Hunter set for mostly cornerback snaps in Sunday's opener
Liam Coen confirms Travis Hunter's Week 1 workload leans toward cornerback, with an offensive package still to come, as Jacksonville opens Sunday against Cleveland.
Hunter's snaps for Sunday finally come into focus
John Shipley of SI.com reported Thursday that Hunter spent the final two weeks of training camp working primarily at cornerback, with only occasional wide receiver reps mixed in — writing that "the stage has been set for Travis Hunter's 2nd act, which looks like it will kick off first in the Jaguars' secondary." After a full camp of splitting reps between two positions, that is about as clear a signal as the club has sent about where his snaps actually go first against Cleveland.
The stage has been set for Travis Hunter's 2nd act, which looks like it will kick off first in the #Jaguars secondary t.co/R4ySQfI8Bl
Liam Coen isn't closing the door on offense, though. The coach told reporters this week that Jacksonville "will definitely have a package on offense to be able to get him some opportunities," adding that Hunter "is somebody we want to get the ball in his hands too." Read together, the plan looks like cornerback first and receiver in flashes — a real answer, finally, after months of wait-and-see.
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Preseason closes 2-1 as Little books a 61-yard bow
Jacksonville's exhibition slate is done, and it finished clean — a 19-0 shutout of Tampa Bay on August 28 that answered the 34-17 loss to Carolina the week before and closed the run at 2-1 in the preseason so far. It's still exhibition math, none of it touching the 0-0 regular-season record, but a shutout in the finale is about as good a note as August allows heading into a game that actually counts.
Buccaneers19-0
Panthers17-34
Saints24-20The signature moment belonged to Cam Little, who made his only field-goal attempt of the night from 61 yards out and didn't need an extra point behind a defense that pitched the shutout. It capped a preseason that opened with a 24-20 road win at New Orleans on August 15 — 3 games nobody will remember by October, but ones that plenty of roster spots on this team were decided inside of.
Allen's Week 1 outlook slips, Van Lanen's does not
The backfield picture got a little clearer this week, and not in the direction Jaguars fans wanted. Coen said he'd be "pleasantly surprised" if LeQuint Allen Jr. is ready to suit up against Cleveland, a notably more downbeat framing of the soft-tissue injury than the earlier game-time-decision language, per Michael DiRocco of ESPN.com. That leaves Chris Rodriguez Jr. and Ameer Abdullah as the two healthy backs on the roster, with Bhayshul Tuten still working through an illness that kept him off the practice field Wednesday, Ryan O'Halloran of The Florida Times-Union reports.
Elsewhere the news moved the other way. Brian Thomas Jr. and Jakobi Meyers were both full participants Wednesday with no non-contact jersey in sight, clearing the two biggest names at receiver for the opener. And right tackle Cole Van Lanen, who battled a knee injury through camp, "looked really good" doing one-on-ones against Jaguars pass rushers in the preseason, Coen said, per SI.com's Jaguar Report — one more piece of the Week 1 puzzle falling into place 4 days out.
This one gets decided up front before it gets decided anywhere else
Cleveland arrives with a retooled offensive line that projects as one of the shakiest units in the league, and it walks straight into Josh Hines-Allen and a Jaguars pass rush that has spent camp preparing for exactly this problem. Todd Monken's Browns named Deshaun Watson their Week 1 starter over Shedeur Sanders in late August, betting that a full, healthy offseason finally buys Cleveland the passing game it hasn't had in years — a bet the Jacksonville front seven gets to stress-test first. The Browns arrive off a 37-13 preseason win over New England and a 1-2 exhibition mark, which says more about roster fringes than about how a patched-together tackle group holds up on Sunday.
The line opened with Jacksonville favored by 7.5 points and the total set at 40.5 — a number that reads low-scoring on paper and lines up with a Cleveland offense breaking in new pieces up front behind Watson. That's the backdrop for Sunday afternoon vs. the Browns, the Jaguars' actual regular-season opener at EverBank Stadium, after 3 preseason games spent settling exactly the roster questions that will be tested for real this time.