A “Speed” Friday For The Jaguars

It was a bit of a different Friday for the Jaguars as they finish up their preparations to play the Tennessee Titans in Nashville on Sunday. Usually Friday is a walk-thru, instructional and very coach oriented. Instead, Head Coach Gus Bradley said the team addressed some specific things they saw in the game against San Diego, especially in the red zone.

“We went out there and did some live reps with it against the defense so really tried to address in a different manner some of the things that have popped up,” Bradley said. “We’ve still got another day of preparation.”

In analyzing the specifics of what’s going wrong both on offense and defense inside the 20, Bradley said first down is pretty good but second and third down are a problem, so they’re trying to simulate that as best they can.

“Defense played their package offense there and got some extra reps in different situations that way,” he explained. “We played more at the speed of the game rather than a walk-through mode.”

Without any practice time this week, Allen Hurns has been declared out of Sunday’s game. Hurns continues in the NFL’s concussion protocol, a very specific program put into place to determine whether a player is ready to get back in the game or not. Hurns won’t play this week and there’s no guarantee he’ll be back in the lineup next Sunday either.

“It’s more steps, not days,” Bradley related. “It’s like five steps that they have to go through and I think some people automatically assume that’s five days. There are some instances depending on independent neurologists that step one and two can be done the same day.”

And sometimes it takes longer so there’s no timetable set for a player’s return to the lineup.

With Hurns out, Marqise Lee has gotten a majority of the reps in practice in his spot with Rashad Greene also seeing more time with the first team offense. Bradley hopes Lee and quarterback Blake Bortles are getting some chemistry through practice.

“For him (Lee) the amount of reps he’s gotten is always good. You see guys like Julius and Blake the last couple of weeks have gone off on their own and worked on some timing things and you’re seeing the same things as Blake and Marqise. That’s a work in progress but it continues to be improving.”

Bradley doesn’t think Greene’s increased role on offense will impact his availability on special teams.

“We really like Rashad. I think that him coming back from his injury and he gives us something that we don’t have; the suddenness that he has.”