The Jaguars emerged from the draft with positive reviews about the work they did to continue strengthening their defense after focusing on the unit during free agency as well.
Those moves have generated some hope that this might be the year that the Jaguars find their way back to a winning record for the first time since 2007. Linebacker Telvin Smith thinks that kind of change of fortune requires more than just a few new players on defense.
Smith called a meeting with his teammates after one of their recent offseason workouts to discuss refusing “to settle for what’s been happening” in Jacksonville in recent years.
“I’ve always said I’m not a loser and I refuse to be a loser,” Smith said, via ESPN.com. “So you cannot do this on your own and you have to make sure everybody’s on the same mindset. And that’s the biggest thing, making sure everybody’s on the same mindset. ... Let everybody voice their opinion and know that I want the same thing that you want so that when I say something it’s out of love. But words are only something. Actions are the biggest thing and that’s what we want to get from that meeting. Keep building from the meeting: actions.”
Actions, it’s said, speak louder than words and the Jaguars could say a lot by getting wins to open the season. They are 1-10 in September and 2-10 in October over the last three years, digging holes that reinforce the idea that the team can’t win just as the season is getting underway. Avoiding that would be a sign that the same old Jaguars won’t be on the field in 2016.
