“I’ve seen a guy that’s working hard, getting better everyday. You may want to come in and be in mid-season form the first day of camp, but it rarely happens. The commitment is there. The work ethic is there. I want our guys to get better inch by inch, a little bit each day and not try to be a complete a team on day one. We’re going to work hard. We’re going to be better. We’re going to demand excellence, but it’s a process and everybody needs to have a little patience in terms of working through things and getting a little better.”

Maybe it’s just rust, or how the defense knows what’s coming, but for the Jaguars to be competitive, Byron Leftwich has to be at the top of his game. He has to be ahead of where a normal second year quarterback would be. Without speed or a quick release, Leftwich has to rely on his quick decision making and knowledge of the game to get ahead of the defense. His play in the pre-season games will give a better gauge of where he is.

A couple of players have looked impressive in the first 5 days of practice. Fred Taylor looks quick as ever, and fast. Even Del Rio has commented that it would be hard to top how good Taylor was last year but if he is “that would really be saying something.” Juran Bolden also looks solid as a free-agent pick up at corner back. With some legal troubles on his resume, Bolden was considered damaged goods by many NFL teams, but the Jaguars have taken a chance on him, and so far it’s paid off. He’s also big by cornerback standards in the league, something Del Rio and the defensive coaches were looking for when they moved Rasheen Mathis to corner and got rid of Fernando Bryant. “Then you’re looking at Rashean (Mathis) and whether it’s Dewayne (Washington) or Juran (Bolden) running down the field. As a quarterback, you can’t just throw it up and think that your receiver is going to jump up and come up with the ball. Those guys are big, long fast guys and they’re going to win a lot of those jump balls.”

The team and the coaching staff are looking forward to the scrimmage on Friday and the mock game on Saturday. They might sound like the same thing, but they’ll accomplish two different goals. The scrimmage and the mock game will be in the stadium. The scrimmage is a full-pad tackling practice session. The mock game is really a dress rehearsal for the coaches and the players to understand how we do things on game. We’ll come, have the National Anthem, warm-up, the whole bit. The coaches will be in the box and we’ll work on mechanics, so it’s more of a dress rehearsal at a game. Referees will be there. Just all the mechanics we have to iron out so that when we go down to Miami, it won’t be the first time going through those mechanics.”