Key Takeaway From Jaguars’ Thursday Presser: ” Focusing On To Clinch A…
Following their 33-12 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Jacksonville Jaguars are now entering a must-win scenario this Sunday in their matchup versus the Carolina Panther. Jaguars’ Head Coach Doug Pederson met with the press on Thursday to discuss the upcoming matchup with the Carolina Panthers and to provide additional team updates.
Coach Pederson opened in speaking on the AC sprain to quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s throwing shoulder:
If it were a defensive guy like [S] Andre Cisco who had a shoulder earlier, you can harness those things and keep things nice and tight. He can still practice. As long as you don’t bang him around and all of that. Well, the quarterback, you’re handing the ball off with that right arm, you’re throwing with the right arm. You’re stressing the shoulder a bit more, so those are all thing you’ve got to be careful of. It’s really a tolerance thing more than anything else, but you still want to be careful everyday you’re out there.
As we previously covered on Monday, AC sprains for quarterbacks can be a less straightforward recovery than other positions, as for lower-grade sprains players can often play through the injury with additional shoulder protection and medication. But, with quarterbacks with AC sprains to the throwing shoulder the additional protection may impact their throwing motion and involve more movement of the injured area.
This issue came up in a later question on balancing whether or not to start Lawrence this week with limited practice reps.
I think you’ve got to consider where we are in the season, what we have moving forward. Obviously, the biggest thing, and we’ve talked about this too, is you don’t want to risk further injury. That’s the big thing. If Trevor plays, we’re all in on that. If C.J. plays, we’re all in on that. The one thing about C.J. is in Trevor’s absence during the week, it’s valuable that C.J. has gotten all the reps and he’s prepared that way. He’s ready to go in a moment’s notice, he stepped in last week and obviously did a nice job for us last week at the end of that game. It’s a tough decision, but sometimes, I have to make those decisions based on Trevor’s health and where we are as a team.
- As an update to Doug’s statement that he expected Trevor would do some individual drills in practice, Lawrence was not present during the media open access practice time, per multiple reports.
Coach Pederson also provided clarity on CB Tyson Campbell’s injury from Sunday.
He just broke the tip of his finger in the game the other day. He can still write.
Doug also confirmed that Campbell’s injury was only partially why he did not play in the second half of last week’s loss.
No, that’s part of it, but no. Last week, just to address Tyson, it was his first game back in a while. I wanted to progress him in the game, kind of get his feet back underneath him. There were some things in the game where it was just uncharacteristic of Tyson, just from not playing. Made the switch at halftime and this week will be different, he’ll get more opportunity this week, get another full week of practice. He’s doing a good job.
- Additionally, after the conclusion of Coach Pederson’s media availability, the following news dropped regarding another Jaguars CB, Christian Braswell:
Lineup Adjustments Coming?
I look at it is as things we can control. Number one, we can tackle better on defense. That’s in our control. We can take care of the football better. That’s in our control. Pre-snap penalties, those are things that are in our control. We can coach better, we can call better offense and defensive plays. Put our players in better situations, all things that are within our grasp and within our control. There’s going to be lineup changes based on injury this time of year, but our goals are still right in front of us. We have to eliminate some of that stuff that I mentioned and get back to figuring out and finding a way just to win a game. I don’t think you have to necessarily make that big spark change in order to do that.
When asked to clarify any coming updates to the starting depth chart, Coach Pederson essentially shut the door on the conversation.
I don’t anticipate (any changes). It’s all going to be injury related if anything this week.