The Jaguars have added an experienced offensive lineman to their roster in the wake of Trystan Colon’s retirement.
The team announced the signing of Sam Mustipher on Thursday. Colon was placed on the reserve/retired list on Tuesday.
Mustipher has played for four teams and saw his most action while starting 41 games for the Bears between 2020 and 2022. He appeared in nine games for the Ravens in 2023 and 12 games for the Chargers in 2024 before being limited to one appearance for the Broncos last season. Mustipher made three more starts across those stops and most of his playing time has come at center.
The Jaguars have Robert Hainsey installed as their starting center. Hainsey and Mustipher played together at Notre Dame before moving into the NFL.
Jaguars Clips
Anton Harrison has spent the last three years as the Jaguars’ right tackle, but he’s been in an different spot at training camp this summer.
With Cole Van Lanen on the physically unable to perform list due to a knee injury, Harrison has been playing left tackle and his performance has led to strong reviews from reporters who have been in attendance. He also got some praise from head coach Liam Coen at a press conference earlier this week.
“I think he’s done a nice job,” Coen said. “It’s part of what we’ve done, moving those guys around and seeing what sticks. And if that ends up sticking, hopefully that’s a good thing for us. I think he’s put together five good practices so far that you’re pleased with seeing the consistency. That’s something that we’re continuously challenging, not just Anton with, but that entire unit and group is just consistency, consistent effort, consistent technique, consistent finish. But I’ve been pleased with them just handling it pretty seamlessly so far.”
The Jaguars picked up Harrison’s option for the 2027 season and a permanent move to Trevor Lawrence’s blind side would likely set the stage for an extension that keeps him in Jacksonville for an even longer run.
Veteran offensive lineman Trystan Colon’s bid to make the roster in Jacksonville came to an end on Tuesday.
The Jaguars announced that they have placed Colon on the reserve/retired list. There was no corresponding move, which leaves the Jags with an open spot on their 90-man roster.
Colon signed with the Jaguars in June. He entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Ravens in 2020 and spent three seasons in Baltimore before moving on to the Cardinals and Lions.
Colon appeared in 63 games and made 19 starts across those three stops. He won’t be adding to that total this fall and the Jags will have to look elsewhere for depth on the offensive line.
Travis Hunter played 324 offensive snaps and 162 defensive snaps in seven appearances last season before his knee injury. The Jaguars wide receiver/cornerback is expected to play more on defense than offense, and that has been the case thus far in training camp.
He flashed on both sides in Sunday’s practice, with an interception and two catches, including a 35-yarder.
Hunter took 10 snaps on defense and seven on offense in team work, according to Michael DiRocco of ESPN, and has taken 34 snaps on defense and 22 on offense in 11-on-11 work so far through a week of camp.
Hunter told Judy Battista of NFL Network that he wants to play every snap on both sides, something his former college coach, Deion Sanders, said Hunter is capable of doing.
“All of them,” Hunter said when asked how many snaps he wants to play. “I can’t stay on the sideline.”
In winning the Heisman Trophy at Colorado in 2024, Hunter played 688 defensive snaps and 672 on offense. It prompted the Jaguars to trade up to second overall to draft him.
Trevor Lawrence said he isn’t lobbying for more snaps for Hunter.
“He’s lobbying enough on his own. He’d play every snap on both sides of the ball if he was able to,” the quarterback told Battista. “He’s so talented, and I know that no matter where he’s playing, he’s going to help our team. On offense, on defense. So where does he help us the most? I’ll let the coaches make that decision. I know when he’s on offense, he’s making plays. I also know that we have so many good skill players on offense that, even when he’s not over there, we’re able to be explosive and find these plays. Look at our room, with [Brian Thomas], Jakobi [Meyers], Parker [Washington], some of the young guys we brought in. Then our tight end room is just really, really versatile and good. So we have so many threats, and I’ll let our coaches kind of figure that out.”
Hunter tore the lateral collateral ligament in his right knee during an Oct. 30 practice. He underwent surgery on Nov. 11.
He finished his rookie season with 28 catches for 298 yards and a touchdown on offense and 15 tackles on defense.
Six years after running back James Robinson rushed for 1,070 yards as a rookie in 2020 with the Jaguars, he’s looking for a path back to the NFL.
Robinson had a tryout on Saturday with the Raiders.
He played most recently for the Louisville Kings of the UFL, rushing for 324 yards in six regular-season games and adding 128 in two postseason games for the eventual league champions.
Robinson was traded to the Jets during his third season, to the Jets. He spent 2023 with the Packers, appearing in only one game and having just one carry. He did not play in the NFL in 2024 or 2025.
For his NFL career, Robinson has rushed for 2,264 yards. (So far.)
