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JACKSONVILLE -- The Jacksonville Jaguars got back on the practice field on Saturday morning to a much nicer day, while still warm, was not nearly as humid with some overcast and a nice storm breeze rolling in at the tail end of practice. Even thought the weather was improved from the day before, that didn't mean the play of the quarterbacks as a whole improved.
The Talk: Much of the talk during practice was about quarterback Blaine Gabbert, who fumbled multiple snaps on the day and overall had a rough go of it. Gabbert had some nice passes here or there, but for the most part held the ball and was erratic, especially in 11-v-11 drills. In his first eight plays in team drills, Gabbert had two fumbled snaps, a sack fumble, and threw an interception.
Later on in the two-minute drill, Gabbert led a 14-play drive that wound up stalling out at the end. About halfway through he was sacked by Pannel Egboh, who beat Cameron Bradfield inside, and then saw a pass to the center of the field to Isaiah Stanback broken up by newcomer Ray Polk. Rookie safety Josh Evans also had a diving breakup of what looked like a Gabbert touchdown pass and then Toney Clemons dropped a touchdown in the back of the endzone. The drill ended with heavy pressure from Paul Hazel forcing Gabbert to roll out and see Marcus Trufant breakup his pass.
Chad Henne improved from the previous day, but overall was still very up and down. Henne had a nice two-minute drive, but it stalled out at the end. Initially it was just some checkdowns, but Henne hit Mike Brown over the middle on an intermediate route to put the team in the redzone, but the drive ultimately ended in what looked like a touchdown to Brown in the back of the endzone, but the referee threw his hat on the ground signaling the receiver went out of bounds and was ineligible.
A few plays later Henne was picked off by Geno Hayes in 7-v-7 drills on an ill-advised pass over the middle.
The injured: Outside of the usual suspects on the PUP list, the only other player who didn't practice was Jeremy Ebert, who went down hard on Friday. The Jaguars say Ebert doesn't have a concussion and after practice he told Ryan O'Halloran he felt fine and wasn't in the concussion program.
The depth chart: The Jaguars shuffled it up with the offense on Saturday, often running Mike Brown and Ace Sanders in the slot with the first team. The biggest shakeup however was with the quarterbacks, as we saw both Henne and Gabbert split time with the first and second team. Matt Scott had some snaps with the second team as well, but didn't really do anything note worthy good or bad.
Jeremy Mincey seemed to get a lot more snaps with the first team on Saturday than he did on Friday, both at defensive end and defensive tackle in pass rushing situations. Pannel Egboh seemed to be rotating in a lot, getting some pressure, albeit without pads.
Denard Robinson seemed to get quite a few snaps with the first team as well, predominantly at the running back position, but still struggles to consistently catch the football. It's still not natural to him, but with handoffs he still looks like an explosive athlete.
The standouts: Rookie wide receiver Ace Sanders certainly looks the part of an NFL slot receiver, show good hands and explosiveness on the short routes and wide receiver screens. Newly claimed Ray Polk also had a nice day in practice, especially in coverage. On a deeper route to the tight end Polk had his man blanketed down the football field, drawing the praises of defensive coordinator Bob Babich after the play.
Dwayne Gratz continues to look good in practice, looking smooth transitioning from press to running with the receiver and broke up a few passes. He's been the only player so far on the defense who's been able to hang with Cecil Shorts III, who had his first drop on Saturday during 7-v-7 drills.
Honorable mention: Eugene Monroe looks to be an excellent form, even though the team isn't in pads yet. Just his movement and footwork look great and he's been shadowing/shutting down most of the defensive ends he goes against in team drills.
Quotables:
"Yeah you know what, he did some good things but those things are all under our control. Whether it’s the center or the quarterback or whatever the case, I think that’s just great teaching tape for our team to say alright here’s what happened, it’s not acceptable, we don’t like it, and we’re not going to tolerate it, but let’s get it corrected. Our guys are professionals and I think they’ll demonstrate that and then we will get it corrected, so it’s good."
-Gus Bradley on Blaine Gabbert's fumbles.