The Jacksonville Jaguars are seemingly making a change to the offensive line.
According to multiple reports from London, the Jaguars had veteran offensive lineman Tyler Shatley line up at left guard with the starting offense in pre-game warmups. Shatley has been a backup for the first three games of the season, with fourth-year guard Ben Bartch getting the nod.
Bartch was the Jaguars' pick to be the starting left guard after the 2022 training camp, too, but his season was cut short after five starts due to a season-ending knee injury. Bartch was replaced in the lineup by Shatley for the final 14 games of the season, and the longest-tenured Jaguar is now set to return to the starting lineup to replace Bartch.
Bartch began training camp on the PUP list and returned to action toward the end of training camp, winning the left guard job almost immediately upon his return.
"Ton [Anton Harrison] is still learning, just getting a feel and a sense of playing at this level and all the different rushes that he’s seeing. Ben [Bartch] is still working through getting back into playing and he got beat a few times," Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said this week. "I think Luke [Fortner] and Brandon [Scherff] and Walker [Little] are the three consistent guys right now. We continue to work. Ton [Anton] is going to be a really good player for us. The more reps and the more game action he gets, the same with Ben. We’re heading in the right direction, but we just got to clean a few things up there.”
“It’s reassuring, you’ve got a veteran guy there that can play a couple of spots, the guard, the center spot," Pederson said about Shatley.
"He’s played a lot of football and he’s a reliable and trustworthy guy. He’s somebody that you can definitely count on to be able to go into a game at any time.”
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