Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence may be on the field when Jacksonville plays Carolina on Friday night.
Head coach Liam Coen told reporters on Monday that he’s “trending toward” playing the starters “a little bit” on Friday night.
“So that’s the goal right now, is to look at potentially playing [Lawrence] a little Friday night,” Coen said Monday, via transcript from the team. “You just look at the amount of padded days that we actually have left until the game week and it’s very few and far between. So, you set a schedule, you set it, and you’re like, well, timing and circumstances, things change and when you have to pivot a little bit.
“I think we need a little bit more work in terms of coming off of the Saints joint [practice] and the Saints game, I think we just need a little bit more padded work against each other, good on good. Can’t really do it today. We had to pivot a little bit, so would like to maybe see these guys Friday night go out there and get a couple drives potentially, and that’ll also help alleviate some of the depth, as you mentioned, to get some of these guys some work, knowing that I’m not playing them in [preseason] Week 3.”
Nick Mullens started Jacksonville’s preseason opener on Saturday, but is now dealing with an undisclosed injury that will affect his availability this week — though Coen said Mullens could potentially practice Wednesday if he’s feeling better.
“He got kind of dinged in the game, so just trying to let it slow down, let it chill out, and give these other guys some reps too,” Coen said, noting that they’re being precautionary with Mullens. “We got to get Carter [Bradley] and Joey [Aguilar] some more reps, and when Nick’s able to go, we’ll get him back out there.”
The Jaguars will host the Panthers on Friday night with kickoff slated for 7:30 p.m. ET.
