Preseaon Game 1 vs New Orleans Saints August 9 Saints_Digital_LAYOUT | Page 73

STEP
BULK OF AFC SOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP
TEAM RETURNS, EXPECTATIONS HIGH
AS 2018 PRESEASON OPENS
JACKSONVILLE – You could hear the grumbling
begin early during last season’s training camp.
It was the fi rst training camp under Executive
Vice President of Football Operations Tom
Coughlin and Head Coach Doug Marrone, and
it included a run of consecutive practices in
full pads, long stressful hours in the meeting
rooms – a general lack of comfortability.
It made the team tougher. It made the Jaguars
learn how to overcome “adversity.” It brought
the team closer as they headed into the regular
season.
As the Jaguars enter tonight’s Preseason
Week 1 game against the New Orleans Saints,
it’s clear that even with the success from a
year ago that a Marrone-led training camp will
always shake up a locker room, hopefully in a
good way.
“In a sense, it does feel like unfi nished business
as far as we didn’t fi nish what we said this time
last year we were going to do and we were a
game away,” quarterback Blake Bortles said
early in 2018 training camp.
“I know everybody is excited for the chance to
get back to that and go do that (go to the Super
Bowl), but I think we have to make sure that
there’s a lot of stuff that happens before we get
to that point, and we can’t overlook that.
“We have to go through this process and this
camp just like we did last year in order to end
up in the situation that we did, and hopefully win
that game.”
“My philosophy has always been that I like
a little grumbling, to be honest with you,”
Marrone said as players reported for camp
July 25. “If there is not a little bit of grumbling,
then maybe you’re not doing the right thing. I
really believe that. That goes back to making
sure that we’re being uncomfortable.
“I think the players understand … I think the
ones that have been here can kind of understand
what it’s going to be. But they understand why;
I think that’s the most important thing.”
The 2017 Jaguars fi nished the regular season
with a 10-6 record and were the AFC South
champions. Unfortunately the sting of a loss
in the AFC Championship game remains, but it
drives this team as it heads into 2018.
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