When Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson was asked about his offensive line the day after the 2023 season ended in disappointment, injuries were the key thing he kept going back to.
Injuries (and a suspension) to Cam Robinson. Injuries to Ezra Cleveland. Injuries to Walker Little. For most of the 2023 season, the entire left side of the line was in flux.
Could that context be a key into how the Jaguars view their offensive line entering the 2024 offseason? Pederson seemed to imply so when speaking Tuesday at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.
"If you think about it, Cam [Robinson], Ezra [Cleveland], Luke [Fortner], Brandon [Scherff] and Ton [OL Anton Harrison] played one game together. Last game of the regular season," Pederson said.
"We’ve had that revolving door on the left side for whatever reason; injury, performance, whatever it might be. Cam, the suspension, and the injury late in the season, he missed eight games. We didn’t have consistency; we didn’t have continuity. That affects five guys up front. That’s what we have to get back to, we have to get back to a little bit more consistency there but we can also help them as coaches and prepare them better. I know we will starting this offseason.”
With Pederson and general manager Trent Baalke both stating on Tuesday that they expected Robinson to be back at left tackle -- and with Baalke saying the Jaguars were working toward retaining Cleveland -- it sure doesn't seem like the Jaguars expect many new faces along the offensive line.
If you don't count Robinson and Cleveland, the only Jaguars' free agents along the offensive line are backup linemen Tyler Shatley, Blake Hance and Cole Van Lanen. Perhaps Brandon Scherff becomes a free agent due to his high cap number, but the Jaguars and Pederson didn't talk like a team expected to have an entirely new unit entering 2024.
“Our offensive line, if you talk to these guys individually, they know and we know that it wasn’t our best. As a coaching staff, I put a lot of this on us and making sure that we’re doing the right things to put our players in position," Pederson said.
"You’ve heard me say this a lot, put our players in position to be successful. Give them an opportunity; and that falls on us as coaches through game planning and scheming and not having too much, just having the right amount of plays to execute. In turn, that falls back on the player. The player has to go out and play and use his God given ability to go execute the play. We’re going to continue to look, to improve, we always talk about competition and we want to bring in players to add value and depth at every position. We have to coach it better, we have to teach it better, we have to detail it and it all starts in the offseason.”
More must-reads: