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Touchdown Jaguars!
Touchdown Jaguars!
Episode 121: Panthers/Jaguars Week 1 Analysis - The Liam Coen Era Starts With a Win
The Jaguars traded running back Tank Bigsby to the Philadelphia Eagles for 2026 draft picks while fans were celebrating a convincing 26-10 victory over the Carolina Panthers in their season opener. New General Manager James Gladstone continues stockpiling draft capital as the team shows they can handle business against teams they should beat.
Below are the talking points we covered as we discussed Week 1’s win and the aftermath:
• Breaking news: Tank Bigsby traded to Philadelphia Eagles for 2026 fifth and sixth round picks
• Jacksonville defeats Carolina Panthers 26-10 in season opener
• Travis Etienne dominates with 143 yards on 16 carries including a 71-yard run
• Offensive line shows vastly improved physicality and run blocking
• Free agent additions Eric Murray, Jourdan Lewis, and Robert Hainsey make immediate impact
• Trevor Lawrence (19-of-31, 178 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) shows resilience despite inconsistent moments
• Rookie Brian Thomas Jr. struggles with drops (1 catch on 7 targets, but had a rushing TD)
• Travis Hunter makes NFL debut with 6 catches for 33 yards on offense
• Weather delay disrupted momentum in an otherwise dominant performance
• Upcoming schedule looks more manageable after Week 1 performances league-wide
James Johnson and Phil Barrera bring you the best and most up to date Jacksonville Jaguars news. "Touchdown Jaguars!" is a tribute to the prospective ownership group "Touchdown Jacksonville!" In 1991, the NFL announced plans to add two expansion teams and "Touchdown Jacksonville!" announced its bid for a team, and Jacksonville was ultimately chosen as one of five finalists. In November 1993, the NFL owners voted 26–2 in favor of awarding the 30th franchise to Jacksonville. James and Phil have been fans of the franchise ever since and have had the honor (and sometimes dishonor) of covering the team professionally since 2017. The rest as they say, is history.
Welcome to the New York City City of the New York City City of the Still running and go. That is a touchdown and go. Touchdown Jacksonville. A hundred and nine yards Incredible Play action. Portals Upstairs Wide open. Tommy Bohannon Touchdown Jacksonville. Looking for Jimmy in the end zone. Touchdown Jaguars. Touchdown Jaguars. Touchdown Jaguars.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Touchdown Jaguars podcast. Here are your hosts, james Johnson and Phil Smith. Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Touchdown Jaguars podcast. I am your co-host, phil Barrera, and joining me, as always, is your other co-host, james Johnson. And Jay, it is 8.06 pm on Victory Monday, mind you. Happy Victory Monday to all those who celebrate. But just a few minutes ago, jay, the news has come out that the Jacksonville Jaguars have traded Tank Bigsby to the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for a 2026 5th and 6th round pick, as Jimmy Gladstone in the front office continues to stockpile draft picks. So we are going to be talking about that here at the top of the show. But, jay, again good to be back here with you and, as always, it's so much better to be here recording after a win. So, yeah, some breaking news right before we got started here today. And you know, amongst celebrating, once again, a Victory Monday how are you doing tonight?
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, I'm doing great man, feeling revitalized. I was telling you before the podcast, man, and part of it is the trade to a breath of fresh air, right, and this new regime that seems to be functioning in a way different manner than the previous regime. But wins help, right. The win, you know, had me pretty excited as well, albeit, you know, it was against the Carolina Panthers, but hey, you can only play who takes the opposite side of the field against you, right, and as we've seen in the NFL, even the smallest victories, they accumulate momentum. So, you know, this is something that we could build upon.
Speaker 2:Of course, you know, there are some things that you see on film that you want to clean up and what have you, man. But I am excited, man, I will never complain about starting week one with a victory and being able to talk about a win, especially again with all the newness that's in place. You know, this thing could have gone a whole bunch of ways, but I think, at the end of the day, man, I think what has me the most excited is, at least for now, they've shown hey, when we play an opponent that's beatable, we'll beat them, as we should, and accordingly, like you know you, we really didn't have that luxury last year, like even the teams that we were supposed to beat. In the back of our mind it's like, oh man, we could, you know, we can let them get one on us, you know. But I like to see a team with the capability that they have handle business as they should, and I hope that'll be a recurring theme for this team heading forward.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we talked about it in the preseason, like what are they going to do with this running back room? You know, how are they going to divvy up the carries and we saw that very early on in, of course, week one. And you know, the rumor of course was the talk all offseason, jay, was that it was going to be Travis Etienne that was going to get shipped out. But you can't ship out a guy who just had the game that Travis Etienne had last or on Sunday. So Tank is the odd guy out, which makes sense, you know, as far as all four running backs, he did have the worst day out of the four. Um, basial, tootin and the quinn allen are, just honestly, they're a powder keg about to explode. A shout out to my, to those of you all that understand the hamilton reference, but we are pretty good in terms of the running game.
