By Mike Bonts, Florida Sports Wire
JACKSONVILLE – Day two of the Jacksonville Jaguars training camp went almost as planned. Thursday’s practice was about 10 minutes longer than the first day.
Offensive coordinator Press Taylor took to the media room podium before practice. He fielded questions on the comfort level of the offense going into the season and the growth of quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
“I think it’s his offense. The empowerment he feels. Yesterday, day one, we have a play on, they play a different coverage, he checks it to a different play. He would not have done that at this point last year,” Taylor said.
Jacksonville ranked 10th in total offense last season with 357.4 yards per game. They also ranked 10th in passing yards per game as well with 232.9 passing yards per game.
“Part of it is just knowing what we like for certain looks, what he likes, what he can get to, what the guys outside can handle as he does certain things. Just that next step where that was kind of how the offense took off in the second half of the year last year. We didn’t have a perfect play on, he got us to a better play,” added Taylor.
Last season Lawrence had a 66.3 percent completion percentage, 4,113 passing yards with 25 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
” Just understanding what we’re trying to do and trusting the guys around him that they can handle that as well. As we have more of, not necessarily a veteran offense but a veteran in this scheme, we can continue to evolve and try to continue to maximize Trevor’s ability,” said Taylor.
Taylor also commented on the offense’s comfort level versus last season.
“I think is the biggest thing is the comfort level. We’re able to go so much faster on our installs. We cram a lot of plays in now up to an hour and a half meeting. We’re going really fast,” he said. “We don’t show as much video because we know the guys have seen it, they’re accessing it. But we can get a little bit more in and a little quicker as we go. You go into a training camp situation where we’re just running plays. We’re not scheming our defense,they’re not scheming us, we’re just putting in plays and running them.”
Left guard Ben Bartch (knee) and defensive lineman Dawuane Smoot (Achilles) remain on the Physically Unable to Perform list to start camp.
Camp resumes on Friday.
