Jacksonville Jaguars’ starting lineup vs. the Panthers could look a lot different than it did against the Raiders.
Head coach Liam Coen is now leaning toward letting the starters take a few snaps before the regular season begins, he said on Monday.
Rather than sticking to his original plan of having the backups do the dirty work to keep the first-stringers fresh for Week 1, Coen is opening the door for his top unit to play.
“I’m trending towards us potentially playing Friday night a little bit with the ones,” Coen said in his press conference.
Jaguars’ Trevor Lawrence in the Spotlight
GettyJacksonville Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence, other starters to potentially start against Panthers.
The sudden shift stems directly from the shortage of padded reps. With strict league limits capping how often the team can practice in full gear, Coen realized his starters needed live exhibition snaps to build contact conditioning and sharpen their execution before Week 1.
“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,” Coen explained.
All eyes will naturally fall on Trevor Lawrence. Whether he can play is not the question. He already did the work on it in 2025. It’s whether he can pick up right where he left off last season, in his Top 5 MVP form, without taking three or four weeks to warm up.
Besides, practice reps are one thing. Getting Lawrence actual exhibition reps cleans up potential timing issues with the revamped offensive line count.
“So that’s the goal right now, is to look at potentially playing [Lawrence] a little Friday night. I think we just need a little bit more padded work against each other, good on good,” Coen said.
“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, to get some of these guys some work, knowing that I’m not playing them in [preseason] Week 3.”
Coen Wary of Potential Injuries
GettyJacksonville Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence, other starters to potentially start against Panthers.
The decision to run the starters out there comes with high stakes, specifically up front. Camp injuries are holding Jaguars hostage, with key pieces like Patrick Mekari, Walker Little, and Chuma Edoga all questionable.
That’s one more reason to get the starters out there. Of course, the coaching staff wants to see whether reshuffled combinations can actually protect the quarterback, especially with dual-threat Travis Hunter ramping back up to full game speed.
But Coen also wants to avoid his backups getting tired and potentially injured before the season even starts. It happened with backup Nick Mullens, who suffered an undisclosed injury vs. the Saints.
“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.”
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