Speaker 1:So jimmy gladstone continues to stockpile these picks. And, jay, I guess my first question to you would be do you think he's going to use this capital to maybe as far as movement in the draft next year? Or do you see them making a move in season for somebody once it's like week seven, you know, once we approach the trade deadline. If we're in contention and there's a guy out there and you have some late round draft capital, you know we've seen guys in during the season go for lower round picks. You know going for capital that they, that's you know, less than what they should normally go for. What do you think he's doing here with all these draft picks?
Speaker 2:Well, before I answer that, I'll just talk about the trade itself just a little bit to make sense of it. Yeah, as you mentioned, you know we were thinking it was ETN because ETN's contract is up next year. So, that being said, you know that's why ETN kept getting mentioned. But again, man, like and I kept saying this, phil me and Jamal said it, you know me and you have discussed it here I would not trade Travis ETN, even though he has one year on his contract, because this scheme is very well suited for him too, not just the others that we mentioned, but very well suited for him. And we saw a glimpse of that right yesterday with how he went off man, and there was times where, like, it's not even just a scheme too, but I think the coaches are getting more out of him, and what I mean by that is there were times yesterday where it looked like he'd be stopped at the line or behind the line and he'd keep his feet churning. And in the past, man, like, that wasn't a thing. Like the first person in the past who would hit Travis, etienne probably was bringing him down. So, like, from a technical aspect, phil, he looks better too. From a technical aspect. He looks like a different running back than he did under Doug Peterson, which kind of shows you that the coaching is night and day different and what have you. But yeah, to make sense of it, man, as you said, of all the running backs yesterday, tank was the one that looked the worst of the group of four. I think what really made them okay with doing this and I just put this in our text thread shout outs to Stodge and Boogie.
Speaker 2:But if you go back to the preseason and I know the preseason is a preseason but one room that has consistently showed up each week that we haven't had to worry about and it didn't hit me until we just traded Tank, but it's a running back room. Every week we've seen something significant out of the running back room and even in that last preseason game we saw flashes out of the undrafted kid jackson, who's on practice squad. So like, even when tank or etn or basial or LaQuint Allen didn't suit up and we were looking at the backups with Jackson in week three of the preseason, like, we've gotten consistency week in and week out that's been the most consistent room of the whole roster. So that's a telling sign dating back to the preseason and the one regular season game. When you see that kind of consistency, that's a sign that that room is okay and will be just fine.
Speaker 2:And all of that said, keep in mind too, running back is not particularly hard to hit on. If you need to add more help there in the next draft because we got abundance of picks Now to get into that question that you asked, it depends, phil. So if we're in a spot in November around the trade deadline where we are contending and it looks like we need that, you know one extra player, whoever that may be. I can see James Gladstone. You know packaging it all up together and you know getting a player that we need and getting a player that we need. And also, too, keep in mind too, let's just say, that scenario that you brought up last week when we did a prediction episode where, best-case scenario, the Jaguars look like they're about to win 11 games. But it's that one thing that's just kind of missing, right, and you know what reminds me of this Kind of secondary.
Speaker 2:Right, there you go.
Speaker 1:Excuse me, sorry, I had something in my throat.
Speaker 2:I apologize. No, no, you're good. You're good, um. But you remember that year where our defense was almost elite but the one thing that kept biting us in the behind is that we couldn't stop the run. So what dave caldwell did? He went and got Marcel Darius that year, which didn't take much of like compensation, it took like a fifth round pick or something like that.
Speaker 2:But if we're in a scenario like that, where you know we're facing that best case record that you mentioned of 11 and whatever, it is Right, but we're still missing that one person which it you know what it could be. The irony in this is it could be. We still need a good run defender, because at times we were struggling against the run earlier on Sunday, which we'll talk about that too, so we might have to do that again. But whatever, it is that one player that we need to make us a very good team to elite team. I could see James Gladstone packaging it up in that scenario too, but again, it all just depends on where we are come november as to if he'll maybe package those picks up and make a trade.
