By Hays Carlyon
The Jaguars offense should have been able to dominate the edge in Saturday night’s preseason opener against Cleveland at TIAA Bank Field.
The Browns were sitting standout defensive end Myles Garrett, as well as his counterpart on the other side Jadeveon Clowney.
The Jaguars were playing their starting offensive tackles in Cam Robinson and Jawaan Taylor.
They should’ve won this night.
Easily.
Instead, they both struggled. Rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence consistently felt the rush from both sides. He was sacked twice and was bothered by pressure off the edge on multiple occasions.
The Jaguars were also stuffed on a 4th-and-1 run, although left guard Ben Bartch (starting for injured Andrew Norwell) appeared to be the culprit.
The failures led to a shutout for the Jaguars starting offense.
Robinson and Taylor had appeared to be having good training camps through 13 practices. Now, there should be real concern as the regular-season opener at Houston on Sept. 12 looms.
First-year Jaguars coach Urban Meyer elected to retain offensive line coach George Warhop. The team then placed the franchise tag on Robinson, willing to pay him $13.7 million this season.
Taylor, who struggled in his second season after an encouraging rookie campaign, has remained entrenched at right tackle.
The Jaguars invested a second-round pick in Walker Little, who was been impressive since his arrival.
Meyer should start fast-tracking Little in practice to see if he’s ready to make a push for a starting spot.
Lawrence’s health is paramount to any chance the Jaguars have of making a substantial improvement after last season’s 1-15 disaster.
I’m worried about Lawrence making it through 17 games after watching Robinson and Taylor get beat by the Cleveland backups.
(You can email Hays at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @HaysCarlyon).
