JAGUARS QB TREVOR LAWRENCE
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2022
(On the balance between getting live reps and getting good work in at training camp) “There’s no doubt you can get great work in during the week. That’s why we practice, and especially the way our defense is, just do a lot of different things. I think it’s great as a quarterback getting to go against that every day. It makes you think, makes you really communicate with each other on offense. That’s been great for us all at camp. You want to play, but you also realize what the coaches are doing, and you know it’s a long season. Being a part of it last year, 17 games, plus hopefully playoffs, all that. It’s a long season. You know it’s a marathon, so you don’t want to get too far ahead of yourself. Whenever that time is, I’ll be ready to roll, get out there, whenever that is, this week, next week, however much I play, I don’t know yet, just being as efficient as possible whenever it is out there for live reps. It doesn’t change anything except for that I can get hit, but still you play the same way, then we’ll be ready to roll.”
(On WR Zay Jones) “He’s been great. I think when you get new receivers especially, it takes a while to figure out where everyone fits in, what people are good at. We’ve got a lot of great players, but they’re all different. They all do different things well, so that’s great for us. Just kind of figuring that out, putting us in the best spot, moving them around, seeing how they do this versus that, moving them all over the place with our concepts and working from there. I really feel like we’re in a good spot for them to figure out who we want on certain routes, matchups, and all that. Zay had a great day. He’s a really smart player, gets open really well, uses his length, he’s got speed, all that. I think he’s a great player, and it’s been fun building that connection with him.”
(On watching the game from the sidelines last Thursday) “It was cool. I had the ear piece in, so hearing the play call, playing the game in my head, then watching the guys, cheering them on. We had a lot of guys playing and just seeing how everyone reacted to different looks and like we talked about, just trying to play the game in our heads, so that’s always good. Part of you wants to be out there, definitely, but it was good reps for all those guys, and we’ll get back to the drawing board and get ready for this next week.”
(On the benefits the defense is giving them) “Our defense, they do a great job. They’re really physical, especially our linebackers and our front seven. Foye (ILB Foyesade Oluokun) is all over the place making plays, especially yesterday, so to go up against guys like that really challenges you. They’re really smart. He’s sometimes ahead of the play. He’s there before we are, so playing against a guy like that really challenges you and helps you. It’s just great competition. Yesterday, you guys were out here, you saw it, we were just getting after it, guys were getting fired up. That’s what it’s about. Protecting each other, but also when you’re out here it’s time to compete, and we’ve got to make each other better.”
(On S Andre Cisco’s instinctiveness and anticipation) “He’s been playing great. He’s a guy, when you look at safeties, a guy that’s willing to take some calculated risks, but he’s usually right. I haven’t seen him be wrong many times. He’s had a couple plays, I won’t go into all the details because it might be something they’re doing schematically on defense, but he’s had a couple plays where he just comes out of nowhere, like how can I even see this guy? I’m looking the opposite direction. You need plays like that from a safety, to step up; he’s really physical. He’s one of the best open-field tacklers I’ve seen. Yesterday we went live, and he’s all over the place, not letting anybody get by him. That’s great to see. I think he’s had a great offseason and camp.”
(On why he feels like he is throwing better than ever) “Compared to last year, I had a full offseason to work on what I think I needed to work on. Last year, finished the college season, had surgery, I’m out for a while and can’t really train, then it’s prepping for the draft and all that stuff. Just a lot of stuff going on. I didn’t really feel like I could get my body in shape the way I wanted to because of the surgery. I was in shape, but as far as my arm, I would’ve like to be a little sharper. I feel like my arm got a lot stronger this offseason. Mechanics, I worked really hard on keeping everything a lot tighter, more fluid in my motion, working on all my arm slots, all that. I just feel like the ball is coming out really from every angle the way I want it to. You’re going to miss a few every now and then, but this is the best that I’ve felt.”
(On the pace of learning the offense) “I think I’m definitely ahead of where I was last year. I would hope so. That’s the goal. I think learning the offense last year helped me learn this one faster. Once you learn one, it’s easier to learn the second one. Then just having guys like we talked about that are really smart, that are easy, you can make a check, and they pick it up right away. I think the guys have done a great job with that. That’s been a lot of fun, and we’re building and building on all the different things that we can do because when you’ve got guys that know it, whatever you call they know it, you can really do anything, so it’s been fun.”
