On the morning after the Jaguars had their first contact drills, the practice session this morning was a little lighter on intensity.  The team took the field in shorts and shirts, leaving their helmets in the locker room.  It was hot, so baseball caps were probably a great relief for the guys.

The crowd was pretty thin this morning.  Only a few hundred fans came out to deal with the heat as the Jaguars took the field this morning.

There are a few injury notes to mention.  First, Reggie Williams has been cleared to participate. He was on the field for the morning drills despite the fact that his knee was heavily wrapped.  It was good to see him back on the field.

With all of the media reports last night and this morning centering on the fact that Brad Meester was supposed to be heading to Birmingham this morning to meet with Dr. Andrews, the orthopedic surgeon that operated on his other bicep two years ago.  Imagine my surprise when he was out on the field this morning.  He is not participating, but the fact that he is still in Jacksonville was an interesting twist in the story as it is being reported locally.

The other usual suspects on the injury list included George Wrighster, who has been running with the trainers and looks to be on target with his recovery.  He is not limping or laboring at all, and is doing sprints to strengthen up the knee. 

Jeremy Mincey, Jerry Porter, and Chad Nkang were also non-participants in practice this morning as expected.

With Meester out of the lineup, the new offensive line depth has been shuffled somewhat.  Right now, it looks like Dennis Norman is running with the first team along with Khalif Barnes, Maurice Williams, Vince Manuwai, and Tony Pashos.  Uche Nwaneri and Drew Miller split time with both the second and third teams.

During stretches, the professionals showed that they are not immune to catching a little heat from the coaching staff.  Apparently, a group of players was singled out for something that they had done, and they were forced to run a lap around the practice facility during stretching.  The guys that were doing their lap of shame included Chauncey Washington, Antony Cotrone, Uche Nwaneri, Daryl Smith, and Isaiah Gardner.

Despite the fact that the team was missing helmets, they did run through drills and there were a few highlights to mention, so let’s get to them.

(More behind the fold)

11 x 11 (Part I):

Rashean Mathis started the session with a nice play.  Troy Williamson made a nice cut to set up a curl route, but Mathis was able to recover quickly and bat away the pass delivered by David Garrard.

Garrard came back on the next play and connected with D’Juan Woods on a bomb over the top of Mathis.  David showed nice accuracy on the pass, although Woods still had to slow up a bit to make the play.  It wound up in the end zone when the play finished, so Woods and Garrard had a nice highlight early in the session.

Garrard once again was having some issues with getting his passes right on the mark.  He threw a quick out to Richard Angulo with the defense blitzing, and because he rushed his delivery, his pass fell behind Angulo incomplete.

Matt Jones continues to have what has to be considered his best training camp in Jacksonville.  He continues to catch everything thrown in his direction, whether it is an easy ball to handle or one that requires him to utilize his athletic ability.  On a sideline pass by Cleo Lemon, Jones was able to make a nice jumping grab over Brian Witherspoon for a big gain.

Lemon showed nice accuracy and touch on a deep pass down the sideline targeting Dennis Northcutt.  Dennis was sandwiched in between Gerald Sensabaugh and Jamaal Fudge in very tight coverage.  Lemon dropped the ball right in between the two defensive backs, and squarely in the hands of Northcutt.

John Broussard appears to have shaken off a tough practice last night as he caught just about everything that was thrown his way this morning.  On a mid-range sideline route, David Garrard connected with Broussard with Rashod Moulton in coverage.  The pass was a little high, and Broussard had to concentrate to make the play, which he did with ease.

Marcedes Lewis ran a deep post route with Jamaal Fudge in tow.  Garrard picked him up and put the ball over the top of coverage, and Lewis made a nice catch to haul it in and turn it into a nice gain.

Maurice Jones-Drew took a little outlet pass from Cleo Lemon and turned it into a big gain after making a couple of moves to shake off his defender at the line of scrimmage. 

Lemon showed an uncharacteristically errant pass on a deep toss to Dennis Northcutt with Rashod Moulton right there in coverage.  The pass was one of the first deep balls that Lemon overshot his target on, missing Northcutt by a good five yards.

7 x 7:

Reggie Williams saw his first action of training camp, taking a quick cross from David Garrard, showing nice speed and decent route running.  If the knee is bothering him, it did not have an adverse effect on his cutting on this play.

Marcedes Lewis ran a crossing route about 7 yards off the line of scrimmage.  David Garrard picked him up and delivered a pass high but in front of Lewis.  Marcedes was able to snag the pass, and then hang on to turn it into a solid gain.

Cleo Lemon connected with Matt Jones on a deep post route.  Brian Iwuh had Jones pretty well covered, but Lemon put the ball up high, and Jones made another one of his high grabs over the top of the coverage.

Mike Walker was on the field this morning, participating in practice, and making plays.  On a couple of occasions during this drill, Walker showed solid route running with his quick cuts to the outside to shake off coverage.  On one pass from David Garrard, Walker got enough separation from Brian Witherspoon to create a gap for Garrard.  David hit Walker in the hands, and Witherspoon came in immediately and tried to bat the ball away, but once Walker had it in his hands, he had control and was not letting it leave his grasp.

Ryan Hoag has had a couple of rough practice sessions with more than a few dropped passes between them.  His struggles continued this morning as he missed a routine pass from Paul Smith that hit him squarely in the hands on a simple slant pattern.

Garrard targeted Maurice Jones-Drew on a deep sideline pass.  Jones-Drew had rolled out wide on the play, and ran right by Clint Ingram.  Garrard put the ball over the top and dropped it right in Jones-Drew’s hands.  Unfortunately, Maurice dropped the pass as he lost concentration looking back at Ingram, who was closing the gap quickly.

11 x 11 (Part II):

David Garrard is clearly favoring Dennis Northcutt, whether it is on deeper routes, or on the short range passes.  During two separate plays during this drill, David went to Northcutt, first on a cross in front of Mathis, and then later on a deep sideline pass in double coverage with Scott Starks and Lamar Myles covering him.  In both cases, Northcutt made nice catches gaining further confidence from his quarterback.

Troy Williamson had a ball knocked out by Brian Witherspoon on a little curl route.  As soon as the ball hit the target, Witherspoon hit the receiver, and the ball came squirting out immediately. 

Todd Bowman and Cleo Lemon both had passes batted down during this drill.  On the first play, Bowman had a pass tipped by Kenny Pettway, and then was intercepted by Theo Horrocks. 

Cleo Lemon’s pass was simply batted down, again by Theo Horrocks who had gotten decent penetration on the play.

The practice session once again ended on a nice deep pass from Todd Bowman to Jeron Harvey.  The pass was a little short of the intended target, but Harvey made the nice adjustment to go back to the ball, at which time he was immediately wrapped up by Michael Grant. 

Final Impressions:

It was good to see Reggie Williams back on the field, and to see Mike Walker participating this morning after a contact drill the night before.  It was unexpected to see either player practicing this morning, and both looked good when they did get an opportunity to make plays. 

The situation with Brad Meester is one that will be interesting to watch.  The team has adequate depth at the center spot, and they should be able to deal with the loss without much of a setback.

Both Gerald Sensabaugh and Brian Williams rotated with the first team at strong safety today, so that should be an interesting situation to watch develop.  Clearly, the team is trying to feel this thing out on the fly.

Because there was no contact, trying to get much of a bead on how well any of the defensive players looked is practically impossible, especially along the line.  Hopefully we will get another dose of what we have on the defensive line tonight.

More later!