Jacksonville Jaguars vs New York Jets duds

The Jacksonville Jaguars lost to the New York Jets in the first preseason game of 2016, giving the coaches insight on who needs to improve.

After an impressive outing by most of the starters for the Jacksonville Jaguars, the play was less impressive when the backups were on the field.

While not every player lower on the depth chart performed poorly and it isn’t only on the backups who did, it’s important to note who needs to step up going forward for the Jacksonville Jaguars. These are players who fell flat when given an opportunity or who simply didn’t deliver what was anticipated of them.

Let’s dive in.

1) Special teams coverage units

This encompasses more than one player, but it needs to be said right away. The Jags were absolutely manhandled on special teams against the New York Jets and it is a bad indication of a continued problem in the Gus Bradley era.

The Jets had a 51-yard return and an 84-yard off kickoffs against the Jags. Everything seemed to break down and it fell to the kicker, Jason Myers, to make the tackle or at least slow the returner down.

That isn’t what any professional football team is looking for in their kickoff coverage team. That was major exposure of a problem that could become much bigger during the regular season.

It’s easy to overlook special teams when everything is functioning normally. But when things break down it is incredibly noticeable. Special teams matters in the NFL and the Jags simply weren’t ready to play in that phase of the game against the Jets.

It needs to improve.

Next: The Bortles-Thomas connection misses (again)