Jaguars' Doug Pederson talks mandatory minicamp, training camp start date revealed
The Jacksonville Jaguars began mandatory minicamp Monday, with the majority of veterans excused after participating in nine out of 10 of the team's Organized Team Activities over the course of the month of May and into June.
Pederson spoke Monday about the team's needs being met as far as the veterans are concerned, and moving forward into the latter portion of the offseason. He decided that veterans who have participated in the offseason program will be excused, while first-year players, rookies, injured vets and those that wanted to participate, would be in attendance.
That attendance included 34 non-rookies, including offensive linemen Cam Robinson, Josh Wells and Ben Bartch, along with second-year players, linebackers Devin Lloyd and Chad Muma and a host of other players. One player of note in attendance was outside linebacker Josh Allen, who had not joined the team for the voluntary portion of the offseason up to this point.
More Jaguars coverage:
New blood: Jaguars new wide receivers coach Chad Hall brings energy, experience to the position group
Defensive rookie update: What Jaguars defensive assistants had to say about the team's rookies
Offensive rookie update: What Jaguars offensive assistants had to say about the team's rookies
"I appreciate everybody that's here. We have 91 guys and the ones that have been here have been working their tails off," Pederson said when asked why he gave most vets mandatory minicamp off. "It's a voluntary program, so obviously using my discretion, that giving some of these guys these three days where we can really focus on young guys, even some of the injured guys who can get another three days of treatment and rehab."
Pederson said the vets have done an outstanding job, they've been present and they've done everything that the team has asked them to do. Ultimately, it was beneficial to give them the extra three days.
During this year's offseason program, the Jaguars have been able to do a bit more than they did last offseason, able to experiment more than usual as the playbook has already been, for the most part, completed.
"It was just refining everything. It's just a matter of taking what we did during the season and trying to make it better. Everything's established and the offseason's a time to be creative with stuff and integrating the new guys, whether they're free agents or draft picks, undrafted guys into and onto the team," Pederson said when asked about what the team accomplished this offseason.
Observations from minicamp Day 1
As stated before, especially with a watered-down event, minicamp offers very few real observations, especially for what media are allowed to report. Still, here are a couple of tidbits we learned from Day 1.
Rookie safety Antonio Johnson nearly made an outstanding play in coverage, nearly picking the football off after jumping a route. He did pushups after the rep.
Undrafted free agent receiver Elijah Cooks had the highlight catch off the day, catching a deep pass from quarterback Nathan Rourke. The rookie had to make an adjustment to make the grab in stride.
LB Devin Lloyd recorded an interception near the end of practice that got a lot of applause from teammates.
Team Kevin Austin won the team's paintball session that took place during the OTA No. 10 time slot. Teams were picked like old-school playground rules, according to Pederson.
Jaguars training camp start dates set
After the team's three-day mandatory minicamp concludes Wednesday, the Jaguars will break for around five weeks before returning for the start of training camp. Here are the dates, as provided by Pederson on Monday:
Injured veterans and rookies report date: July 21
All players report: July 25
Official start day, when players hit the grass: July 26
The timeline lines up with past training camp start dates and will likely be the case for the majority of clubs around the league except for those participating in the Hall of Fame game to open the preseason, which allows for an extra week of preparation.
Demetrius Harvey is the Jacksonville Jaguars reporter for the Florida Times-Union. You can follow him on Twitter at @Demetrius82.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jaguars open minicamp, Pederson provides training camp start dates