Speaker 2:Um time will tell. But you know we got a lot of games before we start looking into that and kind of trying to decipher. Like, okay, do we have a shot at this player on the trade market? You know where there's a high a name that would take a lot of compensation or low compensation, and would he be what makes us a super bowl caliber team or a playoff caliber team? We'll see, in time we'll tell. Yeah, I'm glad you brought up Marcel Darius.
Speaker 1:That's exactly the trade I was talking about Sixth round pick, conditional sixth, and that became a fifth later. So, yeah, now we get a good idea of why he wasn't getting any carries yesterday. And yeah, I mean, when you see Basial Tootin and LaQuint Allen have the days that they had, along with what Travis Etienne did, yeah it's surprising, but it's not at the same time right, because we knew one of these guys was likely to go. So there you have it, folks. He keeps continuing to wheel and deal with the best of them when it comes to James Gladstone and the front office. But, yeah, I tweeted this out literally minutes ago Like, shout out to Tank Bigsby. He had a disastrous rookie season, came back and had a pretty solid year last year and now he gets to play in philadelphia behind saquon barkley and he gets to push um jalen hurts into the end zone and not get any touchdowns. So that's what he'll be doing here.
Speaker 1:But, jay, the jacksonville jaguars played football yesterday, as we alluded to, against the carolina panthers and came out victorious in liam cohen's debut and, uh, looked pretty damn good doing it for the most part. Um, there are definitely some things that they need to clean up, which we will discuss, but they do start off the season 101 and 0 after a 26 to 10 victory in a strange game. We were watching till, like what, 6 pm because of the weather delay, which was ridiculous from what it sounds like from people that were in attendance. But yeah, the game. I really do think that that weather delay threw off their momentum because they were cooking and right before they had to pack it up and head inside the locker room.
Speaker 1:So we're just going to kind of, you know, talk about what your takeaways are for this episode. We we didn't expect to spend almost 15 minutes talking about a trade. So, you know, the time's thrown off just a little bit. But, jay, where do you want to start? Like you said, they looked pretty good, but there are plenty of things to clean up which I'm sure they're going to start working on tomorrow right away, as they've already, I'm sure, started looking at film, and where they can improve. So, yeah, jaguars win 26 to 10. And, honestly, it could have been way, way more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, I guess I'll start just as you were talking. This one kind of hit me, which you know it was something that it wasn't hard to miss when watching film, though, but I mean, the biggest thing that we could take away from this um is the fact that the physicality was ramped up and it's there right, and we can run the ball pretty efficiently now. That's been something we keep mentioning this, even though, again, the last weeks before this were pre-season games. If you notice the trend here each week, what are we saying? Phil, hey, at least, regardless of what happened, whether it was or bad hey, we were able to run the ball fine, we were able to run the ball fine, and that continued to be the case. So the physicality, you got to love it.
Speaker 2:Shout outs to Robert Hainsey, who was one of the top players in terms of the offensive grades on PFF for the Jacksonville Jaguars. You know so like he brought a noticeable difference in that run game and, as we mentioned, phil, ezra Cleveland playing better, walker Little playing better. We hardly ever hear from Ezra and Walker Little, which is a good thing, like we're not even mentioning anymore anton harrison playing better, even though he um, he did show up on, uh, the injury report in terms of like during the game. But liam said he could have went back. He could have, you know, gone back in the game. Whatever the case may be, uh, patrick mccurry shout outs to him too. You know who we got from, the ravens man.
Speaker 2:But that was a big thing that I noticed and you, you know I kind of expected that, not just because of what we saw in the preseason, but you know, I was thinking about it the other day, phil, I was thinking about this before the game. And when you look at guys like Makari and you look at guys like Robert Hainsey and you know what they bring and where they're coming from, I kind of expected them to go off a little bit and have, or at least help this run game to be better from the standpoint of just look at the organizations they came from. And look at Hainsey, for example. He was lining up against Vita Vey daily, right, vita Vey is one of my favorite players, by the way, in the league. Like you can't help but get better, even though I know he ended up not even being a starting center, but you can't help but get better when lining up against Vita Vey as much as you have if you're Robert Hainsey, patrick McCurry we were just talking about this the other day in the prediction episode you know the Ravens are a Super Bowl caliber roster, patrick McCurry, getting those reps in against that defense day in and day out in practice, and you know it goes to kind of show you I like this approach that James Gladstone took and I was kind of weary on it at first but I like it because it kind of goes to show you you don't have to spend crazy money to get an efficient free agency class and look, it's just the Carolina Panthers. So we'll really see in the end how this free agency class turns up and turns out and shakes out.
