The Jacksonville Jaguars have now gone through two fully-padded practices, with the first occurring on Day 6 (Sunday) and the second occurring on Day 7 (today). Of course, this is especially an exciting time for the big men in the trenches, who get to be a little more physical than they previously were without pads.
Among those who were excited to put on the pads Sunday was guard, Brandon Scherff. After Day 6’s practice, he met with the media and said that the change would help the offensive line get a better feel for the type of action they will see in the regular season.
“It’s nice to put shoulder pads on and actually just be able to make it feel like football,” Scherff said. “With shells you kind of go full speed but you still have to take care of each other, but with pads you can get those real fits that [Offensive Line Coach] Phil [Rauscher] always talks about at meetings, so it’s nice to be able to get that fit get the real handles and shoulder pads and stuff, and I think we got a pretty good group, and we’re excited to just keep stacking them one day at a time.”
The Jags signed the veteran this offseason to a big three-year deal that guarantees $30 million. However, when looking at his résumé, the former All-Pro and five-time Pro Bowler provided the Jags with an upgrade on the line under former guard A.J. Cann. The deal also helped the Jags lock up a new leader for their offensive line as the group’s former leader, Brandon Linder, retired this spring.
Needless to say, it’s a role that Scherff is pretty comfortable with after years of being in the Washington Commanders’ locker room. However, he’s with the Jags now and believes the current group he’s leading can be just as successful as those he was a part of in the past because the group has proven to be coachable so far.
“Everybody’s coachable and trying to do what Phil asks us to do,” said Scherff to the media on Sunday. “You see some of those plays we’re breaking out 20, 30, 40-yard runs. That’s what you want to see as an offensive line. It’s kind of cool, doing our job and then seeing Travis and Rock and Snoop hit those holes and there’s nobody around him. So that’s when we know that we’re doing our job and we just have to keep stacking them.”
As Scherff mentioned, the run game has been one of the more impressive parts of the offense in camp, and he’s a big reason why. However, the group can’t stop improving now as they will need to perform significantly better than they did last season.
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