Jaguars Cut Practice Short Due To Lightning
For the second day in a row the weather impacted the Jaguars practice. Lightning in the area forced the team to leave the practice field midway through their workout. They continued their practice indoors.
Tuesday’s session began with about 30 minutes of position drills and about 15 minutes of fundamentals work before the offense and defense formed up to work on inside running plays. Then roughly another 15 minutes of skeleton passing drills followed that. The team was about 10 minutes into pass protection drills when lightning was spotted near the practice fields.
Coach Jones said that the team finished most of its workout in with only two team periods missing from the end of the days schedule. The players went inside the fieldhouse and had meetings with their position coaches before a visit by Mobile Mayor Sam Jones.
Coach Jones remarked about cutting practice short by saying, “It’s a tough thing because we were having a great day. Yesterday wasn’t a very good day, but we responded and I thought we were having a great practice.”
However Coach Jones looked on the bright side of missing the remainder of practice due to the weather. “Sometimes it’s good when rain forces a coach to keep them off the field and save their legs,” he said. “They went into meetings and went through some things mentally, so we still got a lot out of it.”
The effort on Monday was not up to Coach Jones liking and he made it known after practice, however he was not disappointed with the players on Tuesday after he expected them to return to the field with more focus. “The intensity was back to normal, and when I say normal, it means a high intensity level. They came out ready to practice, and I figured they would because these kids have a lot to them.”
Coach Jones also mentioned that the teams preliminary depth chart, (view it here) which was released after Monday’s practice. He wants to have players on the field which gives the team the best shot at winning, regardless of where they are listed on the depth chart. He commented, “The way I look at playing time for these guys is if they show us they can win on the practice field, we’re going to find a way to get them on the field, whether they’re first, second or third string. If you’re on the depth chart and you’re number two, but you show us you can win for us, then we’re going to rotate you in the game, and the same goes for guys listed at number three. That depth chart is a little deceiving because if they prove to us that they can do it on the field, they’ll get out there.”
The Jaguars are scheduled to hit the practice field again on Wednesday at their new time, 3:30pm.