OL coach George Warhop says Cam Robinson will be Jags’ starting LT

With the Jacksonville Jaguars announcing that Will Richardson would officially move to left tackle, many fans were expecting him to provide some competition for starter Cam Robinson. However, with three weeks left before the season, offensive line …

“How important? I mean, Cam is going to be our starting left tackle, I think he’s extremely important,” Warhop said when the media asked him about the importance of Robinson before Sunday’s practice.

“And we need him to perform at a high level. The biggest thing from last year to now is he can take all the practice. He’s out there in all the practices, he’s taking all the reps, there’s been, to this point, no issues with him physically.”

With Robinson being a former second-round pick who is playing on a contract year where the Jags must know what they have in him, Warhop’s statements aren’t the slightest bit shocking. That said, Robinson can now focus on preparing for the regular season.

Warhop’s statements about Robinson’s ability to practice also make sense. Last year, Robinson was returning from an ACL tear before training camp, but he’s now further removed from it and it’s clear he’s 100%. In fact, Robinson has been one of the standouts in camp and started it off on such a high note that he was clearly miles ahead of Richardson from Warhop’s view. It also didn’t help that Richardson had to get acclimated to a new position.

“I’m going to be frank and honest. First, Will had to get adjusted to playing left tackle. Alright, so I don’t think he was there when we started training camp and as I stated the last 3 or 4 days, you can see him settling in. As he gets more settled in and he gets more comfortable, he can create some more competition, that’s just where it is,” Warhop said.

“When he walked in the door, I wouldn’t say day one he was truly competing with Cam [Robinson], because Cam is so far ahead of him. As he closes the distance, he’ll start competing. And I think he’s starting to close the distance.”

With the decision seemingly set on a starter, there is still work for Robinson to do. As the protector of Minshew’s blindside, he must carry his strong showing in camp into the regular season, because if he doesn’t, it could be a long season for the Mississippi Mustache and company who must improve altogether.

Jags depth chart prediction: Offensive line

Jags fans entered 2020 with a lot of concerns about the OL and with the team only drafting one player on the unit, it may not change.

We started our depth chart predictions around this time last week and have previewed the quarterbacks, running backs, tight ends, and receivers so far. That leaves just one unit on the offensive side: the offensive line. Here are our predictions for how the unit could turn out in the trenches:

	Left tackle	Left guard	Center	Right Guard	Right Tackle
No. 1	Cam Robinson	Andrew Norwell	Brandon Linder	A.J. Cann	Jawaan Taylor
No. 2	Will Richardson	KC McDermott	Tyler Shatley	Ben Bartch*	Ryan Pope
No. 3	Blake Hance		Tyler Gauthier	Tre’Vour Wallace-Simms*	Steven Nielsen*

Left tackle

Cam Robinson will enter 2020 as the starter and will be on a contract year. It appears he might also have some competition to remain a starter as the Jags will be letting Will Richardson settle in at left tackle, too. Right now, I’d say the edge goes to Robinson, but it’s probably not a certainty as he’s been up and down on the blindside.

Behind them could be Blake Hance, who will be entering his second season but has no starts to his name. When looking at his background, however, he was a starter for multiple years at left tackle in college at Northwestern University.

Left guard

Andrew Norwell has been underwhelming since joining the Jags in 2018 via free agency. The team renegotiated his deal this offseason but he still will come with a $9 million (all guaranteed) price tag, so he’ll be starting.

It’s unknown who will be a reserve behind Norwell at left guard, so I slotted KC McDermott there for the time being. He’s been developing on the team’s practice squad for two seasons and it’s about time he enters the season on the final roster as he played at a variety of offensive line spots in college at Miami.

Center

There aren’t many who would disagree that Brandon Linder is the best offensive lineman on the team. As one of the team’s generals, he’ll enter 2020 with another solid season behind him as he registered a 75.3 Pro Football Focus grade, good for the best on the offensive line.

Behind him will be the Jags’ most experienced reserve offensive lineman in Tyler Shatley. He’ll enter 2020 with 16 starts, and like Linder, he possesses the ability to play both guard and center if the team has to do some shuffling.

Tyler Gauthier joined the team in early December of last year as a reserve. He previously played guard and center during the preseason process with the New England Patriots but was designated to their practice squad in the regular season. With a solid preseason, he has a small shot to make the roster on the back end, but if not, he’s a perfect candidate for practice squad.

Right guard

While it hasn’t always been pretty, A.J. Cann will come into the 2020 season as one of the team’s most experienced players, with 75 career starts to his name. He’ll have some competition from fourth-round rookie selection, Ben Bartch, who the team believes is a developmental project for now.

Behind those two could be the massive Tre’Vour Wallace-Simms (6-foot-5, 330-pounds), who went undrafted in April’s draft. He could be a sleeper to make the team after being a starter for Missouri since 2017 and earning all-conference honors in 2018.

Right tackle

Rookie Jawaan Taylor started in every game for the Jags a right tackle and finished strong after struggling mightily with penalties earlier in the season. He’ should only get better with more experience and fans should be encouraged about his future.

Behind him on the depth chart could be Ryan Pope, who joined the Jags’ practice squad last year as an undrafted free agent. Before that, he spent time on the Detroit Lions’ and San Francisco 49ers’ practice squad so he’s unproven on the NFL level. He’ll get an opportunity to prove himself as a practice squad candidate in the preseason and it will likely come at the right or left tackle positions when considering his background at San Diego State.