(On a Jaguars sleep doctor) “I have not. I can’t speak to that.”
(On if he’s holding his breath with RB Travis Etienne in collisions) “Obviously Travis had the injury, but Travis, when we were in college, the guy was never hurt. He took some shots, and he was always popping back up and was good the next day, so not really too concerned, but he broke one on the sideline and like ‘Yeah!’ and ‘Oooo’ when he gets hit on the sideline, and I’m like ‘Oh gosh,’ and I told him just to step out right there; we don’t need that right now. But he said he wanted to get popped, said he hadn’t been hit in a while. He’ll be alright, he’s tough.”
(On having RB James Robinson back in practice) “It’s been great to see him, obviously not all the way back yet but working that direction. Running, cutting, looks really good. He’s in great shape. I think he’s moving really well. I’m just excited to have him back.”
(On working with WR Christian Kirk) “Christian’s been great to work with. Like we talked about, really savvy route running but also really smart, recognizes coverages quickly, really good at adjusting his routes, finding open voids, and he’s a great matchup for us with his speed and route-running ability. That’s a mismatch on most people. It’s been great, and he’s going to have a big impact this year for sure.”
JAGUARS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR MIKE CALDWELL
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
MONDAY, AUG. 8, 2022
The physicality yesterday in practice, is that a direct result of what you saw on the field the other night or was it planned? Does it take the place of a preseason game?
MIKE CALDWELL: I think any time you go live and you go live in practice, it’s going to be that type of practice. You get out there and guys are going to compete and they are doing a great job of getting out there and working hard and making each other better. The physicality that’s what you expect, offense giving us good looks and we are trying to do the same thing for them.
What have you seen from Andre Cisco, seeing his physicality yesterday, making his bread in college getting his hands on the football, does that give you the flexibility of a safety that can play deep, move in the box, play all over the field?
MIKE CALDWELL: It really does. You look at the game, we had a run that popped out and he was able to get a guy down, nice tackle. You see that over and over but the main thing from him is like you talked about, him being able to impact the game by his range in the secondary, he can cover us sideline to sideline and he’s a big plus for us back there.
After going back and looking at the tape, what did you see from Travon Walker, he got the sack, what did you like?
MIKE CALDWELL: Really you just like the get-off. Early on in the game, when he first played the game, he used his power, hit the quarterback. We stressed to stay away from the quarterback’s head but the call is the call. We’ll live with that but we want to see him continue to get better, continue to work his moves, build his toolbox and we are happy so far.
Obviously no Devin Lloyd or Foye Oluokun on Thursday. What did you see from the linebackers that did play and also do you have an update in terms of timetable for Devin?
MIKE CALDWELL: Really no update yet. He’s working, you see him out here moving around. We’ll let that situation take care of itself. But as far as the linebackers, you’re going into a game, unscouted team, a different look, there was a bunch of positives and a lot of things we can learn from and work on. So that group, just continue to build, continue to work and we’re happy so far.
Screens have been the Achilles’ heel of this franchise for the last couple years and the Raiders had success with it on Thursday. How do you counter and get over that hump?
MIKE CALDWELL: Just talk about it situationally, understand when they happen, when they occur and then it’s just effort into the ball. Somebody has to make a play, whether it’s the defensive line or the guys in coverage, buying time for the defensive line to retrace but that’s a focus that we’ll work on and we’ll get better at it.
What kind of camp is CB Tyson Campbell having for you?
MIKE CALDWELL: If you look at it you see not a lot of balls caught his way. He’s doing a real good job as far as staying on top of receivers and really locking guys down so we’ve been pleased with him. You saw in the game, he came up, set the edge a couple times. So far, he’s doing good.
How big is it getting DL Foley Fatukasi back?
MIKE CALDWELL: It’s good to get him back so he can start to show and hut his imprint on the defense. He’s been out awhile with an injury, so now he’s working his way back and it’s just good to get him back out there and let him continue to work on a new technique he’s learning and just continue to get better.
What were your thoughts after free agency and the draft on the depth of the pass rush, and is your view of that different now that you’ve seen it live in practice?
