JAGUARS TRAINING CAMP DAY SEVEN RECAP

David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire

The Jaguars practiced today without several of their best players. 
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BY JORDAN DE LUGO

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Some unfortunate injury situations marred the Jaguars' seventh day of training camp. 

Rookie undrafted running back Taj McGowan, suffered an ACL injury on Tuesday and was waived/injured by the team Wednesday. If he goes unclaimed on waivers, he'll be placed on the Jaguars' injured reserve. The Jags replaced McGowan with Devante Mays, a 230-pound bowling ball of a running back. 

But the real news came in practice today when rookie tight end Josh Oliver limped off the field after being tackled into the endzone by another rookie, safety Andrew Wingard. Oliver did not return to practice, and the extent of his injury is still unknown. Should he miss extended time, the rest of the Jaguars' tight ends will need to step up in a big way. Charles Jones and James O'Shaughnessy did that today. Jones caught two touchdown passes and O'Shaughnessy was able to get open with ease for much of the day. 

AJ Bouye and Thomas Rawls continued to work on the side with hamstring soreness. Brandon Linder received another day of rest. Jalen Ramsey and Marcell Dareus also spent the day on the sideline with general soreness. Cam Robinson, Marqise Lee, and Jake Ryan continue to work on the side as they come back from their knee injuries. 

Outside of that, however, the Jaguars had another productive day of camp in which they worked on lots of situational football. From two-minute drills to one-minute drills, to red zone work, the Jaguars are covering their bases.

Nick Foles did not have his strongest day. He completed just 13/26 attempts in seven-on-seven and 11-on-11. He was actually much better in 11s than he was in 7s, which is a good sign.  He completed just 4/11 passes in seven-on-seven, but three of those went for touchdowns in red zone work. He also got picked off by Quincy Williams, who likely would have taken it the distance the other way. That was Foles' first interception of camp. In 11s Foles was much sharper, completing 9/15 passes with a TD to tight end Charles Jones. He did some solid things throughout practice, like completing a beauty to Dede Westbrook in the back of the endzone and finding DJ Chark for a big bomb down the field. But I must admit I expected him to be able to do a bit more without Jalen Ramsey and AJ Bouye on the field. Foles guided the offense down the field and scored a TD on a pass to Geoff Swaim in the one-minute offense, but was unable to get the team down the field in a two-minute drill late in practice. 

Speaking of Ramsey and Bouye, their replacements in the starting lineup, Tre Herndon and Saivion Smith made some fantastic plays. Herndon has been playing at a starter level all camp, and that continued today. Smith, however, hadn't gotten to run with the ones until this morning. He made an athletic pass break up in coverage against Chris Conley on a flea-flicker. He was pretty sticky in coverage and held his own against the ones (outside of the long pass he surrendered to DJ Chark). It was the type of practice that could go a long way towards earning the undrafted rookie from Alabama a spot on the roster. He may be battling it out with Quenton Meeks, who has struggled at times in camp, for the final roster spot at corner.

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Getting back to the offensive side of the ball, Fournette continued to catch the ball well out of the backfield. So did his backup RyQuell Armstead. The rookie runner showed off his physicality when he laid Quincy Williams out in the flat, knocking off the young linebacker's helmet. He also put some defenders on skates throughout the practice, displaying some excellent agility and vision. 

Garnder Minshew may have had his best day yet. He was efficient and didn't struggle with the mental side of the game at all. After questions about his arm strength throughout camp, he made a big statement with a perfectly placed deep bomb to Terrelle Pryor who glided into the endzone for a score. Pryor also made several other catches on the day and on one of them gave Brandon Watson a nasty stiff-arm in an attempt to get to the sideline. Terrelle Pryor has been impressive all camp, but today may have been his brightest performance yet. 

Josh Wells and Cedric Ogbuehi continued to start at offensive tackle. Today it was Wells at LT and Ogbuehi at RT. The two haven't inspired a ton of confidence from me. But with Cam Robinson still on the mend and Doug Marrone still trying to get Jawaan Taylor up to speed, that's what the Jags are stuck with for now. Jawaan Taylor took reps primarily with the twos today and outside of allowing an early would-be sack by Lerentee McCray, had a steady outing. 

On the defensive side of the ball, Datone Jones continued to flash with a batted pass at the line. With the way he's performing Jones could undoubtedly be in the rotation on the defensive line. He has far outshined Dawuane Smoot, who may be running out of time in Jacksonville. 

Safeties Jarrod Wilson and Ronnie Harrison continue to look like upper echelon athletes at their position. 

Josh Lambo drilled three short kicks in team drills and didn't get tested for the rest of practice. 

With another day of red zone installation and situational drills in the books, the Jaguars are building the foundation for a bounce-back 2019 season. ​

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