Speaker 2:But I think, like you know, we just kind of grew accustomed even going back to the Dave Caldwell days of our rosters were underperforming at such a high level that we needed significant help. We needed a Calais Campbell, we needed big time leaders like AJ Bouye and all of these guys who had these record breaking contracts, and I don't even want to say Nick Foles, because he wasn't worthy of the contract we gave him. But you know like we always needed significant help in some way, shape or form, needed significant help in some way, shape or form. So you know, it goes to show you man like James Gladstone, who had a little bit of a budget free agency class, was able to still be effective. And while we're on it, it wasn't just necessarily Robert Hainsey right that showed up. But this was my other takeaway and I put it on the Touch touchdown Jaguars Twitter handle was that whole free agency class in in general contributed in a big way.
Speaker 2:But when you look at that defensive side, especially a lot of those free agents we picked up and didn't spend a lot of money on, and Jordan Lewis, it was kind of a mid-level to expensive contract. But aside from you, look at these other guys, like Gerdek Lewis himself, the safety of Aaron, eric Murray, especially man, like he was balling out Shout outs to him because, like for me, like in the preseason, it just felt like he was just there, like he wasn't playing terribly, he wasn't playing great, he was, was just there, but he showed up in a big way. Eric murray, um, and so on and so forth. Big smooth, you know shout outs to big smooth, a free agent. We got late. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Like, geradick, you know, late free agent additions that we got late, that we didn't spend a lot of money on, he got the long sack of the game, him, um and um agba, that whole rotation man, a lot of these guys that we didn't spend crazy money on, especially on the defensive side, were what got us over the hump, because in those early stages of the game it was looking like we're going to just be going back and forth, you know, and our defense was going to allow a lot of points and it was just going to be a shootout.
Speaker 2:But they got their bearings straight. They started making plays, like I said, eric murray, um smooth, so on and so forth, and um, all of that, said man, like when you combine the efforts of all of those guys, the free agents and not to discredit the guys we already had here as well, but when you combine the efforts of all of them and, um, you know what they did on the defensive side, man, they really got me excited about what the future holds for this defense, because initially I felt like it when me and you had this conversation. I felt like we'll be about around week six before this defense started to find his feet. But they're kind of showing that they could get good faster than I expected and that was like one of the biggest takeaways I had from the game. I'll be it again. It's the Panthers, but I think they could get a little. They can get better faster than I was expecting initially. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, and you know we keep saying, yeah, it was the Panthers, but, like, this is a good litmus test because for years, right, the Jaguars didn't beat up on teams that they were supposed to and, as I mentioned, this should have been a much, much wider gap in terms of the score.
Speaker 1:It ends up being 26 10, but it easily could have been somewhere in the 30s. You know, um, like I said we, you know they got some things they need to clean up. So, um, and I think people will look at the defense and, yeah, you know, they were running the ball pretty successfully early on, but then, as you mentioned, smoot is the only one who gets home on the sack. But I mean, shout out to John Shipley, with the stat earlier today, josh Hines Allen had the second most pressures, with eight, and the second highest pressure rate at twenty eight point six of any pre Monday night football defenders, at 28.6 of any pre-Monday Night Football defenders. So still, you know, affecting the game. And even though he didn't completely get home with a sack, shout out to Josh Heinz-Allen as well, two and a half sacks away from breaking the all-time record here in Jacksonville, surpassing Tony Bracken. So that should happen here within the next couple of weeks. But yeah, man, it was really great to see, especially once they settled in, and the defense definitely seemed to respond better, like the. As far as the delay, it definitely affected the offenses more than it did the defense, who were able to kind of step in and just like pick up where they left off. Foye obviously had a great game and, you know, showed why he is one of the most underappreciated players in the league, so, liked what we saw to the defense.
