There’s always a degree of uncertainty whenever you do something for the first time, regardless of your profession. You can prepare as best as you can and still run into situations you didn’t originally expect or plan for. Whether you’re speaking in front of an audience, performing at a venue, or coaching in the NFL, there’s usually a feeling of nervousness when the time comes to execute.
Things won’t be different for Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer, who has enjoyed success at the college level but will be making his debut in the NFL.
Meyer had a sitdown with the local media ahead of the Jaguars’ Week 1 matchup against the Houston Texans. He touched on several things, including how he feels about coaching his first NFL game. He says the preparation in the pros is different from college. He pointed out that teams are significantly smaller in the NFL and the coaching staff is making a decision on who’s going to suit up Sunday.
"Obviously, you look out there and you see a much smaller roster… We’re still deciding who’s going to be inactive the day of the game, those type of things. That’s the little bit of anxiety that I have. That that’s all new to me."
On the other hand, Meyer says he feels confident about the Jaguars’ coaching staff and the players.
"But, you know? As far as game management, I feel very good about it. I feel very good about our coaching staff and most importantly, I feel good about the locker room, which is maybe the most important thing in any organization."
Meyer is one of the winningest head coaches in college history. Thus, it wasn’t surprising to see the Jaguars’ organization aggressively court him to oversee their rebuild. The Ohio native has recently been the target of criticism. Some of it is warranted, most of it isn’t. Still, he will have the chance to prove Jags owner Shad Khan made the right decision when he hired him earlier this year.
The Jacksonville Jaguars added RB Duke Johnson to the practice squad.
In addition to talking about how he felt ahead of the Jaguars’ Week 1 matchup, Meyer talked about the team’s running back room. He said he wasn’t confident about having just three running backs, “eyes still open” and added that the Jags’ brass was “working on some things”.
Not long after the sitdown, the Jaguars announced that they signed running back Duke Johnson and waived Nathan Cottrell. That might have been the “things” Meyer alluded to. Johnson was selected by the Cleveland Browns in the third round of the 2015 draft. The Miami product has appeared in 91 games with 17 starts over his seven-year career.
His best year came in 2019 when he racked up 83 carries for 410 yards and two trips to the end zone. In the same season, he hauled in 44 receptions for 410 yards and three touchdowns. In fact, the case could be made he offers more value as a receiver out of the backfield, having caught 307 passes for 2,829 yards over the last six years.
Johnson is more of a rotational, third-down kind of back. Also, the Jaguars may only activate him if one of their top three running backs — James Robinson, Carlos Hyde, and Dare Ogunbowale — is forced to miss time with injuries. the former Hurricane isn’t the kind of running back that can carry a heavy workload. However, he’s an upgrade over Cottrell, who was mostly relegated to special-teams duties in 2020.
The Jacksonville Jaguars have to make a decision at safety.
One of the Jaguars’ biggest priorities this past offseason was bolstering the safety room. Thus, they didn’t hesitate to allocate a vast amount of resources to the position. Besides bringing back Josh Jones, they signed Rayshawn Jenkins and Rudy Ford in free agency. To round out the group, they selected Andre Cisco in Round 3 of the draft.
Jarrod Wilson and Jones were the Jaguars’ starting safeties in Week 1 of the 2020 season. The former is no longer with the team after being released in the last round of roster cuts and the latter is currently on the Injured/Reserve list.
The Jags didn’t give Jenkins a four-year deal worth $35 million to ride the bench, so his spot in the starting lineup was earmarked from the outset. On the other hand, it was uncertain who would line up next to. Urban Meyer brought some clarity to the situation.
The Jaguars head coach told the local media either Cisco or Andrew Wingard will start next to Jenkins. It seems inevitable that Cisco will start at some point in 2021. It’s not a matter of “when” but “if”. On the other hand, it looked like Wingard was the least likely candidate and possibly the last in line to start in Week 1.
Keep in mind that Daniel Thomas showed flashes as a rookie, Jarrod Wilson started 28 games over the last two seasons, and Jones was a favorite of the coaching staff. Nevertheless, it’s encouraging to see the Wyoming product work his way up the depth chart. After playing mainly on special teams as a rookie, Wingard appeared in 41 percent of the team’s defensive snaps in 2020. If he plays well against the Texans, the Jags may need to put on hold their plans to make Cisco the starter.