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As the Jacksonville Jaguars finish up a session of OTAs and get short break before another session of OTAs, we can get a miniature glimpse of what the team will be doing, offensively and defensively. Defensively we know what the Jaguars are capable of and with the return of Mel Tucker as the defensive coordinator, it should look relatively the same.
On the offensive side of the ball however, the Jaguars have a whole new staff and with it will need to be installing a whole new offensive scheme. Already, Jaguars defensive players have noticed a dramatic difference. "I have never seen an offense since I've been here as precise and as accurate as they are now," linebacker Clint Session told reporters after practice. "I don't want to toot their horn, but they're looking like the greatest show on turf compared to what it was last year. I'm excited about that."
From the small tidbits we've been given so far, we can already see the Jaguars offense could look drastically different scheme wise.
While we don't want to read too much into it, I found it interesting that when Jaguars.com editor John Oehser tweeted the team's starters on offense, it was in a three-wide receiver formation with one tight end and one running back, with no fullback. This could signal more of a change to a more "spread" look on offense, more uptempo.
"Already, it's definitely night and day from last year," safety Dawan Landry said after practice. "The veteran minicamp we had a couple weeks ago, it came out and showed. It looked like we ran a lot more plays that camp than we did all of last year, so it's exciting."
I can't say for sure what the Jaguars offense is going to look like under offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski and head coach Mike Mularkey, but I do have an idea. We could see some influences from spread schemes, which would seem to fit what quarterback Blaine Gabbert does. I would imagine the team would install some "Texas concepts" in their passing game.
What this means is, you should see quite a bit of three-receiver sets and would essentially be the Jaguars base offensive formation. It would feature a passing game focused around wides, underneath and vertical based passing, which is something the Atlanta Falcons tried a bit under Mularkey last season. It will also utilize a concept called "four-verts", which is just as it sounds.
You would have some plays that look similar to this:
The Jaguars would likely use a variation of stick throws, preferably fed to rookie Justin Blackmon, that would allow him to utilize his after the catch ability.
I would think the Jaguars offense would look a bit like (at least conceptually) what the New Orleans Saints do on offense and some "back-side tag" concepts, which gives the quarterback a quick easy outlet.
Again, this is all theorizing and speculation based on what I've heard they've been doing in camp, talking to people familiar with offensive schemes, and from some of the comments from coaches and players. Building an offense around concepts like this should feed into Gabbert's game and ability, so it would make a lot of sense to install.
If you want to know more in depth about the "Texas concept" you can read about it at Smart Football here.
You can also read more about stick plays at Smart Football here.