3 takeaways from the Jaguars 1st unofficial depth chart for the 2023 NFL season
• The Jags are loaded at some positions
• Not so much at others
The 2023 NFL preseason is inching closer, which means that teams will start dropping their first unofficial depth charts of the year. The Jacksonville Jaguars did so Tuesday and there are a handful of interesting tidbits.
To nobody's surprise, except for maybe Pro Football Focus, Calvin Ridley is the No. 1 receiver on the depth chart. The Jags traded for him last year but he was serving a suspension for betting on football games. He was reinstated in March and he's been putting in the work to become a game-changer for Jacksonville in 2023.
Ridley's spot on the depth chart aside, here are three takeaways from the Jaguars' first unofficial depth chart of the 2023 season.
3. Blake Hance is starting at LG for the Jaguars but that should change
Ben Bartch suffered a knee injury last year and is still a few weeks away from being 100 percent. For the time being, he's on the Active/Physical Unable to Perform List. When Bartch when down last year, veteran Tyler Shatley took his spot in the lineup and went on to start 14 games (12 in the regular season and two in the playoffs).
Shatley was getting first-team reps with the first team in training camp before leaving with a heart condition. He's fine and he will eventually be back but the Jaguars are leaning on Blake Hance for the moment. This was reflected on the depth chart, where Hance is the starting left guard.
After going undrafted in 2019, Hance spent time with the Buffalo Bills and Washington Commanders before joining the Jags. He spent the 2019 season with Jacksonville but was waived the following year. The Northwestern product started eight games for the Cleveland Browns in 2021. Last year, he latched on the San Francisco 49ers, where he spent two months, before landing on the Jags' practice squad.
Now, Hance is set to start for the Jaguars against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 1 of the preseason. However, he will most likely return to the sidelines (and maybe the practice squad) once Shatley and/or Bartch is good to go.