MIKE CALDWELL: Really some of the additions we had, you understand what they have done in the past to understand the way they can affect the quarterback, so we were pleased to get a couple of guys, and just as we go forward, we are just going to continue to build that group. We have a bunch of guys that can get after the quarterback so focus on stopping the run and being able to turn them loose.
Following up to that, can you just talk about both RB Snoop Conner and OLB K’Lavon Chaisson in terms of where they are right now?
MIKE CALDWELL: Really both those guys are, again, pieces that you can use in the pass rush game and just like everyone else, they are getting better day-by-day, learning what we are working, learning, working with other guys along that line, different matchups, different groups working together. So it’s still a work-in-progress but we’re continuing to get reps and getting better.
When do you expect Darious Williams to be full-go, back in testimony drills ready to go for you guys? MIKE CALDWELL: That timetable is still up in the air. He’s progressing good. You see him out here moving around, having the pads around. When the medical staff says he’s ready to go, he’s ready to go.
What have you seen from Tre Herndon and what he’s been able to do at that position? MIKE CALDWELL: You see he’s played the position before. He’s had success at it. And you see him in coverage, you see that he understands his leverage, understand his technique and yesterday you saw on the sideline pretty good tackler. So happy with that.
What did you see from LB Chad Muma and LB Shaquille Quarterman in the starting lineup on Thursday?
MIKE CALDWELL: Just some young guys out there flying around. You know, it’s tough when you’re playing special teams, you’re working your way into shape. I thought those two guys did a good job of handling the defense, making plays that presented themselves to them and then just as an overall group just getting better.
Did you think the physicality up front was a little lacking on some of those Josh Jacobs runs where there were big holes?
MIKE CALDWELL: It was a couple times where we were — we miss-fit runs and again, it’s a learning situation. We’ll get back at it. Understand the film. Scout a team, understand the run they will try to hit us with and we’ll be prepared for him.
Where is Gregory Junior in his progress?
MIKE CALDWELL: He’s another young guy that’s making plays, doing a good job on special teams and playing well for us. He’s a guy that the more reps as a young guy, better you get, and he’s continuing to get those reps.
OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR PRESS TAYLOR
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
MONDAY, AUGUST 8
What did you think about Jake Luton the other night?
PRESS TAYLOR: Yeah, there’s some good and bad that comes with your first time out there running the offense. You know, that’s kind of where we’re at. He continued — we continue to want to see what we see in practice and all that out on the field when there’s less controlled variables, all that. He’s live in those types of situations. So there’s good, there’s bad and a lot to learn from and excited to the next opportunity out.
What did you see from Luke Fortner and Walker Little?
PRESS TAYLOR: Yeah, I thought they both did a good job – first thing is they look like they belong. Wasn’t too big for them and wasn’t a moment they weren’t ready for. I thought Luke specifically played really fast. He identified things well. Now there are some things that you don’t spend as much time scheming and game planning in the preseason games as you do in the regular season. So there are times maybe a front presented itself and wasn’t something we had gone over before and they played a different personnel and maybe you don’t know the personnel as well as you would in a normal week. So there was a couple things that we maybe misidentified but in terms of just communication, recognition, play speed, they did a good job. Now there are things we are looking for him to improve upon as he goes forward and that’s what we expect out of a young player, but he did nothing to diminish our excitement for his ability. Then I thought Walker was calm in his pass sets. He did a really good job communicating with the guys next to him and just being on the same page and not getting overeager on some things. It was a good showing for him.
Do you plan to play Trevor Lawrence on Friday?
PRESS TAYLOR: We’ll see. That’s (the) stuff we’re getting into. There’s a chance, but we’ll continue to have those conversations.
Coach Pederson described the game plan as potentially vanilla. What’s the next step to build off going into the next preseason game?
PRESS TAYLOR: There’s always the fine line of, we want to put our guys in situations to see them execute things they know really well. So when you are playing young guys, you are going to keep it vanilla. It’s you on him, let’s line up and play. See how you run the route we put in day one, can you execute it with the technique we asked you to do, does it all fall apart when all of a sudden there’s a guy standing across from you? At the same time, you want guys to run the offense the way you believe it could be to see and evaluate, can this guy do this when we ask him to do? But maybe there’s not all the bells and whistles, we are not scheming it up and punting a ton of wordy calls to make sure we have the right play in there. Sometimes it’s, let go, figure out some problems here, but let’s see your technique play against another opponent. There’s always the fine line and I would say early on, there’s portions where it probably is pretty vanilla, and you want to see guys go out and execute, but that’s just something we’ll continue to work through as the preseason goes on.
