Two NFL teams that are expected to battle for their respective division titles meet in the second week of the preseason when the Jacksonville Jaguars visit Ford Field to battle with the Detroit Lions on Saturday. Surprisingly this has earned a national TV spot at NFL NET. The two will have joint practices for 2 days on Wednesday and Thursday leading up to Saturday’s game. Jacksonville defeated the Dallas Cowboys 28-23 in their first preseason game. Detroit opened its 2023 preseason with a 21-16 victory over the New York Giants. Jacksonville will play without Henry Mondeaux, Sammis Reyes, Leonard Taylor and Dawuane Smoot. Detroit will play without Trey Quinn, Justin jackson, Emmanuel Moseley, and Hendon Hooker.
In the opening game of the preseason, Nathan Rourke passed for 153 yards and one touchdown and regular season starter Trevor Lawrence saw limited action completing five or six passes for 36 yards with one touchdown and one interception against Dallas. Expect to see more of Lawrence and the rest of the Jacksonville first team offense could see a much more playing time as the coach staff will likely use its final Week 3 preseason game to evaluate players on the fringe prior to the final cut before the season starts and allow the starters to see more time this week.
The Jaguars are expected to give first team running back Travis Etienne plenty of snaps on Saturday against Detroit. Since 2019, Jacksonville has won just one of 11 games in the preseason and last season were 0-4 but the outco me of preseason games means little to most NFL coaches unless you are Baltimore's John Harbaugh along with a few others. One position battle to follow for Jacksonville is the nickel cornerback spot currently held by Tre Herndon. However, Gregory Junior will be looking to take that spot. Last season 65% of the snaps on defense for Jacksonville had five defensive backs on the field therefore the nickel corner spot is very important.
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