Quote (Hako @ Aug 14 2012 09:31pm)

GET SOME!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKknaWEln9w

Quote (draino @ Aug 14 2012 07:34pm)

HOLY LOL

greg jones picking on some poor fella from unc smh

Quote (GangStarr @ Aug 15 2012 01:39pm)

Monroe carted off the field

Quote (GangStarr @ Aug 15 2012 01:39pm)

Monroe carted off the field

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Senior writer John Oehser takes a look at the mounting injuries on the offensive line on Day 16 of the Jaguars 2012 Training Camp.

MONROE INJURED

Jaguars left tackle Eugene Monroe left practice early Wednesday after being hit in the head.

Monroe, a starter in 42 of a possible 48 games in three NFL seasons, was hit in the head in an early period of practice, according to Jaguars head coach Mike Mularkey. Monroe’s status is uncertain for Friday night’s preseason game at New Orleans.

“We’re just going to make sure he’s fine,” Mularkey said. “I don’t think it’s anything serious but we’ll check it out. As far as I know he got hit and went in early.”

Mularkey said Monroe could be put into the “concussion program,” in which players undergo tests to determine if a blow to the head indeed is a concussion. A player then typically misses time based on the severity of the situation.

Entering the program does not mean a player has a concussion, but being in the program often means a player missing at least a day or two for precautionary reasons.

“If we have to put him in the program he would probably be held out (against New Orleans),” Mularkey said.

The Jaguars moved right tackle Cameron Bradfield to left tackle when Monroe left, inserting Daniel Baldridge into the lineup at right tackle.

The Jaguars have spent much of training camp dealing with injuries along the line. Monroe missed a few days early with swelling in his knee, and guard Will Rackley is out with a high ankle sprain. Backup guard Jason Spitz is out with a sprained foot and backup center John Estes sustained a knee injury Friday. Estes is expected to miss extended time.

“It’s hard to be stable when we’ve got different line ups in every play,” Mularkey said. “It’s not practices; it’s series that we’re fitting guys in. It’s hard to get any continuity with the injuries we’ve been having. They’ve done a great job of doing what they’ve done to fit in there and allow us to at least practice and get some things done.”



COMING ALONG

Justin Blackmon continues to work his way into shape.

Blackmon, the No. 5 overall selection in the 2012 NFL Draft, began practicing in full pads Monday after ending a 10-day holdout to start camp the previous Monday. Mularkey has said throughout the week that conditioning is the major issue regarding Blackmon, because players can’t simulate football conditioning when working out alone.

“He’s getting better,” Mularkey said.

Mularkey said the plan remains to play Blackmon along with the first-team offense for a half against the Saints Friday. Mularkey said he expects Blackmon’s conditioning will be an issue when the team is in two-minute offense.

“That’s hurry up,” he said. “The plays are being called at the line, you’ve got to execute them, get back at the line in a quick fashion and his conditioning will show up there, especially in the game. He’s just got to get in the game condition which we’re trying to do with him.

“That’s why we’re putting him in as quickly as we are.”



MULARKEY SAYS

“I was pretty pleased. We got a lot done with three days in pads in the heat. Like I said (Tuesday), this is the fourth quarter of the game. You’ve got to kind of find a way to come out here at 8:30 in the morning and you’re hurting and I thought we got a lot of work done especially the situational, the two minute and the red zone.”



DE JEREMY MINCEY SAYS

“It feels better when you come out of the blue and do things no one expects you to do. I like this position we’re in, where we’re not getting the notoriety. It’s going to come. We’re working hard. I watch TV. All they show is our bad highlights on ESPN. It’s going to come. We’re working hard. You can see how the team’s binding. We’re keeping our head down and working.”



