JACKSONVILLE – Let's get to it …
Kenneth from Orange Park, FL
Are we there yet?
My Scooby Sense – and not my Scobee Sense – tells me you're asking if we're near the end of the dead zone and the corresponding start of 2025 Training Camp yet. Or maybe you're being clever and mimicking what kids say in the backseat during long trips. If it's the latter … clever on you, I suppose. If it's the former … we're almost there. This Monday O-Zone essentially begins the last week of the so-called "Dead Zone" – and early next week I expect the inbox will be joyfully stuffed with cheery, optimistic emails about how great the Jaguars are doing and how people love 'ol yours truly. Or maybe it won't be that. And maybe it will be the opposite and I will be reminded of my obvious shortcomings. Either way, we're absolutely almost there. On with the week.
Hooks from Orange Park, FL
I was watching old clips of my favorite all-time player, Ronnie Lott (what a beast). I miss how menacing and huge those old-school pads were. They made already large men look like giants, and the hits were so much more intense. You could hear and practically feel the whacks from your couch at home. Why did they shrink down to these little coffee filters they put over their knees and shoulders? It seems to me that might be the reason there are so many more season-ending injuries?
"New-school pads" indeed are smaller than "old-school pads," which is part of the reason "old-school" games from the 1980s and even the 1990s look so much different than today's games. Yes, the game is more about speed now than it was then, but the bulkiness does make the old-school games look slower. Somewhere therein lies the reason for a general shrinking down of pads over the years – that most NFL players value speed and agility above all else. They therefore lean toward smaller and smaller pads – anything for the slightest edge. But while pads indeed are smaller these days, I don't know that that trend has caused more season-ending injuries – if there indeed are actually more season-ending injuries these days. Players always have sustained serious injuries in this violent, physical game. Remember, too: Many season-ending injuries are ligaments and twists and the like – and not the type that heavier padding can prevent.
Sean from Oakleaf, FL
Recently, a single-pro-sport small-market team won the NBA Championship (Oklahoma Thunder). Some of your readers may have noticed how enthusiastic the Thunder fans were during their team's run. It got me thinking how fortunate our city is to have the Jaguars as our lone major sports team. With all the leadership changes to our team and the Travis Hunter selection, I think this season has a chance to be special.
Plenty of people around the Jaguars think so, too. It's just as true that many players, coaches and officials on many NFL teams believe the same about their teams. We'll see what the season brings, I suppose.
Charles from Riverside
Hello, John. Brian Sexton comment on Liam Coen and the running game: "… took a unit that was bottom five in the NFL in 2023 and made them top five in 2024." Pause for a sec. Does a new head coach implement his full-blown offensive plan Day One? Or does it take time to unfold? And if so, does a major concentration on the running game help keep you competitive as the total offensive plan reaches maturity?
You're referencing a recent installment of "Final Analysis" on jaguars.com, one in which we "experts" broke down key Jaguars storylines as the 2025 regular-season approaches. My oh-so esteemed colleague, Brian Sexton, discussed the running game – the implementation and improvement of which indeed is a key storyline entering the 2025 season. He correctly noted that this area must improve. As for the timeframe for the area to show improvement … there are no guarantees or tried-and-true templates here. Head Coach Liam Coen will install the offense and the Jaguars will run it. When doing this as offensive coordinator with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last season, Coen needed to adapt the running game during the season – and the Buccaneers improved dramatically and became one of the NFL's best running offenses. Maybe it will take time for the Jaguars to improve thusly. Maybe they won't quite get there. What the Jaguars will do is all they can do – work to improve this area, and keep working through the circumstances they face. My thought is they will improve there because that's a focus – and when you focus fully as the Jaguars have done, you have a chance to make desired improvement. We'll see if that happens. Stay tuned.
OseeOlaa from Tell a Hussy, Florida
Hay Jon kin you till me wat es you Faver playor is? Think Yoo
Try again.
Jeff from Grass Valley Ca
Getting information about clouds. Now that's more like the dead zone! Time for some real football.
Jaguars 2025 Training Camp begins next week with players scheduled to report Tuesday and practices to begin Wednesday.
Senator Blutarsky from Delta House
Your movie list is incomplete
As is any such list.
Al from Orange Park, FL
Jerry Kramer's books were an influence on my young life, leading me to play guard on high school. But, from that era, did you read Fran Tarkenton's "Better to Scramble Than to Lose?" A man ahead of his time.
I actually read "Better to Scramble Than to Lose," which means the library at St. Andrews Episcopal Day School over on Lone Star Road probably didn't have it. It meant the old one-story library a block or two from Regency Mall probably didn't, either. It also probably meant none of my parents' friends had it, either. There was no Amazon in those days. You read what was in your world, and the world was simpler and smaller. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Peter from Tallahassee, FL
In the mid-1960s my Dad and I attended the Orange Blossom Classic in the Gator Bowl.
OK.
Scott from Aruba
Jags are on the Madden cover? Uh oh. Curse time?
The Jaguars are kinda sorta on the Madden 2026 Cover – in a blacked-out, forgettable, overshadowed sort of way. Which is sorta kinda like not being on the Madden Cover at all. The curse needn't apply here.
Steven from Nocatee
Fun "Dead Zone" fact for the day: There's a lake inside a volcano inside a lake in the Philippines.
Damn right.
David from The Island
Kinda wanna know what I should hope for. Is it better to go a mostly miserable 4-13 or go 15-2 and get run out of your building in the playoffs? One is long and painful but the other one rips your heart out.
Loyal O-Zone readers – and he knows who he is – still know I lean away from counseling readers about the best places to place their hopes. The feelings of fans – like the feelings of normal people – will feel what they feel, and they will hope for whatever they like. But from this view, this is an easy answer. It's much better to finish 15-2 – or anything that gets you in the postseason. That's the measure of success. Those are the sign posts. Sure, it hurts to lose in the postseason. But it's better to get to the postseason and lose miserably than to never qualify for the "tournament" and therefore never have a chance to win and keep winning. Amanda Amismova of the United States lost 6-0, 6-0, to Iga Swiatek of Poland in the Ladies' Final at Wimbledon Saturday. Anismova beat the No. 1 player in the world, Aryna Sabelenka, in the semifinal to qualify for the final. Would some people rather have not made the final and not risk being beaten badly on the sport's biggest stage? Sure. I wouldn't want those people on my team. I say it's better to give yourself a chance and lose big than to never have the chance at all. Every time.
Brad from the Avenues
John, I'm hoping you can help me with something. I've been having this recurring dream. It starts when we clone Boselli times five 5 and use them to fill out the offensive line. This not only gives quarterback Trevor Lawrence all the time in the world to hit his targets but also opens up massive holes for the running game. Then things change and it's me at quarterback taking snaps from my recliner, casually handing the ball off and flipping completions like bottle caps. All this while the Culligan girl stands next to me holding my drink. At this point I look up at her, she smiles, closes her eyes, puckers up and starts to lean in. So here's my question. WHY THE HELL DO I ALWAYS WAKE UP JUST WHEN THE DREAM IS GETTING GOOD???
Because.
Scott from Aruba
Have you ever been in the pools at the Bank?
No one wants that.
