The Jacksonville Jaguars had their annual scrimmage on Friday evening in EverBank Field, which drew over a reported 27,000 fans, which is the new scrimmage attendance record, I believe. It was a worthwhile night to go as well, given it felt like it was going to storm the whole evening, so it was nicer outside and not as oppressively hot.
Fans who did go were treated with some good and bad from the Jaguars, I would lean towards mostly good. There were a few players who stood out in a good way and carried over their hype from training camp to the scrimmage and will hopefully carry it to the preseason and regular season.
The Good
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention straight away that Dante Fowler, Jr. looked like the real deal in the scrimmage. He was disruptive in the backfield almost immediately and throughout the night. He would have had a couple of sacks and many more pressures. He doesn't rush pretty with the typical dip and bend around the edge, but he rushes violent and creates havoc. Fowler has been hyped all training camp and he showed why on Friday evening. My stance on Fowler was optimistically cautious, being he's essentially still a rookie, but last night pushed me off cautious a bit and more towards expecting him to be an impact player Year 1.
— made by tim (@MadeByTim) August 6, 2016
Blake Bortles looked like Blake Bortles on Friday night, so good for the most part. He started out the scrimmage going 1-5 with some misses down the field to Julius Thomas and Allen Robinson, but he came on later and scored multiple touchdowns in both the air and with his feet. The touchdown above was just a beautiful throw, dropping the ball in the bucket over the top for a big touchdown. Kudos to Johnathan Cyprien too (who I thought had a good night), who had great coverage on Thomas, but you just can't cover that throw in stride.
The Bad
I want to say this without causing panic, but the offensive line really wasn't all that good. The quarterbacks were harassed quite a bit and I don't think that was because the pass rush was just that good. The left side of the line struggled, which was to be expected because you had Josh Wells as the first team left tackle and Luke Joeckel in at guard. The team seemed to run the ball well enough, but the pass blocking needs to significantly improve and hopefully it will with Kelvin Beachum when he's healthy, but they have to not let Blake get killed.
The Hanxed It
There were two players who were almost cringe worthy in Friday's scrimmage, well one of them was but at a different position than where they started. When Joeckel transitioned to left tackle on the third team offense late in the scrimmage, he was immediately put on roller skates by rookie fifth-round pick Tyrone Holmes. A few plays later Joeckel was straight up whipped on a speed rush by Bjoern Werner. Joeckel didn't really do anything memorable at left guard outside of tripped when he pulled on a run play, which overall is fine (that he wasn't noticeable) but at left tackle he seems to be a continued disaster from that final game of the season.
The other player who kind of Hanxed it was kicker Jason Myers. We talk entirely too much about kicking and punting as Jaguars fans and it seems Myers has decided to make that a continued talking point this offseason. He looked shaky with his kicks, missing a long one and nearly missing an extra point... The new kicker the team brought in a few weeks ago looked great, though. He had strong kickoffs and drilled every kick he attempted. I didn't think he really had a chance to get cut this year, but if this continues in the preseason he just might.
What did you think of the scrimmage? Who was your good, bad, and hanxed it?