JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – For the past two practices, the Jaguars have been in full pads for the first time during training camp. For fans and media, full pads are exciting because to them they suggest a higher physicality and more hitting during practice. For players it means something a little different.
For players, putting on pads for the first time in training camp is just the next step in a long grind towards the regular season. While the intensity level does rise a bit, full-pad practices don’t become real-life versions of an NFL Blitz video game. Instead, players still have to focus on their performance, and doing things the right way, whether they are wearing full pads or not.
“To people who watch it it’s like ‘oh it’s got to feel good and get back out there and raw,’ but for us it’s making sure we’re getting back out there and getting more aggressive with our pads but still using our technique,” defensive lineman Jared Odrick said. “I think a lot of viewers and even critics or writers sometimes forget that there’s a lot of technique and learning and hand placement, foot placement and body position that goes into the physicality.”
Odrick described it as "organized chaos."
Training camp in general could be described as organized chaos. Players go from the offseason where they work out on their own time and relax where they see fit, to training camp where their day is structured down to the minute and they begin putting their bodies through the strenuous grind of an NFL preseason.
It is a process that, admittedly, even makes a six-year veteran like Odrick a little anxious leading up to it. Odrick says getting through that anxiety is something that just happens naturally as camp goes on.
“It’s like a natural thing that happens because your body has been going through the same thing, the same process at the same time every year,” Odrick said. “Once you get back into the routine of it and your body expects to be put in positions, whether the heat or trying to push another 300-pound man, or two 300-pound men at the same time. You get back into the routine of things.”
The Jaguars now find themselves in the second week of training camp and Odrick is fully engulfed in that routine he refers to. Coming off a season in which he led the team in sacks (5.5), he says he’s feeling good and ready to help a defense come together that features a lot of new pieces.
The Jaguars could see as many as five new starters on the defensive side of the ball this year, including two along the defensive line that Odrick helped anchor a year ago. The Jaguars made a big splash in free agency, signing defensive tackle Malik Jackson to a six-year $90 million contract. In addition, the team is getting back last year’s third overall pick, defensive end Dante Fowler Jr, who has looked fantastic during training camp after missing all of his rookie season with a torn ACL.
Both are expected to start along the defensive line with Odrick. Fowler specifically, has stood out to Odrick throughout camp thus far.
“Dante really sticks out just because of how explosive he is,” Odrick said. “People say that across the board for football players you know, ‘explosive movements, explosive this, he’s explosive,’ you hear it every time during the draft. But Dante is actually explosive. I talk with him about that all the time in using that explosiveness and harnessing it and being able to use it the right way and I think he’s doing that so far.”
As the training camp grind continues, the Jaguars are now just one week away from their first preseason game (August 11 at the New York Jets). They hit the practice fields Thursday for another practice followed by a Friday-night scrimmage inside EverBank Field. Both are opened to the public.
Follow Tim Bee on Twitter @timbeesports