As for undrafted free agent Steven Nielsen, a majority of his collegiate starts at Eastern Michigan came at right guard, which makes him a candidate to battle Pope for a practice squad spot this offseason.

3 shooters in 2021 NBA Draft that Philadelphia 76ers should focus on

We look at 3 shooters that the Philadelphia 76ers should focus on for the 2021 NBA Draft.

The Philadelphia 76ers have a lot of business to take care of at this current moment in time. As the NBA continues to move towards a resumption in the middle of July in Orlando as the “bubble site”, they also have to worry about a temporary draft process for 2020 and what promises to be a rapid-fire free agency process.

However, just in case they are not able to fill their needs in the 2020 draft–shooting–the Sixers can look ahead to the 2021 draft and find a shooter at the end of Round 1.

In this edition, we are going to take a look at the early 2021 big board done by Bryan Kalbrosky over at our sister site, Rookie Wire, and look at a few shooters the draft possesses.

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Jags to make left tackle Will Richardson’s official position in 2020

The Jags have made some key decisions for their reserve lineman including moving Will Richardson to left tackle.

Jacksonville Jaguars offensive lineman Will Richardson filled in at left tackle for the team in their first two regular season games in 2019 and was moved to right guard where he split time on the field with A.J. Cann afterward. However, in 2020 he’ll call the left tackle position his permanent home according to head coach Doug Marrone, who met with the media Friday.

“The one thing about Will is he has shown progress and shown the ability to play and shown consistency when we have kept him in one position,” Marrone said Friday. “I want to be real cognizant of what we do with him. He has the ability to grow and get better and he has the traits to be a starter somewhere along that line, but we have to put him in a spot and we’re putting him at left tackle right now.”

This move likely will make Richardson the Jags’ new swing tackle. It also makes him the most versatile player on the line as he’s now played left tackle, right tackle (in college), and right guard.

The move comes after the Jags invested a fourth-round selection into Ben Bartch of St. Johns college this offseason, who will make the right guard spot his official position. Upon drafting the rookie there were some who felt he could take A.J. Cann’s spot in the starting lineup in 2020, but the staff views him more as a project right now. That means they could be eying 2021 as the year he cracks the lineup as he’ll have a year under his belt and Cann will have a potential out in his contract.

When adding in Tyler Shatley’s ability to man the guard and center positions with 15 starts to his name, the Jags now have their top-3 reserves on the offensive line between him, Bartch, and Richardson. This approximately leaves one spot open for the final 53-man roster on the unit as the team could potentially take another reserve on the roster for the left guard spot.

Tracking top NCAA prospects who could still declare for 2020 NBA Draft

NCAA prospects have until April 26 to declare early entry for 2020 NBA Draft. There are several notable prospects who could join this class.

NCAA prospects have until next week to declare early entry for 2020 NBA Draft. There are several notable prospects who could join this class.

Two freshmen (Precious Achiuwa and Jahmi’us Ramsey) are widely projected as first-round prospects. Meanwhile, three sophomores (Isaiah Joe, Aaron Henry and Joel Ayayi) typically appear on mock drafts.

Others who are likely Top-100 prospects: Romeo Weems, Trayce Jackson-Davis, Filip Petrusev, Joe Wieskamp, Corey Kispert, Terrence Shannon Omer Yurtseven, Yves Pons, AJ Lawson, Charles Bassey, Anton Watson and Miles McBride.

Below is a list reviewing all of the key players in college basketball who have yet to make a public decision about their NBA futures, even if it is simply just to test the waters so long as they already applied to receive feedback from the Undergraduate Advisory Committee before April 16.

FRESHMEN

Precious Achiuwa, Memphis (Big)

Jahmi’us Ramsey, Texas Tech (Guard)

Romeo Weems, DePaul (Forward)

Trayce Jackson-Davis, Indiana (Big)

Terrence Shannon, Texas Tech (Wing)

Anton Watson, Gonzaga (Forward)

N’Faly Dante, Oregon (Big)

DJ Jeffries, Memphis (Forward)

Lester Quinones, Memphis (Forward)

Spencer Jones, Stanford (Big)

Nah’shon Hyland, VCU (Guard)

James Bouknight, UCONN (Guard)

SOPHOMORES

Isaiah Joe, Arkansas (Guard)

Aaron Henry, Michigan (Wing)

Joel Ayayi, Gonzaga (Guard)

Filip Petrusev, Gonzaga (Big)

Joe Wieskamp, Iowa (Wing)

AJ Lawson, South Carolina (Guard)

Charles Bassey, Western Kentucky (Big)

Emmitt Williams, LSU (Forward)

Isaac Likekele, Oklahoma State (Guard)

Marcus Zegarowski, Creighton (Guard)

Will Richardson, Oregon (Guard)

Kessler Edwards, Pepperdine (Forward)

Quentin Grimes, Houston (Guard)

Aaron Wiggins, Maryland (Guard)

Xavier Johnson, Pittsburgh (Guard)

Davion Mitchell, Baylor (Guard)

Marcus Bingham, Michigan State (Big)

JUNIORS

Corey Kispert, Gonzaga (Wing)

Omer Yurtseven, Georgetown (Big)

Yves Pons, Tennessee (Wing)

Colbey Ross, Pepperdine (Guard)

Oscar da Silva, Stanford (Forward)

Nahziah Carter, Washington Wing)

Dru Smith, Missouri (Guard)

Matt Mitchell, San Diego State (Forward)

Mark Vital, Baylor (Forward)

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