When you look at the wide receiver room, what’s your evaluation of some of the young players battling to make the roster?
PRESS TAYLOR: Those guys, they definitely are. They are battling and they are in the conversation for it. There’s going to be a lot of factors involved. You kind of want to see as you get to the fourth, fifth, sixth receiver what their versatility could be. You come in, you assume you have this starter, that starter. If somebody goes down, who can fill in? Do you fill in one spot, can you fill in multiple spots, do we have to move three guys to get where you’re comfortable? And at the same time, if all things go well and you have three, four, really established receivers that are playing well, that fifth guy, sometimes his value becomes more special teams. There’s not a lot of reps from a receiver standpoint, so who steps up, what is (Special Teams Coordinator) Heath (Farwell) and (Assistant Special Teams Coach) Luke’s ability of that guy in special teams and how can he contribute to the team if he is to get that jersey on a Sunday?
Do you have the idea of how you want the running back rotation to look, or is that something that you wait until you get an idea how much you can use James early?
PRESS TAYLOR: It’s definitely that. We have a vision for what we hope it is. You kind of always envision what you’re going to do when everybody’s healthy but until we get to that point and we see everybody in there and everybody is available on game day, then you kind of just have to go with what you have in that particular availability for that game. Until James gets fully cleared, that’s something we’ll continue to do. The best is to work through the process we believe it’s going to be but you kind of have to work through the pieces to get to that point as well.
What kind of tight end or what kind of player do you see when you look at Luke Farrell? PRESS TAYLOR: Luke is not somebody I knew a ton about before I got here, but he’s somebody that’s a very versatile piece for us. We feel that he can be that inline blocking tight end but also has ability to get out in the open field and run and catch and do some things with it. You saw that the other day, big play down the sideline. I now y’all skipped practice yesterday, but he had a couple big plays out here yesterday, running the ball, catching it, doing some good things. We are excited. He’s a young player and got a long way to go in this league to prove himself, but we are excited where he is in the grand scheme of that.
How much comfort did it bring you to see Travis Etienne Jr. take some hits yesterday? PRESS TAYLOR: There were a couple hits that he took on the sideline (that we) probably didn’t want him to take but we said, you’re allowed to step out right there. It’s a tough situation but (he) said he wanted to take a hit and see what it felt like and all that. Somebody described, it’s the kind of hits you see in the football movies. He got smoked one of those times on the sideline, but he bounced up. He was perfectly fine. There’s definitely a different intensity to yesterday’s practice, and guys enjoyed it and responded well.
What did you see from Snoop Connor on Thursday night?
PRESS TAYLOR: Snoop did a good job carrying the football. One of the things, you don’t control a lot of situations, but you want to see him in pass protection. There weren’t a lot of opportunities for us to see him in those situations. And that’s part of, we’re vanilla, they are vanilla and there’s not a lot of blitz schemes. So that’s something we didn’t get to see from him and I thought he did a good job and it wasn’t too big for him. First time out there, looked like he belonged. Carried the ball well at times and they are getting their feet wet in terms of the speed of the game now. I’m not going to pretend like preseason one is going to feel like Week 1 and how the speed of things and the intensity is, but for those guys, it’s definitely a step up from what you can create in practice and so it was good to see that carry over.
For a starting quarterback, how do practice reps compare to regular season reps? PRESS TAYLOR: Yeah, I think controlling the environment and they are not live, nothing replaces a quarterback live and nobody being hit and feeling that pass rush. But we can put him in a million situations and control it. We’ll do third and 11, third and 12, back-to-back-to-back, yardage situations and talk through everything and get a chance to put the situations you want to coach on the field, see how he responds, go back to the room, talk about it. So they are invaluable from that standpoint, from a learning standpoint and they learn from everybody. We put whoever it is, whether it’s C.J. (Beathard), Jake (Luton), Kyle (Sloter), Trevor (Lawrence), any of those guys. This learning from the situation, the other one was in in that particular one, or we could just be watching a film of an old game, something like that, and talking through certain things. When you get those opportunities to put those situations in front of the guys, that’s a great learning opportunity that we can’t take for granted.
