Line believes it’s ready despite lack of reps
JACKSONVILLE — Jaguars offensive guard Andrew Norwell had four weeks of preseason work to get ready for this Sunday’s opener against the New York Giants.
But he never got a chance to play in a game with the entire starting offensive line — center Brandon Linder, right tackle Jermey Parnell, right guard A.J. Cann and left tackle Cam Robinson — together.
They won’t take their first snap together in a game until Sunday, but Norwell believes they’re ready.
“We’ve been practicing for months now together, Norwell said. “It’s all about the regular season and getting off on a good start. They’re going to put up a fight, but we just got to keep running the ball and do our thing.”
The Jaguars’ offensive line is entering the opener with expectations to meet.
Yet injuries forced coach Doug Marrone to experiment with using various line combinations during the preseason.
Linder missed most of the preseason with a knee injury. Parnell was held out of three of four preseason games because of a sore knee. And Norwell missed the first two preseason games because of a calf injury.
Robinson avoided injuries, but he struggled with footwork technique that got exposed during Week 2 of the preseason at Minnesota.
“I think everything is kind of shaky until we start playing and then watching them play together, Marrone said. “The way I look at it is, we do our best to go out there and put those guys together and basically a lot of those guys have been based on availability with a couple injuries and mix-matching them.
“We have had a lot of practice time together and now it is matter of when we go out there, how do we perform?”
This week, all five players have practiced together. Though both Linder (knee) and Parnell (knee) were listed on Wednesday’s injury report as limited, both players moved well in team drills during the early portion of practice.
“I feel good and I’m ready to go,” Linder said. “We haven’t played together in a game yet, but we’re all professionals, and we will be able to translate it in the game. We really have good chemistry. We actually hang out a lot.”
The Jaguars reached the AFC title last season, but they averaged fewer than 4 yards per carry in five of their last seven games despite leading the NFL in rushing (141.4 ypg). Leonard Fournette, who rushed for 1,040 yards last season as a rookie, averaged only 3.9 yards a carry, and it dropped to 3.5 yards per carry during the playoffs.
To facilitate improvement, the Jaguars aggressively pursued Norwell and signed him to a five-year $66.5 million contract that included a fully guaranteed $30 million signing bonus.
Now they face their first test against a Giants team that finished 31st in total defense in 2017 but is led by Damon Harrison and Dalvin Tomlinson on their defensive front. But the Jaguars are expected to rely on the same plan as last year by controlling clock with their running game led by Fournette. Like most opponents facing the Jaguars, the Giants are expected to stack the box with eight or nine players.