–The Jaguars have been so beset with injuries and placed so many players on injured reserve that they are now relegated to re-signing players that they previously cut or chose not to re-sign during the offseason.
This week the Jaguars brought tight end Ben Koyack back on the roster after initially waiving him during the final roster cuts in September. Then the Jaguars announced they had re-signed guard Patrick Omameh, the same player that they started 13 games at left guard for Jacksonville in 2017.
–It’s no longer safe to say, as Blake Bortles goes, so go the Jaguars. Bortles has had four games this year where he’s passed for more than 285 yards. The Jaguars are 2-2 in them. He’s also had a 176-yard passing effort in which Jacksonville was victorious. And in his career-best game of 430 passing yards against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Jaguars lost by 16 points. In his last four games, Bortles has thrown one interception in 117 attempts yet the Jaguars lost all four games, and has now gone three straight games without a pick. It marks just the second time in his career that Bortles has gone three games in a row in the regular season without throwing an interception. The other time was a year ago when he was pick-free in Weeks 13, 14 and 15. Bortles then duplicated that feat in the postseason as he was not intercepted in any of his 85 passes in three games.
Bortles offered this explanation for not turning the ball over in the air.
“The focus is always on taking care of the ball. There are times with tips and stuff like that happens,” he said. “Obviously, the Kansas City game was a big one throwing four dingers. You try to avoid that at all costs. I wouldn’t say my awareness of it has changed at all, it’s always high. I know that if I protect the ball we’re going to have a chance to win, regardless of anything else, as long as we don’t turn it over. It’s always the plan going into the game.”
If Bortles does not have an interception this week against Pittsburgh, it would mark the first time in his career that he has gone four consecutive games in a season without throwing a pick.
–The Jaguars lost their fourth starter on offense this year when Brandon Linder suffered a knee injury that required surgery. Linder had the surgical procedure on Tuesday and it was a success according to head coach Doug Marrone.
Losing Linder is a significant loss. The fifth-year pro became the team’s starting center in 2016 after starting 15 games at right guard as a rookie in 2014. This marks the second time in his five years that Linder has been placed on IR. He played just three games in 2015 before he underwent surgery to repair a labral tear in his shoulder. He missed a total of six games in three other years before he was sidelined for the last seven games of the 2018 season.
Tyler Shatley will take over starting duties at center. Shatley has been a backup at both center and guard for five years. He played mostly on special teams his first two seasons but has now played in every game the last three seasons with four starts in both the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
“That’s why he’s on the team,” Marrone said. “We had him on the team to be the backup center and we expect for him to go out there and play winning football for us.”
Shatley echoed those sentiments.
“It helps that I’ve played in a lot of games the past couple of years,” he said. “I’ve always tried to be prepared as if I was starting the next game. You hate to see an injury like that to Brandon but I’m ready to step in there and will do everything I can to help our team.”
BY THE NUMBER: 14.8 — Jacksonville’s kickoff unit has held opponents to a 14.8 return average, the best mark in the NFL. Last week against Indianapolis, Jacksonville limited the Colts to seven yards on their lone kickoff return.