WHAT WE SAW

Another day, another physical practice. That was pretty much the norm during Jaguars 2012 Training Camp, especially in the last week, and the team closed the week with a third consecutive physical morning. Left guard Eben Britton and defensive end Corvey Irvin tussled in an early pass rush drill, and during that same session tackles C.J. Mosley, Tyson Alualu and D’Anthony Smith all had good pressure. Tight end Marcedes Lewis got open for a couple of touchdowns in a red-zne drill, and wide receiver Brian Robiskie caught a touchdown pass from backup Chad Henne in the same drill. Wide receiver Cecil Shorts also caught two intermediate passes from Henne later in practice.



WHAT’S NEXT

Training camp continues Thursday with a 9:15 a.m. walkthrough, after which the Jaguars will leave for New Orleans to play the Saints in the second preseason game Friday. Training camp will conclude with a 1:50 practice Sunday.



TODAY’S TAKE

As two-a-days came to an end Wednesday, there was a lot of optimistic talk in the locker room about just what the team accomplished in two weeks. Most notable was talking to guard Uche Nwaneri about the improvement of the passing game. Nwaneri said there were times last season when the line would be blocking, look downfield, see no separation between receiver and defensive back and just know the play wasn’t going to work. The difference during training camp so far? All the difference in the world, according to Nwaneri. He said the line and the offense has confidence in the passing game and the receivers, and from watching camp the last two weeks it’s easy to see why. Wide receiver Laurent Robinson is getting open consistently, as is Shorts, and while Shorts dropped a catchable pass in red-zone drills Wednesday, he made several other catches and it looks like he’s ready to contribute. Mike Thomas also has looked increasingly good in camp, and while Justin Blackmon is still working his way into playing shape, he seems to have the hands and ability to get open to be productive as a rookie. Only the regular season will tell, but the receivers hardly could have made more progress the last two weeks of training camp.



QUICK HITS

*Lewis caught two touchdowns in the back of the end zone during an early red-zone drill, with each throw coming from Blaine Gabbert . “They did a good job executing the play and it was the same play both times,” Mularkey said. “Actually, it was a repeat later on in practice. The defense had an idea it was coming and it was still well executed to get him open like that. He’s going to be a force in the red zone with his size and the things that we do down there with the tight ends.”

*Not only did Spitz, Estes and Rackley remain out of practice Wednesday, tight end Zach Miller (pec), cornerback Derek Cox (hamstring), fullback Brock Bolen (knee) and linebacker Daryl Smith (groin) watched from the side. Defensive end Austen Lane (foot) remained out, with cornerback Leigh Torrance still in the concussion program.

*Defensive tackle Tyson Alualu could play eight-to-10 plays against the Saints Friday, Mularkey said. Alualu missed Friday’s preseason opener against the Giants after undergoing offseason knee surgery. Mularkey also said cornerback Rashean Mathis may be held out one more week. He said Mathis, who underwent surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament late last season, could play, but because the game is on artificial turf it may be wise to hold him out. “We’re going to talk through that,” Mularkey said. “I know he wants to play but we’re going to be smart about it.”

*Gabbert tweaked his back in a drill in the morning practice, but Mularkey said Gabbert told him after practice he is fine.

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Editorial: Jaguars head coach Mike Mularkey after the final 2012 two-a-day practice: “The hard part is over."

They gathered at midfield, sun beating down and sticky heat all around.

Mike Mularkey stood among this group of Jaguars players Wednesday morning at the Florida Blue Health and Wellness practice fields. The final full-padded, morning practice of a difficult, high-intensity week was done. In a sense, the better part of 2012 Training Camp was, too.

“I just told them, ‘the hard part is over,’’’ the first-year head coach told reporters moments later.

And make no mistake:

Two-a-days may not be what they were before new NFL rules shortened the sessions and the hours, but the past two and a half weeks around EverBank Field have indeed been difficult. More than that, they have been important.

Perhaps even more important than that, the players and coaching staff behaved as such. While the coaching staff had spent the offseason installing an offense and setting a tone, that was just a start. As safety Dawan Landry said Wednesday, a team doesn’t become a team until pads come on, and in the last two and a half weeks, Landry said the beginning of an identity was established.

The Jaguars will be professional. They will be organized.

They will be physical. They will be tough.

