they're so hungry to win a make a push," he said.
Morse, who signed with the Jaguars this past offseason as an unrestricted free agent, joined senior writer John Oehser for this week's 2024 Week 2 O-Zone Podcast.
He discussed multiple topics, including the importance of building on a "gut-punch" Week 1 loss to the Miami Dolphins as the Jaguars prepared to play the Cleveland Browns in the 2024 regular-season home opener at EverBank Stadium Sunday.
"We don't want to totally scrap what happened in that game," Morse said. "We're sick to our stomach on that. We didn't end up with a win. That's the only stat line that matters, but you have to be constructive.
"There are things we liked about it and we're just going to try to compound those. We felt we had every opportunity to win that game. We felt like we lost it. The defense had an outstanding performance. We just made little mistakes.
"The beautiful thing about this game is we have an opportunity most Sundays to remedy those mistakes. It's not going to be easy versus a defensive line like Cleveland's."
Morse, a 10-year veteran, played his first four NFL seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs and played the past five seasons with the Buffalo Bills. He joined the Jaguars to help solidify the interior of the offensive line – and to help bring veteran leadership and presence to a team that struggled at times to finish, particularly late in the season.
The trick to providing leadership in a new situation? Approach each day with integrity and professionalism, and trust that such actions matter more than words.
"First of all, as I'm learning, the more I play this game the less I know," he said. "There are so many intricacies to this game. You have to be who you are because people see through you if you're not. I'm just going to try to be a professional every day."
To listen to the entire O-Zone Podcast with Morse, please click HERE.
