JACKSONVILLE – Let's get to it …

Michael from the Mean Streets of Arlington

I can't wait until July 25. The poor dead horse is stinking up the place.

I expect you will have to wait a few more days than perhaps you anticipate for the stink to abate. Jaguars 2026 Training Camp begins July 28 at the Miller Electric Center, with rookies and quarterbacks reporting July 25. Those first few days after rookies/quarterbacks report remain a bit slow in terms of news and "stuff," and the first few practices after that remain non-padded, so what we here in the O-Zone call the dead zone usually drifts into the first few days or so of training camp. After that, I expect there still will be a stench around here. It just won't be from the horse.

Bradley from Death Valley, CA

I have seen relatively few NFL games in person compared to someone like you, so the best "live" performance I have witnessed is easy. It was prime Randy Moss. He had gaudy stats that game, but I remember just being stunned how it looked as if he was playing for fun against high school kids. What is the best or most dominant in-person performance you have witnessed?

I, too, witnessed "prime" Randy Moss in person – and while I didn't exactly think he looked like he was playing against high school kids, he was damned impressive physically. And he was one of the best wide receivers I have seen. Other players I have covered who stand out as just being better than the guys they are playing against at the NFL level: Colts safety Bob Sanders and former Jaguars left tackle Tony Boselli. Boselli not only beat opponents, he dominated them – and he is correctly in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Sanders played just two fully healthy seasons and in his last healthy season – 2007 – he was the Associated Press NFL Defensive Player of the Year. He was a first-team All-Pro selection in the other, 2005. Had he remained healthy, I believe he would have been a Hall of Famer and one of the best safeties in league history.

Cerge from Middleburg

Zone, I appreciate the feedback on Jaguars rookie running back J'Mari Taylor. Yes, everyone looks like a superstar with no pads on! I bet you could find the end zone through the A gap with no pads on (Vegas odds -100). I will follow up after Preseason Week 1!! ... DUUUUVVVAAAALL!

I could not find the end zone through the A Gap with no pads on.

Scott from Jacksonville

Wow, still so much complaining about Coen's decision to go for it against the Bills. Personally, I would have taken the three points, but let's face facts: The play WORKED. If Trevor doesn't brush his knee across the grass when he was diving forward, he has the first down easily. Trevor's fault, not Liam's. I love both of them, but I felt like Coach needed a break.

The discussion about Jaguars Head Coach Liam Coen's decision to go for a first down on fourth-and-2 from the Buffalo Bills 9-yard line in a 27-24 loss to the Bills in an AFC Divisional Playoff this past January indeed seems never-ending, but I don't know that that's all that surprising. Not only did the Jaguars failed to convert that second-quarter play when quarterback Trevor Lawrence's knee – as you noted – brushed the ground, but it was close enough that the Jaguars were awarded a first down until officials reviewed the play. The Bills also took a 10-7 lead when they drove for a touchdown on the ensuing possession. Such game-turning moments are going to get analyzed and criticized, particularly when they occur in postseason losses. Who's "fault" was the play's failure? I suppose it was Lawrence's, if that's how you insist on see it. You could also make an argument that there were nearly three quarters remaining. The defense could have stopped the Bills on the ensuing series. Many players could have made many plays in many big moments in the second half. Bottom line: Professional football is a game of moments and inches. The Jaguars were inches short in one memorable moment, but there many more inches and moments that mattered just as much that day.

Dakota from Dupree, SD

Zone, how many weights are in the weight room?

Plenty.

Marlin from Newberry, FL

Hi, Zone. All this talk about the fourth-down conversion against the Bills in the Wild Card round of the playoffs last year is moot. That game wasn't lost until Trevor Lawrence threw a fourth quarter interception to a well-covered wide receiver Jakobi Meyers with 54 seconds still on the clock. Lawrence and the Jaguars had the chance to win the game, they had the ball on the final possession and plenty of time to score and were only down by three – at the very least they should have tied the game up and sent it into overtime. Lawrence has had come-from-behind-last-minute wins before – Kansas City last year being one of the most memorable – but in this playoff game, they failed at crunch time. It happens, though hopefully not that often go forward. Mandatory included question: What's your favorite color? Only one more week before this dead-zone madness ends.

Sometimes you eat the bear. Sometimes the bear eats you. I don't really have a favorite color. I kind of never understood people who did.

Brandon from Yulee

Hey, KOAF. Love your writing and am writing in for the first time. The "fourth-down" issue has been done to death, but I would like to comment on it. It seems very much like a seen-versus-unseen problem, where people will very much remember the "momentum swing" after not gaining any points but not how good the momentum of the match would have been with a 14-3 lead. People also remember failed fourth downs, but not successful ones (I remember you once very helpfully listed a few from the regular season that helped the Jags win those games). I get why people don't like it, but I might be in the minority on generally getting fourth-down attempts. Probability theory has all sorts of unintuitive results (Google "Monty Hall Problem") and this seems like exactly one of those situations!

This is unquestionably at the heart of the discussion, just as it is unquestionably true that the idea of going for it in that situation was to capture the momentum – and scoreboard advantage – of an 11-point lead at that point. Would scoring there have ended the game? Of course not. Would it have put a lot of pressure on the Bills and changed playcalling on both sides? We will never know, but maybe. What we do know is that the biggest unquestionable truth in the discussion is that no one forgets the failed attempts and no one remembers the successful ones. People criticize the failures and forget the successes. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.

Kenneth from Jacksonville

Who's the best player in Jaguars history to don No. 77?

Many down, not as many to go. Possibilities here include guard Uche Nwaneri (2007-2013), right tackle Anton Harrison (2023-present) and guard Zach Wiegart (1999-2002). We will go with Harrison here, with a serious nod to Nwaneri – a really good guy gone far too soon.

Cliff from West of the Fields

Apparently it is called the "Dead Zone" because I would rather be dead than read one more analysis of fourth-and-2.

Fair.

Bruce from St. Simons Island

O, ANOTHER Dead Zone comment regarding the endless discussion of the last loss for the Jags. In my opinion, I support "going for it." However, when you commented that stopping the Jags gave the Bills "some momentum," I believe that any time a NFL team stops another NFL team on a fourth down it gives that team more than "some momentum." As regards the design of the Jags new stadium and the concerns for the heat, the new design does appear to be "cool."

My team is on the floor.

Nathan from Duval then, Sacramento now

Hunting around. That is what I was doing the other night. I'm of the MTV Generation when they would play music videos all day, every day – and when your rich friend with cable would invite you over, that's what you did! You watched music videos. But when I was hunting around for music, I stumbled across this really obscure video by the Jaguars. It was cool. Not quite Magic by the Cars music video cool, but it was cool.

I wasn't rich, but I did spend hours sliding the button on the brown Cablevision box to 33. This was long before the Jaguars, but right when Heat of the Moment by Asia was the coolest damned video on MTV. And of course the Jaguars' video wasn't as cool as the Cars' Magic video. The Cars' Magic video had Ric Ocasek walking on water. You don't outcool Ric Ocasek walking on water.