The Eagles will host Doug Pederson and the Jaguars in their first Kelly Green game of the season in Week 9.
The Jaguars enter 2024 looking to improve where they left off last year after losing five of their last six games of the season and failing to make the playoffs.
Quick Stats:
2023 record: 9-8 (2nd in AFC South)
Key additions: DT Arik Armstead, C Mitch Morse, CB Ronald Darby, DB Darnell Savage, WR Gabe Davis
Key losses: WR Calvin Ridley, OLB K'Lavon Chaisson
Top draft picks: WR Brian Thomas Jr. (Round 1, Pick 23), DT Maason Smith (Round 2, Pick 48), Jarrian Jones (Round 3, Pick 96)
Here are the top storylines throughout the Jaguars Training Camp, as told by The Florida Times-Union reporter Garry Smits:
What have been the biggest storylines for the Jaguars in Training Camp?
"In the past week, week and a half, on the offensive side, the talk has been the connection between Trevor Lawrence and Brian Thomas, Jr, the frst-round draft pick wide receiver. They've gotten more and more confident with each other. Trevor is looking for him deep more often and in 11-on-11, on the 7-on-7 scrimmaging. He caught a really nice deep ball today, and for the first time, I noticed a deep starting to throw to him before he gets out of his break,"
"The other kind of big news on the offense is how well backup running back, Tank Bigsby is playing. He's slashing real well, he's hitting the holes, but most importantly, it appears, at least as far as in Training Camp and in the preseason game, that Tanks ball security problems he had last year are a thing of the past. He's really been working hard at it. I think the skill position coaches have been working all the guys. They've got four or five different kind of ball security drills they've been doing. And I think Tank has become a little bit more trustworthy in that regard."
What are the expectations defensively this year?
"On a defensive front, I think that's where their most improvement is going to come. They really like Maason Smith from LSU, he's played well. They think Roy Robertson Harris still has some gas in the tank. Jeremiah Ledbetter is a guy that kind of flashed for them a little bit last year. And then DaVon Hamilton was the other nose tackle. He was hurt first half of the season and they're really hopeful that he's going to play better. So not so much optimistic in the offensive line, but they're really optimistic about the defensive line."
What players are battling for positions on the roster still?
"Safety is going to be a pretty good battle, especially they brought in a couple of veterans, Darnell Savage from Green Bay, they resigned Tashaun Gipson, who played with them in 2017 when they had their playoff run that year, and they brought him back and but they lost Andrew Wingard to an injury the second or third day of training camp, and there's some doubts about him, and then Gipson can't play the first six games. But they like Antonio Johnson, who's the second year player now, and obviously Andre Cisco that they like him too. He's going into his third year, Andre had an interception that would have been a pick six, I think under live conditions today, they blew the whistle quick as they do in camp, and he had three interceptions in one training camp session a couple of weeks ago. So he's been playing good. So, I think the depth of safety is something to look at." – Compiled by Liam Wichser
