3 critical observations from Jaguars mandatory minicamp

The Jaguars upgraded the backup QB position with Mac Jones

Ideally, Trevor Lawrence won't miss a single snap in 2024 but the Jaguars brought in the best capable quarterback in case he does. Earlier this offseason, they traded for Mac Jones in exchange for just a sixth-round pick. Even though the former first-round pick was benched several times the past two years, he also made the Pro Bowl as a rookie and took the New England Patriots to the playoffs.

This is to say that Jones can play and he's shown it through mandatory minicamp. Because Lawrence and C.J. Bearthard were excused, the former Alabama product is getting all the reps behind center. He's made the most out of them while building a connection with most of the team's skilled-position players.

Offensive coordinator Press Taylor, for one, is pleased with Jones' performance, noting that he's done a good job of acclimating to the Jaguars.

"Mac's done a great job just getting in here and learning the offense. He's a sponge," Taylor told the media on Day 2 of minicamp. "He loves football. He loves learning football, talking football. He's constantly in the building, he's constantly asking questions. He's constantly talking, which is one thing you, "Hey, shut up. I gotta give you a play call real quick." He runs his mouth all the time, which is fine. It makes practice fun. He's chirping with the DBs all the time."

Taylor continued, "It's hard right now when we don't have helmets on, so there's no headset communicator. I have to physically get him to come talk to me to give him the next play call. I get him to stop talking and give him a play call. But he's done a great job learning. You see his experience. He's played a lot of football. All the concepts we run, he's run them at some point in time."

"Some of it's translating. You try to, as quickly as you can, get away from the old language you have. You can't keep telling yourself, 'Oh, this is this.' Well, this is this, at a certain point, it's got to go away. And it's got to be 'this is this', and this is how we communicate. This is our language. He's done that. He's playing quicker each day that he gets, every rep he gets. We're glad we have him."

Based on Taylor's comments, it's fair to say that Jones could come off the bench at any time and keep the offense afloat.

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