JACKSONVILLE – Let's get to it …
JK from NY and Fernandina Beach, FL
John. Now that you have had the opportunity to watch grown men play catch, run in circles and hit tackling dummies for a couple of days, how are the vibes? Still good?
Jaguars 2025 organized team activities – read: grown men playing catch, running in circles and hitting tackling dummies – are ongoing at the Miller Electric Center, with a week and a half or so completed and a week and a half or so remaining before a mid-June minicamp that will end the '25 offseason program. The vibes that have been so good around the organization throughout this offseason indeed remain good – and while that's expected because very little happens in OTAs to make good vibes go bad, just because something's expected doesn't make it unimportant. The Jaguars' receivers look good, quick and explosive. Rookie wide receiver/defensive back Travis Hunter, the No. 2 overall selection in the 2025 NFL Draft, is bringing the expected energy and accompanying organizational lift. Head Coach Liam Coen and largely new staff are installing new offenses and defenses. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence appears back to health after finishing last season on injured reserve and undergoing December surgery on his left – non-throwing – shoulder. Executive Vice President of Football Operations Tony Boselli and General Manager James Gladstone are hanging out and looking cool on the sidelines in team garb, seeing the pad-less results of offseason planning and drafting and signing. All are cool storylines. There are other cool storylines that will clarify themselves as padded work begins in 2025 Training Camp. But for now, as expected, all is right at the MEC. Go Jaguars.
Kei from Kitakyushu, Japan
Asking for a friend: Does the Jags not picking up the fifth-year option for Devin Lloyd preclude them from handing him an extension at some point during the upcoming season? Would that even be allowed under the CBA/salary cap rules?
Tell your friend there are no preclusions to be seen here. The Jaguars indeed did not pick up linebacker Devin Lloyd's fifth-year option for the 2026 season. While many observers believe a team has given up on a player when this happens, this is not automatically the case. While the rookie contract Lloyd signed after the Jaguars selected him No. 27 overall in the 2022 NFL Draft is now set to expire at the start of the 2026 NFL League Year, there is nothing in the NFL's Collective Bargaining Agreement/salary cap rules preventing him from re-signing with the team. The Jaguars can re-sign him any time between now and the '26 league year if the sides so desire.
Kenneth from Jacksonville
What is it, exactly, you think you're doing?
Upon reflection, I confess I have no idea.
Paul from Jacksonville
I see Travis Hunter has worked every day with the offense. Why are you trying to sell us that he's going to play offense and defense?
I have received a striking number of versions of this question since the '25 draft. My only assumption is a striking number of people aren't paying attention. This isn't a mystery. This isn't a lingering unknown. Hunter is going to play offense and defense next season. I have no idea if he will succeed or fail, but he's playing both.
Joe from Jacksonville
This was a trending topic on X (formerly Twitter), ranking the top helmets in the NFL. Jaguars aside, who's your top 5?
Loyal O-Zone readers – and he knows who he is – know that helmets and uniforms aren't quiiiiite the passion subject for me as they are some fans. If I have favorites here, I lean toward the traditional. I like the original Tampa Bay Buccaneers helmet, the one-year "R" yellow helmet for the old Washington football team and the old Rams logo when it was white and blue. I also like the old "NY" Giants helmet as well as the old Houston Oilers helmet when it was silver. As for current helmets, I'll lean into tradition as well. Let's go with the Arizona Cardinals, Green Bay Packers, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs. I'm probably leaving a few I like out. I'll live with the omission.
Sam from Orlando, FL
Many seem to forget that the 90s box-office smash hit Tombstone was originally a Eugene "Huckleberry" Frenette bio pic before he demanded that he play every single role in the movie.
People do forget this, but people overlook a lot when it comes to former longtime Florida Times-Union sports columnist and Northeast Florida cultural icon/thought leader Eugene P. "Gene" Frenette. For example, it's also easy to forget that Prince originally cast Gene and his band – Clean Gene and the Dancing Jean Kings – as the "villain band" in the 1984 Classic Purple Rain. The nod eventually went to Morris Day and the Time, but this was because Clean Gene and the Dancing Kings were headlining the Clean Gene and the Dancing Kings Megatour that summer with supporting acts Bruce Springsteen and the E. Street Band, Madonna and U2.
Bradley from Sparks, NV
You have been through several regimes during your career as team affiliated media. Do different regimes have different expectations from you and staff or are all team affiliated media across the league regulated by the NFL?
Team-affiliated media isn't regulated by the NFL, though there are times such as around free agency when league rules preclude sites from officially reporting on certain transactions until they are made official. The tone of team-media coverage therefore does vary from team to team, and it can depend somewhat on the regime currently in place. It also from my experience has varied depending on the era. When I worked for the Indianapolis Colts, for example, it was the very beginning of teams having their own "media." Colts management during the time I covered the team – from 2001-2011 – was very conservative, and my role therefore was more reporter and less analyst. The Jaguars from the time I arrived in 2011 have leaned far more toward being transparent, taking the philosophy that the website and media are a way for fans to connect with the team. The team therefore has allowed me and my colleagues far more room to analyze and be transparent than is the case with many NFL organizations.
David from The Island
The Philadelphia Eagles have easily one of the best defensive line groups in the NFL. They're all really big men. The Jags are talking about a lot about the defensive line players being lighter and looking leaner. I prefer to be a copycat on this issue. Do the Jags have it right?
There's not a "right" or "wrong" here as much as what feels right. Many Jaguars defenders gained weight last offseason to play in then-defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen's scheme. Players such as defensive ends Travon Walker and Josh Hines-Allen and linebacker Devin Lloyd are notably leaner this offseason as they are back to the weight at which they feel comfortable – and that feels a lot more right than it does wrong.
Bryan from Rip City
Yo Grizz! Since it's always coaching in the NFL, and there are only 32 jobs available, why do coaches not take better advantage to ingratiate themselves to communities? It seems we have had a few (not nice to name names) who have made zero effort to embrace the fans, start foundations and press the flesh. Is Coen spending some time connecting outside the building and building relationships?
This varies from head coach to head coach, but many NFL head coaches I've been around have chosen to focus first on the job at hand – i.e., winning – before embracing fans, starting foundations and pressing flesh. I remember discussing this with then-Head Coach Tom Coughlin early in his Jaguars tenure. This was the mid-1990s and – though Coughlin was in the beginning stages of establishing his charitable organization, The Jay Fund – he hadn't really emphasized appearances or being embraced by the community at that time. His reasoning was something to the effect that he was going to get fired if he lost and that all the embracing of the community wasn't going to change that. I wondered about that at the time and it made more sense as time passed. Not everyone approaches life the same way. If a coach is comfortable pressing flesh, being embraced and starting foundations, he should do it. But the job of a professional football coach is to win. If you don't, very few people are going to want to press your flesh anyway.
Rusty from New Iberia, La
I decided to give Letterkenny a shot after you spoke so highly of it. What did I just watch? I could barely get through the first episode. Is it one of those series that you have to give two or three seasons to really get into it? If so, count me out.
Not everything is for everyone. You either get it or you don't. Not my pig, not my farm.
