Myles Jack the focal point as Jacksonville Jaguars open minicamp this week
By Daniel Lago
With the Jaguars closing in on the dead period of the offseason, Myles Jack is finally getting on the field for a few practices.
With the bulk of the offseason out of the way, the Jacksonville Jaguars are heading into the last week of practices before the big lull preceding training camp. Minicamp opens on Tuesday (open to the public) and the team finally gets to see second round pick Myles Jack on the field.
The offseason training activities (OTAs) have been intriguing thus far, with guys like Dante Fowler Jr. and Marqise Lee shining in drills. There’s been a bit of a hamper on the enthusiasm with both the first and second round picks not participating, but it’s clear the talent level is higher on the team this year compared to last year.
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While first round pick Jalen Ramsey is understandably sitting out as he recovers from a knee surgery, Jack has been held out of practice due to an arcane and silly “graduation” rule enforced by the NFL. Consequently, Jack has missed all the OTAs thus far and is going to have to get up to speed fast during training camp.
Despite his vast talents in much needed areas, Jack’s role with the team isn’t quite defined yet. The team is reportedly planning on grooming him to be Paul Posluszny‘s successor, but they also want to get him on the field in some capacity as soon as possible.
For now, it appears the Jaguars will lock Jack into a role as a third down or nickel linebacker, subbing in on obvious passing downs for Posluszny. With the amount of time teams spend in 3-wide receiver sets however, it’ll be prudent for the Jaguars to find Jack a more permanent role. This means locking Jack into the OTTO spot and playing him alongside Posluszny and Telvin Smith on first downs.
Regardless of how they deploy him, there’s not doubt Jack’s presence will be felt and should have an enormous impact on the defense.