The Jaguars have had an offseason filled with major storylines, question marks, and changes. That's over now, but let's take a look at some of the major happenings this offseason for the Jaguars as they prepare for a five week break from team activities and the training camp to follow.
In a recent report from Mike Garafolo of NFL Network it was revealed that Doug Marrone gave Blake Bortles an offseason ultimatum. He told Bortles "if you continue to turn the ball over, you won't be our QB. Everything else we can work on, but that's non-negotiable." Marrone clear wants his QB to take care of the football. To that end he also claimed in an earlier offseason interview that wouldn't mind if the QB doesn't throw the ball at throughout a game and the team just runs it. Clearly Marrone wants to play ball control offense and solid defense. The leash appears to much shorter than it has been for Bortles in years past. Since he entered the league Bortles has been a turnover machine, so expecting him to take care of the football is quite frankly expecting an unprecedented improvement from the 4th year QB. Bortles will head back to California for the the break to work with the 3DQB on some "specific" aspects of his mechanics. IF YOU CONTINUE TO TURN THE BALL OVER, YOU WON'T BE OUR QB.
In other recent news Jaguars Defensive Coordinator Todd Wash officially put to bed the terms LEO and OTTO used for identifying the Jaguars EDGE rusher and SAM linebacker respectively. The change in name won't be the only changes to these positions. The SAM linebacker won't be used the same way to OTTO had been for the last several seasons in Jacksonville.
THEY'RE DEFENSIVE ENDS, SO WHY NOT CALL THEM A DEFENSIVE END?
The injury bug still persists, especially in the secondary. Starters Barry Church, Tashaun Gipson, and Aaron Colvin (nickel) have all been held out of each and every "practice" for the Jaguars so far and Doug Marrone wouldn't comment on whether or not they would be ready for training camp. All of them appear to be walking around and moving around easily, so it seems they would be ready sooner rather than later, but it's still worth keeping an eye on. Church and Gipson's backups have earned praise from the coaching staff and Jarrod Wilson even picked off a pass on the final day of minicamp. In other secondary news it was revealed that safeties might play as outside cornerbacks and vise versa - a look that could create some extremely interesting matchups for the team in 2017.
Branden Albert's holdout was a major story as well. That ended Monday when Albert finally reported to camp. He's not quite in football shape, but that was to be expected. We'll see if he takes the starting left tackle job he was brought here to earn and runs with it or if he struggles to beat out rookie Cam Robinson and others. The Jaguars will reconvene in late July for training camp. Rookies will report on the 19th, QBs on the 21st, and the rest of the veterans on the 26th. The team plays it's first preseason game on August 10th against the New England Patriots. ​Stay tuned for more!
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