After holding three practices between Tuesday and Thursday of this week, mandatory minicamp has now wrapped up for the Jacksonville Jaguars. The team will now break until training camp, which begins in late July.
Of course, during this time of the year, everything needs to be taken with a grain of salt. The pads aren’t on, and teams are more focused on their installs and implementing the right fundamentals and technique, along with using proper communication.
So what can we glean from what took place over these last few days? Probably not a lot, at least when it comes to what it might mean for the regular season.
But just because what took place might not be the be-all-end-all, doesn’t mean that there aren’t some noteworthy items either. Here are some things to know from the Jaguars‘ mandatory minicamp.
Trevor Lawrence’s growth in the new offense
As Lawrence described after Thursday’s practice, he’s seen himself grow in the Jaguars’ new-look offense in a number of ways over the last several weeks of OTAs and minicamp. Most notably, as Lawrence mentioned, he’s seen significant progress with his footwork and how he’s using his eyes to his advantage.
“Like I’ve said, I’ve changed some of my footwork, so I feel a lot more comfortable with that,” Lawrence said after Thursday’s practice. “Just some subtle changes. I think my footwork, my eyes, just where I’m starting, using my eyes as a weapon, manipulating the defense.
“I thought there was some great stuff on tape throughout the spring of me being able to do that, and the ways I wanted to. So that was a big step.”
Within Coen’s offense, a quarterback’s footwork is tied to their progressions. So if the footwork component is off, the timing of the entire play can be off as well. In addition to those more technical aspects of playing the position, Lawrence also highlighted how much more comfortable he feels in the new scheme as he’s gotten more on-field reps.
Travis Hunter playing both ways in one practice
During Thursday’s final practice, Travis Hunter spent most of the day at wide receiver. But during the final team period, Hunter took off his teal jersey, put on a white jersey, and switched over to cornerback. While he has spent time playing both wide receiver and cornerback in recent weeks, this was the first time that he did so during the same practice.
Since selecting Hunter, the Jaguars have had a very deliberate plan for him. This included onboarding him at the wide receiver position. So early on, this is where all of Hunter’s practice reps came, although he’s been learning the defensive playbook and terminology, along with being in meetings since arriving in Jacksonville.
From there, Hunter began to have some practice days devoted to the cornerback position, with those opportunities becoming more frequent over the last few weeks. The next step, is for Hutner to practice on both sides of the ball on the same day, which we got a glimpse of on Thursday.
“He just has a wealth of talent, and he’s a super intelligent guy, which makes it super fun,” Anthony Campanile said. “He’s really quick on the uptake. So he’s a fun guy to coach, to be around. I know his position coaches love coaching him, and it’s pretty impressive to watch a guy do that.”
Tyson Campbell impresses
Both Liam Coen and Anthony Campanile have raved about what they’ve seen from cornerback Tyson Campbell. As Coen highlighted, he believes that Campanile’s vision-based–eyes on the quarterback–and more zone-heavy defense fits Campbell’s skill set very well, and the on-field production is showcasing that, with him often around the football.
“I really am really, really fired up about everything he’s done this offseason because he’s competed so hard in the practices,” Campanile said, via Jaguars on SI. “He’s fighting for every rep, whether it’s at the top of the route, on the line of scrimmage, in the break area.”
Campanile then continued: “He’s just really trying to play with a lot of detail, and I think a lot of that shows up,” Campanile said. “If you were to sit and watch his individual, he’s competing his tail off in individual.”
During Wednesday’s practice, the secondary has a whole put together a very good day.
Pass rush makes some noise
The caveat here is that without pads on, evaluating offensive line play is very difficult. In fact, as Coen mentioned, this group in particular is in a tough spot during these practices, which does give the defensive front the advantage in some respects.
But having said that, disruption is disruption, and the Jaguars’ front did a lot of that during Tuesday’s minicamp practice. In Campanile’s defense, we are going to see more movement, with defenders in different gaps, and a more attacking play style.
“There was a little bit more of a rush today, which was great to see from one aspect,” said Liam Coen after Tuesday’s practice. He then later added, “It was nice to see some of the juice off the edge and our D-line getting going a little bit. That was nice to see.”
If the defense as a whole is going to improve, more steady push from the collective defensive line unit is a must in 2025.
Competition on the offensive line
We haven’t heard of any specific offensive line combinations, but it’s been reported that the Jaguars are doing a lot of mixing and matching up front. Since Coen took over as the head coach, he made it clear that the offensive line play for the Jaguars had to improve this season.
To help accomplish that, GM James Gladstone addressed this unit heavily in the offseason, making six additions between free agency and the draft, which added quite a bit of versatility to this unit and a lot more competition.
The Jaguars are searching for their best starting five configuration and seem to be exploring all options.
This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: Jaguars minicamp: 5 Things to know from three practices