Jacksonville Jaguars vs Saints: 5 things to keep an eye on

How will the Jacksonville Jaguars offensive look on Monday Night?

2. How will the starting interior offensive line look against the Saints?

One of the factors the Jaguars will take into consideration when deciding Trevor Lawrence’s workload in Week 2 of the preseason will be the health of their offensive line. Head coach Urban Meyer admitted as much when he met with the local media on Friday. Left guard Andrew Norwell has missed practice with an elbow injury and center Brandon Linder is nursing patellar tendonitis, so he will probably be out. Furthermore, right guard A.J. Cann had an inconclusive COVID-19 test a couple of days ago. Meyer expects him back but his status for the game is uncertain at the time of this story being written.

If Linder, Cann, and Norwell miss Monday’s game, Ben Bartch, Tyler Shatley, and maybe Will Richardson will be Jaguars’ starting interior linemen. All of them should be adequate replacements but the Jaguars’ coaching staff may be hesitant to give Lawrence plenty of snaps without the original lineup.

3. Will the Jaguars open up the playbook in Week 2?

Teams tend to put together a vanilla game plan for preseason games. After all, why would they want opposing teams to have a sneak peek at their playbook? After last week’s game, head coach Urban Meyer spoke to the local media and expressed his frustration about having to conceal their strategy, “We can’t show this, we can’t show that, and I’m like, why? Tell me, explain to me why”.

Maybe Meyer will get his way in New Orleans and the Jaguars will open up the playbook a bit. Having said that, should they be worried if they can’t move the ball and score early in the first half of the game? Jacksonville needs to get in regular-season shape and scoring early would help this young team build some confidence ahead of their Week 1 matchup against the Houston Texans.