Ahead of the Denver Broncos’ Week 8 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, we asked Adam Stites of Jags Wire five questions about Jacksonville and their overseas showdown with the Broncos.
Check out our questions and Adam’s answers below!
1) Trevor Lawrence has faced a lot of adversity since being drafted No. 1 overall in 2021. Are Jags fans concerned about him?
Cooler heads know that Lawrence’s rookie season never had much of a chance of being successful with Urban Meyer at the helm. And it’s impossible to ignore the progress he’s made in year two under Doug Pederson. However, there’s no doubt that a growing amount of Jaguars fans are getting impatient with Lawrence’s growth — or lack thereof. The Jaguars hardly ever connect on deep balls (the receivers are a huge part of the problem there), and Lawrence has missed on way too many throws that should’ve been touchdowns. There’s zero chance the Jaguars move on from Lawrence any time soon, but fans definitely want to start seeing his development actually yield wins.
2) Let's stick with Lawrence. He's passed for over 240 yards per game so far in 2022. The Broncos are coming off a week where Jets quarterback Zach Wilson passed for 121 yards. What's the strategy going into Week 8?
The Jaguars’ offensive game plans under Doug Pederson haven’t varied much. The team will probably pass the ball about 60-70 percent of the time and it’ll lean on short and intermediate passing to move the chains with very few attempts 25+ yards downfield. Even when Travis Etienne was averaging over 8.0 yards per carry against the NFL’s worst rush defense last week, that was still the offensive formula.
3) The Jaguars just traded James Robinson to the New York Jets. Will the run game suffer because of that loss? How much will the loss affect it?
If you asked me a few weeks ago, I would’ve said it’d be a huge deal. But given the way Robinson was being phased out, it doesn’t seem like he was really that much of a fit in Pederson’s offense. Robinson was at his best when he was given 20+ carries to grind at a team with powerful running between the tackles. Right now, the Jaguars are much more interested in working in space and Etienne fits that game plan much better. Last week, Robinson had zero touches and that was probably going to be a trend that continued.
4) The Jaguars' defense is near the bottom of the league in sacks (according to Pro Football Reference) with 11 total though 7 games. Are you concerned with how much pressure they will be able to put on Russell Wilson?
The pressure hasn’t been great, but the Jaguars’ recent issues with generating pressure has had a lot more to do with their struggles against the run and recent opponents realizing they can attack the defense with quick passes to the middle of the field. An otherwise terrible Colts offense had their best day this season when Matt Ryan just hit crossing routes over and over against a Jaguars defense that couldn’t figure it out. The Giants did some of the same and Daniel Jones kept eluding pressure with his legs. If Jacksonville can actually force the Broncos receivers to work to get open, the pressure should have a lot more success than it has as of late.
5) Since the Jaguars have played quite a few games in London in the past few years, do you think there is a certain advantage to be gained from travelling across the pond more than just once a year?
It’d make sense if players who have made the London trip in the past had a good idea about how to handle what comes with the long flight and the time change. The issue is that there are so few Jaguars players who have been on the team long enough to accrue much experience with that challenge. One of their only three wins last year came in London, but the Jaguars had a different head coach and didn’t have Travis Etienne, Christian Kirk, Zay Jones, Travon Walker, Devin Lloyd, among several other key contributors. Maybe it’ll help that Trevor Lawrence has some experience in that department, but I’m not sure there’s enough on the roster to call it much of an advantage.
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