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With free-agents and drafting of Brian Thomas, do the Jaguars have a wealth of WR riches?
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- With free-agents and drafting of Brian Thomas, do the Jaguars have a wealth of WR riches?
The Jacksonville Jaguars upgraded their wide receiver room as much if not more than any offensive position during the offseason with the signing of free agents Gabe Davis from Buffalo and Devin Duvernay from Baltimore , and the drafting of Brian Thomas Jr., from LSU with their first-round pick.
That should more than compensate for releasing Zay Jones , not re-signing Jamal Agnew and losing Calvin Ridley to Tennessee in free agency.
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But there will be some tough decisions to be made by the end of training camp on how many wide receivers are on the active roster and practice squad.
Jacksonville Jaguars rookie wide receiver Joshua Cephus broke most of the receiving records at Texas-San Antonio and was first-team All-AAC in 2023.
And it's getting crowded at the back end of the depth chart.
Jaguars went heavy on free-agent wide receivers
In addition to Thomas, Davis and Duvernay, roster spots also are assured for Christian Kirk (141 receptions for 1,895 yards and 11 touchdowns in 29 games with the Jags) and second-year pro Parker Washington (16 receptions for 132 yards and two scores last season).
Special teams coordinator Heath Farwell is almost sure to lobby heavily to keep Tim Jones , who played all 17 games last season and caught 11 passes for 83 yards but also served as one of the most valuable players in the kicking game. Duvernay and Washington are slotted as return specialists.
The Jaguars went for LSU wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr., in the first round of the NFL draft.
The issue now becomes how big a room will the Jaguars take into the regular season? Thomas, Davis, Duvernay, Kirk, Washington and Tim Jones take up six spots. Second-year pro Elijah Cooks played in nine games last year and Seth Williams spent the entire season on the practice squad.
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That's eight.
The Jaguars signed five undrafted free agents wide receivers Joshua Cephus , David White Jr., of Jacksonville, Joseph Scates , Brevin Easton and Wayne Ruby. White went out for the season with a torn ACL and is on injured reserve, and Ruby was injured during rookie minicamp and was waived/injured and is on the team's reserve/injured list after clearing waivers.
Veteran Jarvis Landry participated in rookie minicamp but wasn't signed.
That means the team broke mandatory minicamp with 11 wide receivers in tow.
And what did general manager Trent Baalke do, beginning the afternoon after the final minicamp practice?
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He signed veterans Austin Trammell ( Atlanta , L.A. Rams ) and Kyric McGowan (Washington), who were both undrafted free agents but have had NFL experience, Trammell playing in 24 games and McGowan in two, plus spending all last season on the Commanders practice squad.
And on June 20, the Jags signed a former second-round draft pick of the New York Jets , Denzel Mims , who caught 42 passes for 676 yards in three seasons but has bounced from the Jets to Detroit to Pittsburgh . When the team signed Mims, they waived McGowan.
That means 13 healthy wide receivers are on the pre-training camp roster, with room for seven at the most on the active roster and two on the practice squad — the number the Jags kept last season.
And a total of 17 have been in rookie minicamp, OTAs, mandatory minicamp and signed after the latter at some point.
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Joshua Cephus has flashed among rookie UDFAs
"The roster is always kind of fluid ... sometimes it's week-to-week of how do we build the best gameday active roster," said Jaguars offensive coordinator Press Taylor. "Who do you risk losing if you put on waiver wires versus who could you potentially bring back? That all comes in play."
Here's where it gets tough. Mims and Trammell have experience. Seth Williams has spent two years in coach Doug Pederson's system as a practice squad player. The odds for any of the undrafted rookie receivers are long, indeed and it will depend on their value as special-teams players.
Joshua Cephus played quarterback and wide receiver in high school, and also pitched and played shortstop in baseball and had a personal best of 6 feet 10 in the high jump.
The player the coaching staff may be rooting for the most is Cephus, who had prolific stats in breaking almost every receiving record at Texas-San Antonio and making first-team All-AAC last season. He caught 89 passes for a school-record 1,151 yards and 10 TDs and left school with the career records in receptions (313), yards (3,639) and touchdowns (28).
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Cephus, 6-feet-2, 193 pounds, has looked the part in rookie minicamp, OTAs and mandatory minicamp, gliding up and down the field and making tough catches.
He's also one of the best overall athletes on the team. Cephus played quarterback and wide receiver at Dukaney High School near Houston , pitched and played shortstop in baseball (hitting .443 as a senior), and won the district, area and region high jump championship, with a personal best of 6 feet, 10 inches.
Cephus said he's finding out the obvious difference between college football and the NFL, even in practices without pads.
"I've got to play faster and be very detailed at what I do," he said. "I'm still learning the playbook and trying to gather as much information as I can. I'm very eager to learn and my goal has been to stack as many consistent days of practice as I can."
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Pederson said Cephus met that goal so far and used the same word as Cephus did.
"It's been consistent," Pederson said. "He's done a nice job from a young player coming in here, picking up, and doing some things. He's done a nice job. He's making plays and that's something that we've got to see once we get in camp and you put the pads on. See what they can do then."
Staying healthy will be crucial for Jaguars WRs
Regardless of who stays with the team, the Jaguars would love to see the group stay healthy. Ridley and Tim Jones were the only receivers who played all 17 games. Injuries cost Kirk five games, Agnew six and Zay Jones nine.
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Cook was active for nine games, Washington for nine and Williams for two. The Jags activated five receivers in all but three games, with four playing against Atlanta and the first game against Houston and six against Baltimore.
Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Christian Kirk (13) catches a pass during an organized team activity Tuesday, May 28, 2024 at EverBank Stadium’s Miller Electric Center in Jacksonville, Fla.
"Ideally, you've got three guys that you know are going to contribute most of the pass game to, a fourth guy that can be versatile and have some sort of role, and [a] fifth, sixth [player] ... a lot of that comes down to special teams," Taylor now.
"We're not throwing the ball to the fifth receiver a lot of times on game day. It's the top three guys you're going to roll on through plus tight ends, running backs, whatever the matchups determine, and then that guy has the versatility to play multiple spots or thrive in a certain role, but ably gets a game-day jersey because of special teams most likely."
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Taylor then asked the questions most Jaguars fans are posing.
"Then we have a lot of guys like Cephus ... how do they fit?" he said. "Where do they fit in fourth, fifth, sixth? What's their value as a receiver and special teams, as well?"
It will be one of the most interesting dynamics of training camp, especially with the quest to put weapons on the field for the $275 million quarterback, Trevor Lawrence.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jaguars coaching staff likes the options presented by a glut in WR room
