It’s looking like C.J. Beathard will be behind center when the Jaguars take on the Buccaneers this weekend.
According to multiple reporters on the scene, Trevor Lawrence (concussion protocol) is not on the field for Thursday’s portion of practice open to media. That makes it more likely that Lawrence will miss the first game of his NFL career.
Beathard almost had to start Jacksonville’s Week 14 loss to Cleveland and the Week 7 win over the Saints on Thursday night, as Lawrence was dealing with injuries before those contests. But Lawrence was still able to play in those games.
Beathard has completed 12-of-14 passes for 77 yards in five appearances this season. He hasn’t started a game since 2020 when he was with the 49ers.
Multiple reporters also noted receiver Zay Jones was not practicing as he deals with a hamstring injury.
Jacksonville’s full Thursday injury report will be released later in the day.
The reason why Buccaneers linebacker Devin White was inactive for last Sunday’s win over the Packers continues to be a talking point around the team.
White was listed as questionable due to the foot injury that he’s been dealing with in recent weeks, but he practiced fully last Thursday and Friday and reports on Sunday indicated that he was scratched because of a team decision rather than the injury. Head coach Todd Bowles said after the win that White said he couldn’t go and that the reason for White missing the game was “a question for him but I’m sure he’d say his foot was sore.”
That fueled more speculation that K.J. Britt getting the start played a role in White being inactive and Bowles said on Monday that the team decided he would not play on Saturday, but did not disclose the change to White’s status.
On Wednesday, White had his turn with reporters and said, via Greg Auman of Fox Sports, that he felt discomfort in his foot and is “just trying to get back to being as me as possible.” White said he didn’t like seeing people say he quit on the team and that he doesn’t know why there’s been incorrect information circulating about him.
“I can only speak from what I know and what I went through and what I personally deal with,” White said, via Pewter Report. “I know I don’t have to tell no lies. It is what it is. Somebody might want to give you something to talk about to make the Bucs be talked about. Baker [Mayfield] went crazy last week and we’re talking about Devin White. I don’t think I should’ve even been mentioned in a game where I didn’t play, didn’t contribute none besides being the biggest cheerleader that I could be in Green Bay.”
White said he has no issues with Bowles, who he called a “father figure,” and said he appreciated that the coach wants him to be as healthy as he can be ahead of a return to action. That may be imminent as Bowles said Wednesday that the expectation is that White will play against the Jaguars this weekend.
Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson offered updates on a couple of injured offensive players during his Wednesday press conference.
Quarterback Trevor Lawrence was the first name to come up and Pederson said that he is “progressing well” after he suffered a concussion late in last Sunday night’s loss to the Ravens. Lawrence remains in the concussion protocol and will need to keep progressing over the next few days if he’s going to play against the Buccaneers.
C.J. Beathard will be in line to start if Lawrence isn’t able to get the green light.
Wide receiver Zay Jones has a hamstring injury that Pederson said is “getting better,” but the team considers him week-to-week at this point.
One of the problems with the league’s replay-review system is that, far too often, the “clear and obvious” standard gets forgotten when someone is looking at the visual evidence of a call that was made or not made. Recently, it seems that the bar could be getting higher.
And that could be a clue regarding the next step in the evolution of replay review.
This past weekend, there were multiple examples of plays that could have been overturned via replay review, but weren’t. Perhaps that’s happening because the league is trying to stay true to the “50 drunks in a bar” explanation of what it takes for a ruling on the field to be regarded as clearly and obviously wrong.
In the Bears-Browns game, a touchdown catch by Cleveland tight end David Njoku looked to be incomplete, because his heel came down out of bounds. (In non-toe tap situations, the NFL requires a player to get his entire foot inbounds, if his toes strike first and the feet then come down in the normal process of finishing a step.) While Njoku twisted his foot like a catcher pulling his mitt into the strike zone, the heel struck out of bounds.
It seemed clear that the heel landed on the white stripe at the back of the end zone. But if the league is nudging the bar even higher, it’s not the kind of clear-and-obvious no-brainer that compels reversal. Thus, the ruling on the field of touchdown was upheld.
In Sunday night’s Ravens-Jaguars game, Jacksonville receiver Calvin Ridley caught a pass at the back of the end zone. The ruling on the field was incomplete. The Jaguars challenged.
NBC rules analyst Terry McAulay suggested that the call should be overturned: “Clearly inbounds. I believe he gains complete control. Knee down. Touchdown.”
Alas, not a touchdown. After further review, the ruling on the field was upheld.
Assuming these two examples weren’t aberrations (and there’s a decent chance they might have been), the potential decision to move the bar higher arguably hints at a future in which the NFL uses replay review more like college football currently does. Forget about the red flags. If it looks like any reviewable call is clearly and obviously wrong, take a look and change it. Quickly.
That would be far better than the current system, where the formal replay process is supplemented by a hit-or-miss sky-judge approach that sometimes activates with alacrity to fix rulings on the field, and sometimes doesn’t. Review everything that is reviewable. Take the time to get it right.
It won’t make the games longer, especially if the league applies the “clear and obvious” standard literally and efficiently, perhaps with only real-time second looks and none of the frame-by-frame stuff that can grind a game to a halt.
If it takes a super-slow-motion examination, it’s not clear and obvious. If you have to lean forward and squint, it’s not clear and obvious. And it seems that the league might be trying to make the proper application of the “clear and obvious” standard far more clear, and far more obvious.
With Trevor Lawrence in concussion protocol and Nathan Rourke claimed on waivers by the Patriots, the Jaguars have added a quarterback.
E.J. Perry is joining Jacksonville’s practice squad, according to agent Sean Stellato.
Perry was with the Jaguars during the 2022 offseason program and training camp before spending the season on the practice squad. When Jacksonville waived him in March, he was claimed off waivers by the Texans. He was subsequently waived again in May.
Perry, who played his college ball at Brown, has also spent time with the USFL’s Michigan Panthers.
If Lawrence isn’t able to play in Jacksonville’s Week 16 matchup against Tampa Bay, C.J. Beathard is expected to start.
