JACKSONVILLE – Darrell Bevell answered succinctly and tellingly.
The topic was rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence. Bevell, the Jaguars' offensive coordinator, was speaking Thursday – moments after a second consecutive impressive performance by Lawrence to start Jaguars 2021 Training Camp at the Dream Finders Homes Practice Complex.
How did Lawrence look? Bevell was asked.
"He's looking good," Bevell said.
Bevell didn't overemphasize Lawrence Thursday. And Bevell, in his first season as the Jaguars' offensive coordinator, covered many topics other than the player the Jaguars selected No. 1 overall in the 2021 NFL Draft last March.
But Lawrence, who took extensive repetitions with the first team Wednesday with the Jaguars not yet naming a starting quarterback, was impressive – and he therefore was the first topic of Bevell's first '21 camp availability.
"We're really pleased with where he's at in terms of preparation, and being able to carry that over to the field," Bevell said. "We'll continue to work each and every day."
Bevell said he has been impressed during the first two days of camp with more than just Lawrence.
"I actually told all the offensive skill guys [Thursday] that the retention has been really good for Day 1," Bevell said. "When you take that big break, those four or five weeks (between the end of the offseason program and start of training camp), a lot of times those guys shut the books and they come back and they're dusting it off and they're rusty.
"Our guys came back [Wednesday], and it was a really sharp practice for the first day. So, all of them have done a nice job. There were a couple of things [Thursday], but for the most part they were really dialed in."
Bevell, who spent 2011-2017 as the offensive coordinator of the Seattle Seahawks and who was the coordinator in Detroit the past two seasons, was asked about Lawrence working with many of his receivers at Clemson – where he played collegiately – between the end of the offseason program and training camp.
"You love that stuff," Bevell said. "That's good stuff. That's where the camaraderie starts. That's where you finetune some things. There are lines in a book, what we do, but there are nuances of some of it. Each guy has different nuances. When you're able to spend that extra time, you learn that.
"You can read body language and you know how a guy's going to come out of a break by the way he's going into it. That's the stuff they're getting done there."
NOTABLE I
Running-back depth was a topic at training camp Thursday – and last year's starter, James Robinson, said a deeper rotation at the position could help significantly. "They always talk about fresh legs coming out, and I know that once the season comes having those fresh legs is going to help out a lot," he said. Robinson rushed for 1,070 yards and seven touchdowns while starting 14 games as a rookie last season, but also rushed 240 times compared to 32 for Dare Ogunbowale – who had the second-most carries on the team. That difference figures to be significantly less this season, with the Jaguars signing veteran Carlos Hyde as an unrestricted free agent in March and selecting Travis Etienne No. 25 overall in the 2021 NFL Draft. "That's what we need," Bevell said. "I feel like this game is built that way, and I know [Head] Coach [Urban] Meyer believes that – that you run the ball first. We want to be able to exert our will on the opponent and it helps us do other things in the pass game. To have a number of backs back there – and there are a lot of backs who are looking really good – is better for us." Bevell added of Robinson: "We obviously love what he can do with the ball in his hands and he's going to get his fair share of doing it."
QUOTABLE
Bevell on Meyer's commitment to sports performance: "I've never seen the level of commitment to it as we have right now. He's committed and you can see all the commitment that we have out there to it. I really haven't seen a commitment [among players] in the offseason as much as we had. Guys were here. Guys were working. They weren't balking at anything. They were diving headfirst into it. … I think it's going to show out here.''