Speaker 1:I mean they're going to have a. I say they're going to have a big test next week, but I don't know the bangle. They etched out a win somehow and didn't move the ball at all against Cleveland. So we'll see what happens. Of course, two of the best receivers in the league coming into town, but you certainly expect them to scheme up something to get to Joe Burrow. Because, yeah, I mean I'm sure you guys have seen that video of Myles Garrett just getting a hit on Joe Burrow clean, like how do the Bengals just getting a hit on Joe Burrow clean? Like how do the Bengals, man, when you have a guy like Joe Burrow and they've never invested the money in the right place to protect him like Carson Palmer all over again. I don't know, they're a confusing franchise man, but a really big test for them next week. But we'll talk about next week when that arrives. But yeah, jay, what are your other takeaways from the game? I don't know if you want to switch over to the offensive side, because there were definitely some positives there too.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, before we get to that, phil, real quick, you kind of hit on something I want to talk about here, like with that Bengals game. But if you're going off a week one alone, right, which week one can present some crazy stuff, like crazy things happen on week one can present some crazy stuff, like crazy things happen on week one. But if you go off a week one alone and you look at the rest of the schedule, like heading forward the next few games, everybody don't look as scary as we thought initially and the win prediction we gave them feels like just going off a week one is within reach. As you said, the Bengals and how they looked against the Browns, and they I mean regardless of how they looked against the Browns they never start the regular season all that great anyway. You know that that was something they always had to like erase doubts of. Anyway.
Speaker 2:The Texans, right, all of a sudden look a lot more beatable, as we mentioned. And then even the Chiefs. I don't know if you watch that Chiefs game, but it looks like they lack the skill weapons, right. So like it wouldn't shock me like if we, just if things continue as they were, it wouldn't shock me if we're talking about the Chiefs trading for like hill again or something like that, because they just every kill will be a chief by october because they lack the skill guys and the chiefs also.
Speaker 2:We know how their front office operating. They're not scared to go out there and fix it either. Right, the total opposite of trent balky. So, um, you know, it wouldn't be shocked if we're hearing about them spinning the block and getting Tyreek Hill. But yeah, like, what are your thoughts on that? Like, all of a sudden, the schedule don't look as scary as it once did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, like you said, you don't want to overreact week one, but based off of like what we saw I mean, if I expect this team, more than past regimes, to clean up those things that we saw in week one, I don't expect a lot of that stuff to carry over. And, you know, just shooting themselves in the foot, especially in that first drive, like in years past, like going to a first in 23, would have just been a drive killer. And and they come away with three points Like that is what you want to see when it comes to like being put in the hole, like are they able to dig themselves out of stuff like that? So it was like, yeah, cincinnati, you know they etched out a win against Cleveland. Then you come home against Houston, obviously they give us fits, but it is a home game. Then, yeah, that game against Kansas City. After their week one performance, you know it becomes a little bit more in focus than it had before. Again, that's a whole month away.
Speaker 1:There's so much that can happen between now and October 6th and somebody tweeted this out earlier I can't remember who it was, but the Bengals are always this weird bad juju game right. A couple of years ago it was Urban Meyer staying back to go bar hopping in Cincinnati and then a couple, and then the year after that was the Trevor Lawrence injury which derailed the entire season. So you got to go in there and exercise some demons, I think, in Cincinnati. But they've always played them very tough in the Joe Burrow era. So even if they do lose the game, I do not expect it to be a complete blowout. I do expect them to be competitive and continue to build upon what they have right now.
Speaker 1:But yeah, like we talked about last week's episode, the preseason episode. So there was an opportunity after the bye week we thought for them to go on a run. But if you can win, if you go into the bye I think it was like week seven, week eight and you're three and three when we thought, oh man, they might be like, I don't know, two and four or something like that, one and five, but like you go into there, three and three and the way this division's lined up, man, you can rattle off some wins for sure.
Speaker 2:So certainly much more optimistic than I was last week, yeah yeah, and you hit on something too like the ability to overcome adversity and the penalties too. You know, the reason I want to spin back to that is that's why Jacksonville Jaguars fans couldn't take Carolina Panthers fans seriously is because of stuff like that, right Is we shot ourselves in the foot three times on one drive. Trev went out there and just had a what the heck was that moment and threw an intentional grounding. We had some other penalties and still came away with points. That's the point. That's the exact point I made Phil, on the last episode. It's like we can literally feel gold them to death. You know, if we ain't even scoring touchdowns, we can literally go out there and field goal them to death with kicking little, as you gave him the nickname.
Speaker 2:But to answer your question in terms of the offense any takeaways I had on the offense we're looking at Trevor. You know he had the low moment after it was after the weather delay, right? I think it was that he had the low moment after it was after the um weather delay, right, I think it was that he had the low moment that you don't like to see, but still like when you look at the positive, still night and day different from what we saw last year. Um, you know, a lot of his passes, aside from during that little low point, were just fine and we've kind of seen that kind of with Trevor Lawrence. Is he's like sporadic, like that.
