JACKSONVILLE – Senior writer John Oehser's notes and observations from Jaguars 2018 Organized Team Activities Day 5 at the Dream Finders Homes Practice Fields …
1.Todd Wash likes Myles Jack's approach this offseason. "He has really become a gym rat, which is nice to see," the Jaguars' defensive coordinator said Thursday of the third-year linebacker whose role in the defense will increase for a second consecutive season in 2018. After playing as a strong-side linebacker in base situations and a middle linebacker in nickel situations last season, Jack this season will move to the middle full time in the wake of longtime middle linebacker Paul Posluszny's retirement. One of the highlights when Wash spoke to the media before the fifth practice of OTAs Thursday were his thoughts on Jack, who is working mostly on the side during on-field work during OTAs but who Wash said is showing in meetings he's ready for his increased role. "He really understands our system now," Wash said. "If you are a linebacker in our system, you make the adjustments. There is a lot of stuff for our linebackers. [Linebackers coach] Mark Collins when he came in a year ago, he was like, 'Damn, there is a lot of stuff for linebackers.' Yes, there is. There is a little bit of a learning curve for them. Usually, you start to see it in their second or third year, and we are seeing Myles exactly where we thought we would see him." …
2.People worried that focus will be a problem for the Jaguars in 2018 haven't listened during OTAs, and they didn't listen to linebacker Telvin Smith Thursday. "I was talking on the field with [Head Coach] Doug [Marrone] today, and we cannot get tired of success," Smith said during his first podium 2018 OTA podium appearance Thursday. "We have to keep being more successful, getting more success. You can't get tired in this process, and I think that is where we are right now." Smith's ever-increasing role as a team leader likely will increase more in Posluszny's absence – and he had the feel of a tone-setter Thursday. "It's how far do we want to go as a team?" Smith said when discussing the Jaguars' hopes for 2018. "We all have the pieces that we need. We have everything. Our offense is firing off on all cylinders. [Special teams coordinator] Joe 'D' [DeCamillis] has the special teams going, and we got the defense rocking. It is now [on us] as players. The coaches are going to coach us and get us ready. Ownership, they did their job by bringing us all together. Now, it is on the players to say, 'How great do we want to be?' Because this is our window to take it over." …
3.Wash discussed multiple players during his availability Thursday, notably saying that rookie safety Ronnie Harrison had shown more early during OTAs than the Jaguars perhaps originally expected. "He is actually, I think, a little bit better than we thought we were going to get," Wash said. The Jaguars selected Harrison from the University of Alabama in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft with the expectation that he likely would be an in-the-box safety, "around the football and a physical player," Wash said. "But now we are seeing him in the middle of the field back in our two-shell coverages that we run. You see his athleticism really show through. He adds obviously great quality depth to some very good players we have back there with [starters Tashaun] Gipson and [Barry] Church and [reserve/special teams players] Cody [Davis] and obviously 'J-Dub' (Jarrod Wilson). It is going to be a heck of a battle back there at those two positions." …
4.A key offseason acquisition for the Jaguars: cornerback D.J. Hayden. While perhaps overshadowed in offseason discussion because of the presence of All-Pro starting cornerbacks A.J. Bouye and Jalen Ramsey, Hayden's signing was critical because he'll be expected to take over the nickel corner role played ably by Aaron Colvin the past several seasons. "D.J. has done a real nice job," Wash said of Hayden, a 2013 first-round selection by the Oakland Raiders who played four seasons with Oakland before playing 2017 for the Detroit Lions. "He played a lot of nickel out in Oakland. We evaluated him a year ago, and we liked him as a nickel. Then he goes up to Detroit, doesn't play a lot of nickel, but we knew he had that skillset. We are really locking him in at that position. He is getting a lot of reps in our sub package at nickel. You see him growing within our package. Once again, we play things a little different than maybe Teryl [Austin] did up in Detroit, and so he is just learning what our expectations are. You see the explosiveness, the lateral movement that we are looking for and the instincts it takes to play nickel."…
