Jacksonville Jaguars Winners And Losers Preseason Week One: Jags Win Sloppy In New Orleans

Much to the dismay of Bucky Brooks, the Jacksonville Jaguars are back, baby.

Playing in the Superdome down on the bayou, the Jags somehow came back and defeated the New Orleans Saints 24-20 after an impressive second half. 

It was as “preseason game one” as a game could get with one bad half of ball and one half that resembled something close to good football. The starters didn’t play so there shouldn’t be too much worry about this lone preseason contest, but that didn’t make it any less ugly, at least in the first half. 

The backup quarterback position looks like an issue, as does the depth of the offensive line so far this preseason. But hey, at least Cam Little is still good and we won!

WINNERS

Josh Cameron and CJ Williams

While it was largely a quiet afternoon for Jags rookies, two rookie receivers lived up to the camp hype on Saturday in a limited way.

Rooks Josh Cameron and CJ Williams looked fine enough when given the opportunities from the backup signal callers. Williams was second on the team in receiving with two catches for 28 yards, with a long of 17. Cameron had just one catch for 17 yards total. Those numbers aren’t popping off the page but the early signs for two young Jags seem fine enough. This pair will probably continue to be the big storyline from camp and preseason as we progress.

Yasir Abdullah

You know it’s the preseason when Yasir Abdullah gets mentioned on the Winners list. But it’s what we got.

Abdullah had a solid day both on defense and on special teams, logging a strip sack in the first half which led to a B.J. Green fumble recovery. The former Trent Baalke draft pick also had a solid punt coverage tackle that lost the Saints seven yards and led to a punt on the next possession.

The 2023 draft pick finished with two tackles, his strip sack and a tackle for loss. A lot of guys sleepwalked through Saturday’s game but Abdullah did not.

J’Mari Taylor

While it wasn’t easy on offense Saturday, undrafted rookie running back J’Mari Taylor was a bit of a revelation.

Taylor finished with 78 yards on 22 carries which was highlighted by strong running on the team’s opening drive of the second half and a late touchdown rush. His 32 yards to start the second half led to the team’s first touchdown to Hunter Long. Later, Taylor was rewarded by rushing in the two-point conversion. Taylor then punched one in to help the Jags take the lead in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter. The rookie stepped up and did what he could to earn his roster spot. 

Fun fact- Long scored the team’s first touchdown of the regular season last year and now scored the team’s first touchdown of the following preseason. Do with that as you will. 

LOSERS

Pretty Much The Entire First Half

I’m not sure that first half inspired any courage in the backups for the Jags.

New Orleans almost housed the opening kickoff but scored on their first offensive play anyway. On that touchdown run for the Saints, linebacker Branson Combs absolutely whiffed on making a tackle, so that was cool. 

During Jacksonville’s first offensive possession, offensive tackle Chuma Edoga went down and didn’t return. With already little depth at that position, having Edoga hurt literally one play into the preseason isn’t exactly ideal.

The rest of the first half didn’t get much better, as both Nick Mullens and Carter Bradley threw bad decision picks and the Saints tallied three sacks. At the halftime break, the Jaguar quarterbacks had a combined 53 yards. Zach Wilson of all people had 112 himself for the home team. 

The Jags also had a handful of drops and four penalties in that opening half. You really can’t script it much worse, outside of two Little field goals. A lot of those problems persisted in the second half as well with players even further down the depth chart, which you can only be so upset about. But the direct backups didn’t look sharp to start the preseason.

Bucky Brooks

Brooks didn’t seem to be having a lot of fun on the call against the Saints. He has seen far too much bad Jaguars football to be tormented like he was for the first half. I hope someone got that dude a hurricane after the game. He sounded like he needed a drink or five during that debacle.