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The Jacksonville Jaguars finally appeared to have hit on a wide receiver with Cecil Shorts III, who broke out as a big play threat during the 2012 season, but was ultimately cut short due to a concussion. Shorts just missed being the first Jaguars wide receiver to eclipse 1,000 yards since Jimmy Smith in 2005.
Shorts appears to be picking up where he left off in 2012.
"Doesn’t he compete, man? He competes and competes," Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley said about Shorts on Friday. "I told our guys we are going to put them in some challenging positions. You saw two minute situation where we had ones out and twos then we brought the ones back out again. They were gassed, but we’re going to challenge them. I told him we’re going to see how we handle a punch in the mouth, and that’s going to be throughout training camp."
Shorts handled the proverbial punch in the mouth by catching everything thrown his way and continuously getting open all practice, even when he was visibly gassed. At one point he was targeted four to five times in a row, one time leaning over with his hands on hips and looking like he wanted to come off, but then beat Alan Ball on a route to the sideline the very next play.
The most impressive player in camp on the first day, by a mile, was Shorts. He was uncoverable. That's not a word, apparently.