Speaker 2:And what I'm here to tell people is, you know, when it comes to like removing the stench of the past regime, it doesn't just go away overnight. You know, I'm saying like I wasn't coming in here week one expecting Trevor Lawrence to be this consistent player throughout the whole game. I kind of expected, you know, him to have some highs and lows here and there and it is a new offensive system there, but that'll come with time. Like you don't like just remove the stench that Trent Baalke put on you, by the way, and Doug Peterson put on you for years. You don't just remove that that lingers.
Speaker 1:It ling, it's a lingering stench it is.
Speaker 2:It is bro, and just ask the 49ers. Right, it's a lingering stench. Well, I was about to say ask the Eagles, but they got right back on track after Doug Peterson left, but you know that's because Howie Roseman stayed there. So that's a little bit different, um, but you know, overall encouraged for the most part when you look at his um, his game in totality. And then the other player that I really want to talk about, man, let's talk about the player that brenton, strange, has become. That kid looks like an all pro and strange is the uh player.
Speaker 1:I thought josh oliver was gonna be yeah, yeah, shout out to my guy.
Speaker 2:84 the player.
Speaker 1:I thought Josh Oliver was going to be. Yeah, yeah, shout out to my guy 84. Is he still in Minnesota? I don't know who knows.
Speaker 1:Oh man, jesus man, you talk about bad predictions right In case you guys want some lore, in case you weren't listening to the podcast. Maybe some of y'all are new after the Dilla episode A couple of years ago, three, four years ago, we always do a bold take episode right before the season, like we did last week, and mine at one point was Josh Oliver would lead the team in touchdown catches. It did not happen that year or ever, so yeah, Insane man.
Speaker 2:But no, I can see where I can see that. I understand the vision, phil, because I like, uh, josh oliver, san jose state tape, like you know, you can see shades are like okay, this kid could you know be what britain strange has kind of become. But yeah, man, like what a player he has become. We already knew the physicality was there and we've had this conversation many, many times. Remember when we made that pick and people were like what in god's name, what a jad war is doing? And me and you were like wait, hold up. Man, todd mcshade highlighted this guy in one of the press conferences we were in. We went and checked him out. He's actually legit like he, you know, like he just the the pass catching aspect wasn't there, but you could see the vision, you can see the potential there and he has. He's fulfilling that potential right now, man. So what a player he's become. Man, um, in terms of the run game and we kind of already talked about this because we were talking about the trade, but you know, shout outs to Travis Etienne. You know, this is exactly why I wanted to keep him, because this is what I envisioned him being for this offense. Uh, he was just running wild out there. I think he had the. That's the run he had, for 71 yards is the second highest run, um, in Jaguars history. I think they put a tweet out on that. If I'm not mistaken, I think Maurice Jones drew or somebody else might have the number one run. But yeah, just shout outs to him and the resurgence we're seeing out of him, very excited about him heading forward.
Speaker 2:The only concern really, of course, the penalties. You want to get that cleaned up on the offensive line. And then Brian Thomas Jr, with these drops, man is concerning. And the reason I keep bringing that up is because that's something I put in the scouting report, just like I put in the scouting report of his ability to catch when blanketed and all of that that we kind of mentioned last year.
Speaker 2:We were like, hey, you know, if you would have read the scouting report, you all would have known year. And we were like, hey, you know, if you would have read the scouting report, you all would have known. But also, that was one of the cons was the drops, and they are drops that are like real easy, like it was like almost a lateral pass that he dropped. That would have been kind of like a screen type of situation that he dropped. Man would love to see that cleaned up. I wouldn't say I'm like overly concerned about it, but it's just something he's been fighting since training camp and I would like to see that get cleaned up as fast as possible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't have it in front of me, jd how many targets he had as well. Let me pull that up. Actually, yep, he had seven targets. Seven targets, ok, yeah.
Speaker 1:So you know, we were certainly wondering when they know, when they were going to get him involved. Obviously he had the nice end around touchdown for nine yards, yeah, but one catch, 11 yards on seven targets, and yeah, that's something we saw not only last year but also kind of carry it out through the preseason. So you hope that he gets that cleaned up again. Not going to get overly concerned right now. Gets that cleaned up again. Not going to get overly concerned right now. No use in overreacting unless we see things you know progress that way throughout the season. So certainly something to keep an eye on.