“We got a lot accomplished,” Landry said. “Coach Mularkey, he’s instilled his philosophy and everybody has bought into the philosophy. We had a lot of hard, grinding days. It’s gotten everybody better, from top to bottom, offensively and defensively.”

That was particularly true this week.

Considering the good feeling of a 32-31 victory over the Giants in the preseason opener Friday, Landry said coaches could have slacked off a bit this week. Players could have, too. Human nature, Landry said, would have made that easy.

“You had to keep pushing,” Landry said.

When the week began, Mularkey told the team the third and final week of camp was like the fourth quarter of a game. He laid this out clearly, told players what to expect and why. He said there would be days this week when they would be sore, when they would need to push through pain, fatigue. He explained, too, that there was a reason for this – that the only way to know what players would handle difficult situations was to see them in those situations.

“We got a lot of work done,” Landry said. “Nobody’s been complaining. That builds a team up. That shows you the kind of team you have. No quit. We’re moving in the right direction.”

Linebacker Paul Posluszny, a scab on his nose, said the week of full contact, full pads paid dividends on a very basic level.

“Coaches know who’s willing to hit,” Posluszny said.  “They know they can count on certain guys to step up and be physical.”

The week wasn’t perfect. Mularkey said there are still too many penalties, and there were still dropped passes, but something else happened, too. On Tuesday, the Jaguars had what Mularkey said was the best drill of camp, a 9-on-7 drill with more intensity and enthusiasm than any drill in the last two weeks. On the same day, the wide receivers and quarterback Blaine Gabbert had perhaps their best day of training camp.

As two-a-days ended Wednesday, and as the team began preparing for the second preseason game Friday against New Orleans, players said something else was clear, too.

This team is better than it was two and a half weeks ago.

That’s how it’s supposed to be in training camp. Teams are supposed to improve. Some do and some don’t, but around the Jaguars, the eye test says it’s happening.

The Jaguars’ offense looked better in a scrimmage two Fridays ago then they had before that. On Friday against the Giants, the offense looked better still, and there have been practices in recent days that appeared to be the best of training camp.

In this case, Uche Nwaneri said, the eye test is dead on.

“Our passing game has come along – it really has,” Nwaneri said.

OTAs and the offseason were a learning curve, Nwaneri said. A new offense. New calls. New routes. New everything. In the two and a half weeks since the Jaguars gathered at EverBank, he said the improvement has been steady – perhaps not a direct line up, but if the line has been jagged it’s trending in the right direction.

“One of the things that’s happening now is there’s a lot more confidence in our ability to out-scheme the defense -- as long as we play physical and smart,” Nwaneri said. “We’ve had a lot of people who have been open. We’ve had clean running lanes. That’s the difference between last season and this season. When we go into the passing game, it’s not so much, ‘I hope this guy can get separation.’ It’s, ‘This guy will get separation at this point and we’re going to get the ball to him.’

“As a line, it feels so good to be blocking, then see the ball 14 yards downfield. That just builds confidence in our team. If you can trust a quarterback like that, that’s all the difference in the world.”

Nwaneri said that difference started to be felt in the offseason, and that when the team gathered in late July, there was a good feeling. That feeling became flat-out optimism after Friday and now Nwaneri will tell you the energy and steady improvement is undeniable.

Another word for that energy and good feeling? Hope, and as the hard part of training camp came to an end Wednesday, there was more of that around EverBank than there has been in a while.

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Rookie wide receiver to play a half when Jaguars play the New Orleans Saints on Friday.

He will play about a half, if all goes as planned.

And of all the storylines surrounding the Jaguars’ second preseason game – and there are many pressing storylines – that’s the one that stands out.

When the Jaguars play the Saints Friday at the Mercedes Benz SuperDome in New Orleans, La., Blaine Gabbert will continue his development, the offensive line will continue looking for continuity and the team will look to maintain momentum from preseason Week 1. And of course, there’s this:

Justin Blackmon will make his debut.

“I’m looking forward to it a lot,” Blackmon said early this week.