Where do you see Laviska Shenault Jr. fitting in?
PRESS TAYLOR: Yeah, that’s something we’ve got to continue to make sure Laviska is healthy and available for us at all times so we can see exactly what his skillset is. We have a vision like we mentioned earlier what the role could be for him, but that’s something we have to continue to work through and hopefully that comes up in game situations and competitive practice situations and we can really see if that’s what we want it to be.
Is it a challenge to put Laviska Sheanult Jr. and Jamal Agnew on the field without tipping your hand to the defense on what may happened?
PRESS TAYLOR: That’s something you have to be a great self-scout type of team or operation. That’s something, we have to know who is on the field, how we utilize them and what we are showing in the defense and what they are seeing when they watch us to make sure you’re not tipping your hand like you’re saying. But as long as they are good players and being productive, that’s a good problem to have.
Are you starting now trying to figure out where does Jamal Agnew really fit and where do I utilize him best?
PRESS TAYLOR: Certainly. Heath (Farwell) mentioned it; he’s one of the more elite returners in the league. There’s definitely a skillset and you want to get the football and get in space and turn the offensive plays into punt returns whenever you can. But same deal, you have to make sure you’re doing right by your offense and not giving away to the defense, and that’s one advantage that we have is we know where the ball is going, so we have to do everything we can to not give that advantage away to the defense.
What growth have you seen from Ben Bartch?
PRESS TAYLOR: Ben has done a great job. He played pretty well the other day in terms of communication and there were not a lot of flash plays, good or bad. He was steady, consistent, did a good job with the guys next to him. It wasn’t an exotic blitz scheme for them, probably their day one install in terms of pressures and things like that. You expect your guys to respond well, and you still have to manage games and stunts. And it’s still physical; a 300-pound man trying to get the quarterback and you have to do a good job of that or get to the next level and fit up some runs. Those guys did a good job. First time out, it was encouraging to see but there’s a lot of growth that’s going to come from those guys that we are excited about.
JAGUARS SPECIAL TEAMS COORDINATOR HEATH FARWELL
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
MONDAY, AUG. 8, 2022
How is everything?
HEATH FARWELL: Everything is good. You have a little cloud cover, it seems. Cooled down practice a bit.
Feeling like Seattle.
HEATH FARWELL: Just a light drizzle would really, really be fitting.
What did you see from your two kickers on Thursday night?
HEATH FARWELL: I saw some good stuff. You know, we put Ryan in a really tough spot, but I think that’s what preseason is about. You know, we challenged them, hey, that’s a 60-yarder. That’s a tough kick. Those are tough positions to be put in and it was close. You know, that’s part of the deal. Love to have him make it. That would have been a good start to the preseason. But that’s part of the deal. We’ll see, we’re going to challenge them again today with some not only kicks in team periods but also move the ball situations, just kind of a little more pressure, whole team is watching, you guys are watching, the GM is watching, that kind of thing. That’s just part of the process of just evaluation. I thought Elliot did a really good job as well. That’s a good kick in the fourth quarter and then had a good kickoff as well. So right now those guys, we like where they’re at. You guys see a couple kicks but we are charting them on the other side of the field, all practice. And so we have a really good idea of where they are at, the things we need to work on, what we can see us doing this season. So right now, it’s a dead heat. They are both doing a good job, and I believe the guys in this camp can win the job but it’s up to them what they do with these next practices/preseason game, is going to determine that.
When you took this job, I’m wondering if you took one look at Logan and said, well, punter is one position I don’t have to worry about and he comes right out of the gate the other night, kicked some long ones when you needed it, put it inside the ten when you needed it, that’s like your least concern right now is your punter?
HEATH FARWELL: When I took this job there was several guys I was excited about. I was excited about Ross. I was excited about our returner and obviously Logan. Logan has been a talented player in this league from watching from afar and he’s exceeded expectations. You saw that on display on Thursday night, he’s super talented. He did a good job with his directional, that’s a big deal for us is he was getting them out there far, good hang times and the width. He was burying them on the sidelines that really condenses those returns and helps the coverage units. Rudy had a good play on the sideline and it was a fantastic release, gunner rep, but it was a big part of what Logan did burying them on the sideline. That’s how they work together. But I think that’s a big part of this team is that punting game of not only Logan but the coverage down the field.
