Jacksonville Jaguars need more than just Trevor Lawrence to shine to win in Miami

This season is all about Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence for the hometown team.

That journey starts Sunday at 1 p.m. on the road at Hard Rock Stadium against the Miami Dolphins.

But, he won't be anything if his supporting cast doesn't help and elevate his play on the gridiron. Some of that will fall on the shoulders of a new face. No, not veteran wideout Gabe Davis, though he will be relied on. But, rookie wideout Brian Thomas Jr. could be the catalyst for change in Jacksonville's offense moving forward.

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Drafted in the first round of this year's draft, the speedster out of LSU has steadily grown within Jacksonville's offense. Offensive coordinator Press Taylor painted a picture Thursday of what Thomas has done to elevate himself from when he was drafted to now: the details.

"I think even going back to the Atlanta preseason game, he caught the crosser. If you just watch the tape, he's open, he gets out, he runs it a certain way," Taylor said. "We spent a lot of time as a group just detailing that specific route, and what it looks like and all the different looks for it. So then to see the way he ran it, dove inside, got vertical, stuck his foot, separated, that was exactly what we talked about.

"So just to see him grow on the little details, the little nuances of one simple little route to where it carried over to game. Then you've seen the confidence grow from him."

Thomas' confidence has never been questioned, but it takes a while for a rookie, especially a rookie receiver, to get going.

Thomas seemed to break that mold right away after a downfield catch in the team's first preseason game against the Kansas City Chiefs at EverBank Stadium. Thomas caught a long, 41-yard pass from then-backup QB C.J. Beathard while being dragged to the ground by a Chiefs defensive back. That brought out a lot of cheers from the Jacksonville sideline who had front-row seats.

Christian Kirk, who has taken Thomas under his wing, understands how much a catch like that can help ease the wideout into the league as Week 1 approaches. He said Monday that he's excited to see Thomas get out there on Sunday against the Dolphins.

"Even though being a first-round draft pick and all the success he had in college, once you get to this level, there still needs to be some point of validation, like, ‘Okay, I can do it at this level,'" Kirk explained. "I know I went through it too and I know a lot of rookies do, you just need that one play. Like, 'Okay, I can do it at a high level with these guys.' BT is just going to keep on getting better the more plays he makes like that, especially in the regular season."

Thomas said in the locker room Thursday that he feels he's excelled at getting the playbook down, getting out on the field and playing fast. He wants to build on each week, taking it day by day, one step at a time.

When asked about his favorite high-school football memory, Thomas took a minute to think about it, but one game stood out in his mind.

"My second game. I had four catches and three touchdowns, like 225 yards. That was probably a big memory," he said.

The Jaguars hope his first game with the team will field similar results.

Will he have first-game jitters?

"I wouldn't say they hit me yet, maybe when we get closer to game day, but as of right now, nah," he said with a smile.

Jaguars to get first good look at re-shuffled offensive line Sunday vs. Dolphins led by new coordinator Anthony Weaver

Just like without the supporting cast at skill positions on the Jaguars' offense, Lawrence won't be able to move forward without protection from the offensive line. He won't be able to move forward without a run game, either.

The Jaguars largely left last year's offensive line untouched. Returning as starters at left tackle Cam Robinson, left guard Ezra Cleveland, right guard Brandon Scherff and right tackle Anton Harrison.

Harrison enters Year 2 with Jacksonville as one of the team's top linemen and is expected to make a huge leap in 2024. Cleveland, finally healthy is expected to be a major contributor to the line's efforts.

The team brought in a new center, Mitch Morse, who is expected to be a boost to the team's interior offensive line, the pressure point of failure that hampered the team last season.

“We're very confident in the work they've put in. That's really all we can go off right now. From April through training camp, through all of it. Whether it's the meetings, spending time together, getting on the same page communication-wise, to the reps we see on the field and the reps we spend time getting in the walkthroughs," said Taylor when asked about the offensive line Thursday.

"We've put a lot of time into that and we're very confident in the way they'll play. But again, that's part of it. Let's go see what happens.”

Essentially, a big, who knows? Who knows if the offensive line will do well? Who knows if Lawrence will be the 12th-most-sacked quarterback in the league while also getting the ball out of his hands in 2.2 seconds, the second-fastest among quarterbacks in 2023? Who knows if the team will post over a 50.9% third-and-four or less conversion rate (26th in the league) by mid-November ? Who knows if the team will rank higher than 23rd in the league in rushing yards per game?