Also trying out on Saturday were running backs Dare Ogunbawale and Kenny McIntosh. Ogunbawale, a nine-year veteran, spent the last four seasons in Houston. His tenure including kicking a 29-yard field goal in a 2023 win over Tampa Bay, 39-37, after Texans kicker Ka’imi Fairbarn suffered a quad injury.
McIntosh, a seventh-round pick of the Seahawks in 2024, was released on July 27.
Travis Hunter’s mixture of size and speed made him a two-way player at Colorado and it led the Jaguars to trade up to take him with the second overall pick of the 2025 draft, but that didn’t stop him from changing his body ahead of his second NFL season.
Hunter spent his first full pro offseason working his way back from the knee injury that ended his rookie season and he told reporters on Friday that he also worked to bulk up. Hunter said that he put on 10 pounds while working out and that initial concerns that he might hamper his speed turned out to be unwarranted.
“I was scared at first. I was like ‘Oh, dang, I ain’t never played at this weight. I’m gonna feel heavy, not going to be able to do what I do,’” Hunter said. “Training and being able to put those months in, not just on the grass but in the weight room too. Just putting in that work, it made me feel lighter on my feet when I finally touched the grass. I’m just happy to be at this weight and continue to play at this weight.”
Hunter said he’s been clocked at 22.6 miles per hour since putting on the weight, which is a new high for him and he hopes to keep adding speed before resuming his roles as a wide receiver and defensive back in Jacksonville this fall.
Liam Coen and Ben Johnson oversaw major turnarounds in their first seasons as NFL head coaches in 2025 and they’ve been linked again by the topic of motivating their teams for the coming season.
In a recent interview, Coen said it has been easy to motivate his players with the Jaguars by pointing out how they’ve been overlooked despite a 13-win season. Coen said on 1010XL that he doesn’t see any discussion of his team while scrolling the NFL’s website, but sees 40 pictures of Bears quarterback Caleb Williams.
During a Friday press conference, Johnson was asked if he’d heard Coen’s comments and whether he feels he has the opposite problem with the Bears because there is more hype around the team.
“We’re the number one regression candidate, so I think we’ve got plenty of motivation ourselves,” Johnson said. “We talked about Caleb in the past. He’s used to handling a lot of attention, so I’m not worried about that.”
There are plenty of cases in NFL history of teams that take big strides one season without being able to sustain that growth in the years to come. Coen and Johnson are coming at that challenge from different angles, but both will have to succeed in order to set themselves up for long runs in their current jobs.
Jaguars offensive coordinator Grant Udinski landed head coaching interviews this offseason and he’ll do some work to build up his credentials for the next step up the ladder this preseason.
Head coach Liam Coen told Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union that Udinski will call the majority of the offensive plays for the team in August’s preseason games. Udinski called the plays in Jacksonville’s preseason finale last year.
Coen said Sean McVay gave him the same chance with the Rams earlier in his career and that he wants Udinski to get that opportunity.
“Sean provided me that experience in [Los Angeles] and I want do the same for Grant,” Coen said.
Udinski interviewed with the Bills and Browns before signing a new deal with the Jaguars. If the team is able to repeat its success from 2025, that could turn out to be a one-year extension of his stay in the AFC South.
Jaguars wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. would like to put the 2025 season in the rearview mirror.
Thomas had 87 catches for 1,282 yards and 10 touchdowns after being drafted in the first round in 2024, but his second season halted all talk of him jumping right to the top of the list of NFL wideouts. Thomas caught less than half of the balls thrown his way and he was credited with 10 drops en route to 48 catches for 707 yards and two touchdowns.
The drop in production led to trade chatter this offseason, but the Jaguars were quick to shut it down and call Thomas a big part of their plans for 2026. That talk and other doubts about his upside still found their way to Thomas and he credits a conversation with his father for putting him in the right mindset to bounce back.
“We heard everything that was going on, all that, but he just told me, ‘Come out here and be undeniable,’” Thomas said, via Mark Lane of the Associated Press. “That’s just something I live by every day. I want to be undeniable.”
Jakobi Meyers and Parker Washington stepped up as the team’s most reliable wideouts during a 13-4 season, so Jacksonville has a full deck of options in the passing game. They’d still like to see Thomas get back to something close to that undeniable rookie form as they try to defend their division title this fall.
The Jaguars made a couple of roster moves involving cornerbacks as they opened training camp on Tuesday.
They announced that they have signed Corey Ballentine to the 90-man roster. He will take the roster spot of Dane Jackson, who has been placed on the reserve/retired list.
Jackson signed with the Jaguars in June, but Tuesday’s move suggests that the 2020 seventh-round pick has decided to pursue other opportunities. Jackson began his career with the Bills and returned to the team after spending the 2024 season with the Panthers.
Ballentine played five games for the Cowboys and one game for the Patriots last season. He has also played for the Giants, Jets, Lions and Packers. He has 103 tackles, an interception and a forced fumble for his career.