Speaker 1:But we would be remiss, jay, if we didn't get your thoughts on travis hunter's debut. Of course, he played most of his snaps on the offensive side of the ball, had himself six catches for 33 yards, one that he might still be running right now if not for a crazy play by JC Horn. I don't know. I'd like to get your thoughts on that too. Was that a underthrow by Trevor or just a crazy athletic play by Horn, or a little bit of both. But yeah, travis Hunter, six catches, 33 yards and then also played a couple snaps on defense. What were your takeaways as they ease him into their game plan?
Speaker 2:Yeah, to answer your question on JC Horn, it was a little bit of both. When you look at the extension JC Horn had to make, that kind of tells you a lot about you know that Trevor didn't throw the easiest pass for him to intercept either, but it did look like it was still. It could have possibly fell short. That's just, you know, kind of my vantage point. I could be wrong on that, but in any case, man, there'll be plenty more opportunities for them to correct that and you know plenty more opportunities for them to correct that. And you know plenty more opportunities for Travis and Trevor to connect on that same play and, you know, turn it up for a touchdown or whatever the case may be. On Travis, yeah, no, I like what I saw out of him week one, of course, like he really only got I think it was six defensive snaps, so we didn't really get to like see him on defense all that much. But on the offensive side of the ball you kind of got a glimpse of how they'll use him. You know it looked like a lot of slant patterns, right, a lot of patterns where he'll catch and have the opportunity to get yardage after the catch. Basically type of ordeals and then, of course, like we said, the one that jc horn ended up missing. You know that was kind of a showcase of what we could see him in terms of him being as a deep ball threat as well man. But no, I'm not disappointed in Travis at all, in the slightest bit.
Speaker 2:It's going to take some time to, you know, get him worked in because, well, not only is wide receiver kind of a hard position to master as a rookie, like everybody can't do what brian thomas did. That's what makes it special. Everybody can't do what brian thomas did last year um, right off the rip, um. So just keep that in mind. Like what we saw out of brian thomas jr last year is rare. You know it's not something that that happens often, but you know, I think you know it's going to just take some time of getting him worked in and again, like they still have to, uh, master this game plan of how they're gonna, you know, use him on defense as well and mix it in with how he'll be used on offense.
Speaker 2:As you said, phil, I think it'll be interesting next week because we have elite receivers coming into the building or we'll be going to them, and you know it makes you wonder will we see him more on the defensive side of the ball? Well, you got to feel like that. Six defensive snaps will definitely increase closer to something along the lines of 15 to 20. We'll see in time We'll tell, but they're definitely going to need him. I feel like more kind of, like you said, on the defensive side next week. So you know, I wouldn't be shocked if his offensive performance next week isn't too, too crazy, because you know they may need him on that side of the ball.
Speaker 2:Keep in mind too, jerrion Jones didn't look great either, and that's not to say Jerrion can't bounce back. He either and that's not to say Jerrion can't bounce back. He's a pretty good talent. He kind of started slow last year, in my opinion too, and by the end of the season he looked like one of the better rookie cornerbacks that was drafted in the league. So you know he can't get back to himself. But Jerrion Jones has this tendency to start slow and it makes you wonder do you see Travis Hunter for that reason, more on the defensive side as well?
Speaker 1:yeah, I'm not going to overreact too much, especially after a victory, but you know this will be an opportunity for Ryan Clark to tell us that we made a mistake in drafting Travis Hunter because he only played a few snaps on defense. He's on a generational run right now. As far as Ryan Clark goes in his takes not sure what is going on over there, but um, yeah, jay, uh, you know we saw a lot of good things. Uh, the running back room looks solid 16 carries, 143 yards for Travis Etn, five carries for 12 yards for Tank Bigsby, formerly of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Basial Tootin, three carries, 11 yards, and then the Quentin Allen one carry for seven yards, which was, I believe correct me if I'm wrong that big third down conversion.
Speaker 1:We saw Deami Brown get involved in the run game, as I mentioned earlier. Brian Thomas Jr and, yeah, trevor Lawrence 1931, 178 yards, one touchdown, one interception. And then the defense, like we said, two balled out between foyer. Uh, dewey had an interception, a pick, six called back um, eric murray, jordan lewis, those guys look good. So the guys that you said you know you just mentioned that stuck around tyson campbell, jerry and jones, that were um a little rough, and this was some things that we talked about in the preseason as far as your concerns and our concerns about the secondary, so we will see what happens there. What other takeaways did you have here, jay, as we approach the hour mark of the episode that you wanted to mention before we start focusing on Cincinnati?
