Jacksonville Jaguars tough approach on Day 7, other training camp notes

The Jacksonville Jaguars are a new team under head coach Urban Meyer and they aren’t afraid to look for different ways to amp players up. On Day 7 of training camp, the Jags held “winner-loser” day, keeping tabs on the winner and the loser on one-on-one drills.

You could make the case there’s no reason to deem someone a loser, but these are football players either trying to get better or earn a roster spot. The Jaguars play a game that keeps track of who scores the most points, and more often than not, there’s a winner (there are sometimes ties), so why not get them used to performing under pressure?

The Jags are coming off arguably the worst seasons in franchise history, so any marginal gain they make would be catalog as success. However, Meyer won’t let mediocrity brew in Jacksonville. Although the organization is in the early stages of a rebuild, he won’t wait until Year 3 or 4 to set high expectations.

Meyer had a sitdown with the local media and touched on winner-loser day, among other things. The former Ohio State coach knows potential is nice but it doesn’t count for much if you can’t turn it into something tangible, something like wins.

"We have some winner/loser opportunities. We’re gonna have to make a decision. A big roster is going to be a smaller roster. To be fair to players… we all have so much respect for that, this is a way guys make a living. I don’t believe in subjectivity, I believe in what’s your record? Every man’s got a record what is it? You are what your record is. If you lose a lot but you have a lot of potential, that’s not real good."

In the end, you can have all the upside of the world, but if you can’t win football games, it’s useless.

Later, Meyer told the local media that second-year cornerback is closer to returning to practice after being placed on the COVID-19/Reserve list on July 23. The Florida product has stayed on the sidelines doing individual work and should be back soon. He has plenty of ground to make up as he’s missed the beginning of training camp.

Here are other observations about Day 7 of Jaguars training camp.