Allen Hurns: ‘Last year wasn’t up to my standard at all’

A few months after Allen Hurns went for over 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns, the Jacksonville Jaguars handed him a 4-year, $40 million contract extension — a modest amount of money for your No. 2 guy.

And then he went for 477 yards and three touchdowns in 11 games played, five missed due to injury.

Hurns is the first to admit that last season wasn’t just not good, it was unacceptable.

“It starts with me,” Hurns said after practice on Thursday night. “I have to improve. I know, last year wasn’t up to my standard at all. The way I played, I had drops, I wasn’t available six games and things like that. For the most part, just control what I can: be available and make plays when it comes my way. Make plays. For the most part, we can learn from each other. Just get on the same page and be consistent with what we have to do.”

Even though it’s just OTA practices, Hurns notices a few small differences with how quarterback Blake Bortles is throwing the ball.

“As far as when he came, we saw some differences in how the ball was coming out,” Hurns said. “The timing of things. You’re coming out of your break, the ball is there. You just saw this offseason, it goes back to the same thing with me and Allen Robinson. We didn’t have the year that we wanted, but we’re all guys that are going to put in the work and come back ready to roll.”

While I’m glad that Hurns — like Bortles — is at a point where he can take responsibility for poor individual and team play, I’m ready for a talented receiver to consistently play up to the skill he has. We’ll see what happens when the players get a coaching staff headed up by someone other than Gus Bradley.