Speaker 2:No other really, other takeaways, other takeaways not will say this I think tyson had a better game than people give him credit for. Uh, because he did come up and make um a tackle where they were trying to get to the edge, to the sideline, and um, we had, like the linebackers and probably safeties missed the tackle and the running back or whoever it was that was the ball carry, almost got to the edge and Tyson came up and Tyson hit the old crossbody drop on him. Phil, I know you, I know you see the crossbody drop as much as you, uh, you watch wrestling. But yeah, he came and hit the old crossbody drop on him and then the the strip away that he had where he stripped away, um, ted McMillan's arm from keeping him from getting that touchdown. I think that would have been a touchdown as well. That's textbook stuff, man, and people forget Ted McMillan is strong as all. Get out to be able to like pry that and keep that from being a completion. That was pretty huge.
Speaker 2:So I mean, even with the downs that Tyson had, you know there was some positives with it. It's kind of the moral of the story for the whole team. With the negatives, there were way more positives with the team in general and I think, like you know, he showed some encouraging signs and I think, like you, can look at him and see signs where Anthony Campanile is starting to affect him in terms of maybe getting him to turn that corner and become the player that he could be in my like. Again, some highs and lows. You want to see something like a more consistent run out of him or a more consistent game out of him, but I think, in time, just based on what we saw today, I think he could get there. You know, like I I haven't lost hope on him and what anthony campanile could do for him yeah, 100 need to see some improvements there.
Speaker 1:Obviously, penalties, which we talked about as well, um, but uh, otherwise it was a good sunday, it was a good sports weekend, I believe, in general for us, jay. Um, I don't know if georgia played or not, but you know texas won. Arch manning looked better against, of course, you know, not ohio state, so letting him ease into it. And, of course, the biggest start or the biggest news that we got over the weekend, jay, which actually happened Friday night, is AJ Lee returned to the WWE and you know, overshadowing a questionable return that happened recently. So shout out to AJ Lee, shout out to CM Punk, shout out to the dog I forgot the dog's name, but a shout out to that whole family. The WWE brings back AJ Lee after 10 years. So overall, jake, not a bad sports weekend.
Speaker 2:Not at all, not at all. And then we got to see our Gator friends not happy with their results. Hey, listen, always a good time.
Speaker 1:I know we have some Gator listeners, sorry about that, but you know, listen it, we've all been through it. So yeah, that is rough. But yeah, jay, is there anything else you wanted to discuss here? Like we said, we have Cincinnati. We head to Cincinnati next week and we'll see what the Bengals look like. You know they always struggle early on. They did get a win, at least in week one, but that's a team that always comes out of the gate kind of slow and a team, like we highlighted a little bit earlier, that just cannot protect the quarterback so we'll see what happens and a defense that is pretty suspect, although they did have a pretty decent game against, granted, cleveland. But yeah, anything else you want to mention before we get out of here for the evening?
Speaker 2:Nah, that's it. That is it, man. Yeah, man, just glad to discuss a victory. Let's make it two in a row, man, that would be fun. Especially, I think, this one would be even more significant because, you know, despite their struggles, we do feel like the Bengals are very talented. So, yeah, man, like I can't wait to talk about that if that turns out to be. Yeah, man, like I can't wait to talk about that If that turns out to be a victory, man, and I'm excited about the rest of the season.
Speaker 1:Yeah, things will be at a fever pitch if the Jaguars start off to a no, but we won't get to our head of ourselves. We'll take it a week at a time. So we appreciate you guys checking us out and, once again, link tree link in the show notes of this and every single episode so you can keep up with the podcast over on social media. Of course, we are most active on twitter. Follow myself, follow jay, follow the podcast. Everything you'll find everything you need down there in the link tree link. Make sure you download that seek geek app and use that promo code touchdown jaguars all season long. Save yourself 20 on your first purchase through seek geekGeek. We appreciate you guys so much. And also head on over to the podcast platform of your choice. Give us five stars, thumbs up, whatever it is that it is on that app. It is very helpful to the show as well. Folks, that is my co-host, james Johnson. I am Phil Barrera. Don't forget to tune in to Touchdown Jaguars for each and every Jaguar touchdown and we will see you next week.
