JACKSONVILLE – Let's get to it …

Chris from Sec 437

Hey, Zone. Looks like the same crappy run-blocking from last year. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence looked good on the first drive, though.

This was sent early in the Jaguars' 26-13 over the Kansas City Chiefs in Preseason Week 1 Saturday. We'll discuss this game more in future O-Zones, but I'll repeat here what I have written for the past several days, past several months and for the better part of 13(ish) years. One preseason series in one preseason game does not define the entire season. When it comes to the running offense, the entire preseason – and even the first few games of the regular season – doesn't come close to defining anything. What will define it? Whether the offensive line develops cohesion in the first part of the season that can carry it through the season, and whether the team increasingly depends on this area in key situations. I don't yet know if the Jaguars will be effective running this season. No one does. But we damned sure don't know either way based on one preseason game, or one series in one preseason game.

Jeemy from Gilbert, AZ

I'm glad to see Mitch Morse is a big upgrade at center. Seems like it could be another season of having our runs up the middle stuffed in the backfield. Is it really that hard to put together a decent O Line?

Little comforts we aging seniors comfort quite like familiar, tried-and-true traditions. We're judging things based on one play and one series in early August again. Thank you, Jeremy. Sincerely.

Brian from Round Rock, TX

Every single "observer" who covers the Jaguars agrees that it doesn't matter who calls the plays and it's an overblown issue. Now I KNOW that Pederson needs to call the plays, it MATTERS. I've never heard you idiots agree on anything and you all are mostly wrong in your analysis. Thoughts?

A few thoughts, actually. One is that not "every single observer" who covers the Jaguars agrees on this matter. I talk to several observers regularly who believe it matters very much who calls the plays, and who absolutely believe it should be Head Coach Doug Pederson and not offensive coordinator Press Taylor. There are by contrast also multiple observers who believe as I do – that the issue is largely overblown. I believe this because when Pederson called plays in the first halves of games in 2022 and Taylor called them in the second halves, there was little enough difference that few outside the organization knew Pederson wasn't calling plays in both halves. There also was comparatively little difference between the offense in 2022 and 2023 until late in the season when Lawrence and wide receiver Christian Kirk were slowed/out with injuries. As for all us observers being mostly wrong in our analysis … this is probably true. I've built a career on being wrong. It's my "calling" card and something I embrace, enjoy and savor. That some of my wrong analysis annoys people is a delicious added benefit.

Charles from Riverside

Hello, John. You discussed the actual designated player roles versus position competition. I remember back in the Coughlin Era that the draft seemed as if it was almost noneffective. The vets were so entrenched in the roles, it looked as if rookies after the first round had little or no possibility of breaking into a starting role. That appears to have changed for the Jags, with multiple opportunities for draftees and free agents to make an impact. Is that a result of the hefty turnover we have gone through over the last several years, or more indicative of the NFL today?

There's probably a little selective memory here – and the NFL from this view doesn't seem all that much different in this era than it was in the Jaguars "Coughlin" era of the late 1990s. Since the beginning of the free-agent/salary cap era in the early 1990s, offseasons for NFL teams typically have been about filling most starting holes in free agency and perhaps leaving one or two positions for first-and-second-round draft selections to "earn" during training camp. This was pretty much how it was for the Jaguars in the 1990s and it remains true for most teams now. It's also true that that 1990s Jaguars team was a little more established in the final few seasons of its 1996-1999 playoff run and therefore seemed to not have as many spots for draft selections.

Scott from Jax in Delanowhere

Duuuuuuval!!!

Scott, it appears, was ready for some football.

Rob from San Antonio, TX

KOAF, okay, I'll bite. What does your "Scobee Sense" do?

Annoy me.

J.Hooks from Orange Park, FL

Regarding the 18-game schedule and the two-bye-weeks thing; Did you happen to see Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow's answer to this question? He was asked and he said have the "normal" bye week for teams at the beginning of the season, then put the Pro Bowl earlier and make that a bye week for all teams to gear up for the playoffs. Then the Super Bowl would be on Presidents' Day weekend, which would make it a Monday off for everyone except you. What do you think about this?

This makes sense. If you must have 18 games and two byes – as now seems frustratingly inevitable – it's as good as any suggestion. Part of me wonders if players still would prefer a postseason Pro Bowl because they would still prefer the option of getting away during the bye week as opposed to committing to a week of Pro Bowl activities, but that's a nitpicky answer on my part. As for playing the Super Bowl on Presidents' Day weekend, I get a lot of emails from people who like this idea. And these people are free to like what they want. I'm free to like and dislike what I want, and I imagine I'll always dislike the idea of a February Super Bowl – particularly one played that late in the month.

David from Ada, OK

Agree. Coaches don't rest players to keep them fresh. Senior writers on the other hand are rested only if they are currently the king of all funk.

Senior writers rest. It's what we do. It's also why they invented space under desks.

Armand from Jacksonville

If and when the NFL goes to 18 games and possibly a shorter training camp do you see the keeping the roster at 90 and a first cut Week 1 to 70 and Week 2 to 53 or right out the gate 53?

First, I don't know that the NFL will go to a shorter training camp when/if it moves to 18 games. There were reports this past offseason that training camps moving forward could extend into early July or June, reshaping – and perhaps eliminating part of – the "offseason." Either way, I don't know that a longer training camp or longer regular season would prompt change into the current cutdown dates. The league moved in 2023 to a one-time roster reduction to 53. I haven't heard anything to indicate a change there.

Larry from Wattsburg(h), PA

Hey O, were you the old codger acting with Jack Lemon in 'Grumpy Old Men'? I would have sworn it was Burgess Meredith. "I shoulda' taken a dirt nap thirty years ago!" #getoffthelawn

That may have been me, actually. I can't remember anymore.

Fred from Naples, FL

Yes, the haircut is snappy but oh … that beard??!!

I am the king of all funk.

Dan from Greer

You think that if the NFL expands the season to 18 games that they might allow the rosters to expand at some point in the season to help compensate for the toil on the players?

I suppose the league could expand by a spot or two. But they didn't expand when they moved from 16 to 17 games, so I don't know that it's a guarantee they would expand if they moved from 17 to 18. Remember, too: Practice squads have expanded to 16 in recent seasons and the league is looser when allowing teams to move players from there to the active roster. That has had the effect of expanding the roster and there may not be a feeling that it needs to expand further.

Bryan from Bridgetown

Yo Grizz! Why does a water management district need to advertise? Isn't that a government thing?

I don't care about this.