Who isn’t? Blackmon, widely considered the best wide receiver in college football the last two seasons, was the No. 5 overall selection in the 2012 NFL Draft. He was selected by a team that very much needed wide receivers, a team that was 32nd in the NFL in passing offense a year ago.

That would have been enough for an anticipated debut. Then, Blackmon’s offseason issues led to a 10-day holdout. He missed the Jaguars’ August 3 scrimmage, and Jaguars head coach Mike Mularkey opted to hold Blackmon out of the preseason-opening victory over the New York Giants last Friday.

Mularkey held Blackmon out for a simple reason. He didn’t want to put Blackmon in a position to fail, or to be injured, after signing the previous Monday.

That approach ended two days later. Blackmon moved into the starting lineup when the Jaguars practiced Sunday, and a day later, he had his first NFL padded practice.

His progress was a daily storyline. On Monday, he caught two touchdown passes in red-zone drills from Gabbert, including one in which he came from behind safety Dwight Lowery to make a catch that had players in the locker room buzzing afterward.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the topic turned to Blackmon’s conditioning, with Mularkey saying although the rookie had clearly worked and studied during his holdout, like any player who missed part of training camp he was a bit behind in that area.

On Friday, the catching up will continue. Mularkey said he plans to play the starters for a half. That includes Blackmon, meaning his high-paced, high-profile acclimation and education will continue – and it means for the first time it will be viewed by more than teammates, coaches and a few media.

“He’s getting better,” Mularkey said, adding that if Blackmon might struggle anywhere it would be in the two-minute drill. “That’s hurry up. The plays are being called at the line, you’ve got to execute them, get back at the line in a quick fashion and his conditioning will show up there especially in the game. He’s just got to get in the game condition which we’re trying to do with him.

“That’s why we’re putting him in as quickly as we are.”

Blackmon’s development, while the main topic around Jaguars camp this week, was far from the only one. Mularkey put the Jaguars through three intense practices during the final week of two-a-days, and players late in the week talked of the improvement made during that time.

They also talked of the need to maintain the momentum gained from a 32-31 victory over the Giants in which Gabbert and the starting offense turned in a game-opening, 89-yard touchdown drive. The first-team offense committed turnovers on its second two series, and the Jaguars rallied from a 24-7 first-half deficit by scoring the game’s final 11 points.

The Jaguars are expected to be without several players Friday, including cornerback Derek Cox (hamstring), defensive end Austen Lane (foot), linebacker Daryl Smith (groin) and fullback Brock Bolen (knee).  Defensive tackle Tyson Alualu could play about 8-to-10 plays Friday, and Mularkey was less certain about the status of cornerback Rashean Mathis.

Both Alualu and Mathis have practiced in training camp, but were held out of the first preseason game as they gain strength while returning from knee surgeries.

Injuries to the offensive line also remain a focus, with guard Will Rackley (ankle), guard Jason Spitz (foot) and center John Estes (knee) out. Left tackle Eugene Monroe will make the trip after being hit in the head in practice Wednesday. His status for the game has yet to be determined.

“Obviously as an offense we have a lot of things we want to work on,” center Brad Meester said. “We want to continue to our pass protection. We want to protect Blaine better. Even though it’s a preseason game, there’s going to be some noise. We need to handle that noise, because our first game is going to be in the done, too. We need to be able to communicate and operate in that environment.

“Winning’s always important. You always want to win. That’s what we’re out here to do, is to win, but obviously the key is to get better.”

Linebacker Paul Posluszny said defensively the idea is similar. While winning is important, equally important is to prepare for the regular season.

“We need to see improvement from last week,” Posluszny said. “Last week, we said we’re going to focus on this group of plays. We were going to run these pressures. Same thing this week. We have package we’re going to focus on. We want to see us go out and execute those packages that we focused on all week.”

“Winning’s part of it, and that matters, but there are specific things we want to look at. Wins and losses in the preseason, they do matter, but the overlying whole is to make improvements.”