Do you like to go with both guys kicking in the same game or give one guy a game either way or what’s the better approach?
HEATH FARWELL: The first game we did every other kick because I was trying to get them evenly — I was scared we would get — one guy got four kicks and the other guy got one and not a true evaluation. This week we are going to switch up the order because they are both doing so well, let’s see what that looks like. We’ll go every other kick again this week and see what that looks like. I may reevaluate this next week depending on, it’s one guy getting extra points, are we getting field goals, I may have to adjust on the fly but that’s the plan for the week is see where they are at, one for one, see what those kicks look like as well as kickoffs.
What have you thought about the backup returner? How is that battle looking? HEATH FARWELL: We have a good group. Obviously, Agnew is an elite returner in this league and then we have-couple other guys, Christian Kirk can do it, Laviska has been back there and he’s done a good job, he’s improved tremendously tracking the ball, seeing the ball better. He’s a talented player, and if he suits up Thursday night I would love to get him some returns. If he plays this week, I’d love to get him back there. That’s something the staff and I have to decide if this is the game to do it. But there’s a chance he could be back there, and then the kick returner battle, I thought Snoop did a good job — some stuff we are still working through. You hate to see that ball on the ground but he did some good stuff, ran hard, didn’t show his feet. That’s something you see as a running returner when those bullets are flying and those guys are flying down the field, you see them hesitate, when it’s cloudy, he hit it really hard. I thought did he some good stuff as well.
Would you talk about what Logan’s athleticism allows you to do beyond simply punting? HEATH FARWELL: The fake deal is there, is real. He throws the ball like a quarterback out here. He prides himself on telling me he’s the emergency quarterback. We’ll see if that plays out that way. He is a talented player that can do everything. He can run fakes. He’s a great holder. That’s been a pleasant surprise for me. I knew he was a good holder and he’s even better than I thought and that’s something we can’t overlook because that helps the kickers so much just setting the table. He’s the caddie. He’s the guy that has to put it in the right spot every single time and turn the laces if needed so athleticism is a big factor at that position, not only punting but holding/any other things we ask him to do.
Have you coached a gunner like Rudy Ford before? Seems like he always gets out with incredible speed.
HEATH FARWELL: He’s one of the top gunners in the league. I have coached a couple guys very similar, Taiwan Jones in Buffalo Siran Neal. But Rudy, those reps we had that he did the other night were special. And I’ve seen him across the league going back to Arizona and then also Philly, he’s been doing it a long time. I’ve seen many gunner reps like those.
The versatility of a four-core player what does it take for a young guy to prove that to you and how many do you think you have at this time?
HEATH FARWELL: I think we are figuring those guys out right now. Versatility is going to be big because if you get a guy that can only play left guard on punt, it’s a little tougher but if he can go from left side to right side to play wing, that’s what we need — and they have to be trusted, trusted is the biggest factor especially in the punt game. If I can just rely on that guy, and his guy is never going to get a block, going to block the right guy 100 percent of the time, that’s value. It puts such a big emphasis on punt protection. I say, all these other things are great but if you want to impress me, you’d better protect on punt because that’s the biggest thing and that’s how you lose ballgames if you don’t protect the punt. Again, that’s trust. Trust is the biggest factor.
Has any young players been able to earn that trust yet?
HEATH FARWELL: We have a couple young players, I’ll start with two gunners that have done really well, Josh Thompson and Montaric Brown. Those guys have really stepped up and showed some stuff. They
have improved tremendously from the off-season to training camp. We put them in some tough battles yesterday, got some good players and they battled. It’s a work-in-progress as far as we got some time but we are going to continue to challenge those guys because I think they can do it. They are talented enough players, they care, they work hard, they come into my office, they want to learn, that’s what I’m looking for. We’ll put them in those tough spots. They will get more gunner reps this week not only in practice but Friday night. We’ve got to see if they can do it. See if they can do it for real live Sunday regular-season games.
