Barring any changes on the league’s part, the Jacksonville Jaguars (and a vast majority of the league) will report to training camp on Tuesday, July 28. This news comes via a report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter, who pointed out that the new Collective Bargaining Agreement affected each team’s return.
In the past, teams had to report to training camp 15 days before the first preseason contest, however, 30 NFL teams must now report on July 28, which is 47 or 48 days before Week 1 of the regular season. With the Jags beginning their regular season on Sunday, September 13, they fall in the category of the many teams who apply for a return on the aforementioned date.
With the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans set to have the regular season opener via Thursday Night Football, they will get to start their training camp three days earlier than the other organizations (Saturday, July 25).
This news comes after COVID-19 affected the league’s offseason, causing all teams to miss their organized team activities of May and their minicamps that follow around this point of the year. Instead, teams moved to an all-virtual process, which began on April 27 for the Jags.
COVID-19 also caused the league to adapt its key events like the draft, too, which had its first all-virtual process in late April. The Jags added 12 selections in the annual event, so they could be one of the team’s heavily affected as they will have one of the youngest teams in football when final cuts are made.
Per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the league is also discussing the possibility of a shortened preseason. While nothing has been finalized on the matter, the league and players are looking to have just two preseason games instead of four. The reason for that is to give teams more time before the regular season as far as health and logistics go.
The Jags’ preseason schedule will begin with two road games against the Carolina Panthers (Thursday, August 13) and Tampa Bay Bucs (Saturday, August 22). Afterward, they have two home games against the Washington Redskins (Saturday, August 29) and Atlanta Falcons (Tuesday, Sept. 3) to wrap up the preseason.