Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Dante Fowler Jr. needs more reps
By Daniel Lago
Dante Fowler Jr. didn’t make much of an impact in his first preseason game, but he needs to start getting more snaps to get into shape for the regular season.
The Jacksonville Jaguars caught a bad break in 2015 when number 3 overall pick Dante Fowler Jr. went down with a season-ending knee injury in his first minicamp practice. While it was certainly unfortunate to lose a top 3 draft pick before he even really got a chance to get on the field, Fowler had more than enough time to rehabilitate and get ready for the 2016 season.
Fully recovered, Fowler has looked like a monster throughout practices this offseason, so expectations were understandably high heading into the first preseason game last week.
He only played 10 snaps, but Fowler didn’t make an impact in his first live NFL appearance.
Heading into the second preseason game, the coaches should consider leaving Fowler in a decent bit longer to get used to playing against NFL competition.
Fowler didn’t have his best week during the joint practices with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, finally looking less-than superhuman for once against different competition.
Dotson beats Fowler both match ups. Smith beats Ngakoue in both match ups. Malik Jackson wins both of his Pamphile. pic.twitter.com/FAl3VFIiS9
— Mike Kaye (@mike_e_kaye) August 18, 2016
It highlighted what is clearly an issue the coaching staff has to deal with and address – Fowler needs to get more and more reps against opposing offensive lineman so he can learn to deal with different players.
Not used to facing very good OTs that he doesn't practice against every day. https://t.co/KJOwJVBnj4
— Mike Kaye (@mike_e_kaye) August 18, 2016
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It’s an uncomfortable truth, but it’ worth noting that Fowler’s dominance in practices this offseason has been at the expense of less than stellar offensive tackles (Luke Joeckel, Josh Wells among others).
Fowler is going to have his ups and downs this year since it’s technically his rookie season, but the Jaguars need to make sure they prepare him as well as they can by letting him get into with opposing tackles during the preseason. This week he’ll face a couple of decent left tackles in Donovan Smith and Demar Dotson, so it’ll be interesting to watch how he adjust after facing them in practice this week.