Those answers start Sunday against the Dolphins led by newly hired defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver. Weaver's defense will be new, but the Jaguars are looking back at tape against the Baltimore Ravens, Weaver's old stomping grounds, to get a better idea.

"Obviously, you're gonna have some preseason tape out there, but there's definitely gonna be something that we haven't seen and some things that they've been working on to kind of really go ahead on and build their identity with. [They have] talent all over the place," Jaguars tight end Evan Engram said in the locker room Wednesday.

"They're strong up front, great players in the secondary, speed at the linebacker position. So, we're going to have to play physically, we have to play fast."

The Dolphins boast a formidable front seven, though they won't have their ringer in defensive lineman Christian Wilkins after he signed with the Las Vegas Raiders this spring. The team is, however, getting back standout pass rusher Jaelan Phillips, who missed half of last season due to an achilles injury. Phillips has 22 sacks in 42 games after being drafted by the Dolphins in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft.

They'll also have to score points, Engram noted.

"That's one of their strong suits. They have a great offense on the other side to help them out. So, we have a big challenge ahead of us," he said.

Jaguars defensive line the key to success against Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa

There's no question that the Jaguars' secondary will be the most-watched aspect of the team's defense this weekend, but they may not be the reason why Jacksonville has success, ultimately, against Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa.

Under the guidance of new defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen and his staff, the Jaguars have invested heavily in the team's defensive line in both dollars and time. With a schematic overture, Nielsen is working to keep his players fresh, specifically on the defensive line.

Last season, Jaguars defensive ends Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker played nearly all of the team's defensive snaps at 79% and 78%, respectively. While both will be utilized early and often still, they'll be fresher throughout the game with fewer snaps played. Jacksonville kept 11 defensive linemen and most will be active on game days.

One of Jacksonville's major additions on defense is DL Arik Armstead, who can play inside and out, giving the team a versatile piece to keep Walker and Hines-Allen fresh. It's an opportunity Hines-Allen is looking forward to.

“I like it. I think it's going to be beneficial, again, I've always done a lot of the heavy lifting. Now I'm still going to play,but now I can you know sit out more than two plays and just catch a breath, and then come back fresh," Hines-Allen said Monday via Zoom when asked about the change in philosophy.

"Plus, you know the guys that are coming in, I trust that they can go out there and do what they need to do and give them a different look and let me know what looks they got out there for those guys."

Their first matchup of the year will come against Tagovailoa, who Nielsen said Thursday "has a lot of weapons."

"The guy gets the ball lightning-quick out of his hands. So, we’ve got to do a really good job in our coverage and disrupting him in the pocket, things like that, things you’ve got to do every week," Nielsen said about Tagovailoa.

"But [he's a] really good football player. He's playing at a really high level. Watched a lot of his games from last year. How quickly he gets rid of the ball and how well they do a job of seeing your coverage. He knows where to go with the football. It's very impressive.”

While Lawrence is second in the league at getting the ball out of his hands quickly, Tagovailoa has him beat by 1/10th of a second at 2.1 seconds per snap, according to Pro Football Reference.

Nielsen shared some insight into how the defensive line will have to play to counter that Tagovailoa does so well.

"Get your hands up, limit interior throwing lanes, things like that. We can't be high rushing up the field, open up areas where he can see better. But yeah, interior types, hands up, bats, tip some balls, things like that," Nielson explained.

The Jaguars will have their hands full Sunday, but their confidence is through the roof to start the season. And though Jaguars owner Shad Khan's words about winning now spoke volumes to Pederson, he doesn't feel any pressure. That's why they hired him.

“Quite honestly, that's what I was hired to do and that's why we brought these players in here to do is to win football games," said Pederson. "We're not going to make excuses for why, we just have to go do it. I can appreciate that. It doesn't add any extra pressure or anything like that. We just have to go do our jobs.”

Demetrius Harvey is the Jacksonville Jaguars reporter for the Florida Times-Union. You can follow him on X,  formerly known as Twitter, at @Demetrius82 .

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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Jaguars need more than just Trevor Lawrence to shine to win in Miami