JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Jacksonville Jaguars general manager David Caldwell admits he put too heavy a burden on his coaching staff during training camp in 2013.
In an effort to improve the bottom part of the roster in his first season, Caldwell essentially had a revolving door on the front of the football facility. He kept adding and cutting players throughout camp, hoping to find better talent.
That meant position coaches were trying to get new players acclimated to the systems on what seemed like a daily basis.
Caldwell vowed to cut down the number of training camp transactions this year and so far has kept his word. Through the first 12 days and 10 practices in camp, the Jaguars have made only six transactions in relation to the 90-man roster. In 2013 the Jaguars made 23 during camp, not counting the two mandatory cut dates.
"There might be maybe two or three guys at specific positions if we have some injuries in camp or something that we might be looking at that come available," Caldwell said. "The magnitude of new faces that we brought in for our coaching staff [last year], it was hard for them. It was really geared more so for the second part of last season and going into this season we feel good about it even though that was tough to go through and it was tough for the coaches to go through."
The Jaguars didn’t make a move for the first eight days of camp before placing three players on the waived/injured list last Saturday: defensive tackle Jordan Miller, linebacker John Lotulelei, and receiver Damian Copeland. The Jaguars then signed receiver Kenny Shaw, linebacker Josh Hull, and defensive tackle David Carter.
None of those three new players will likely make the 53-man roster, which is in contrast to what happened last season when the Jaguars signed six free agents either late in camp or the week before the first game that made the roster for Week 1. Caldwell says the bottom third of this year’s roster is in much better shape and doesn’t need the kind of upgrade it did last season.
"Most of the teams I’ve been with I can narrow it down to about 51, 52 players and you might have the one-off guy that might make the team that you didn’t expect to make it and one guy get cut," Caldwell said. "But we really have position battles almost at every position to make this roster. And that’s good. That’s good for everybody. That’s going to elevate everybody’s play from our starters on down.
"There’s going to be good, good battles. There’s no more free rides anymore."
The Jaguars' roster is still behind the top teams in the NFL but it is at least considerably more stable right now than it was last season, especially the bottom third. Now Caldwell's task is to upgrade the top third with talented young players, which he has already begun to do by drafting quarterback Blake Bortles and receivers Marqise Lee and Allen Robinson and signing free agents Toby Gerhart, Zane Beadles and Dekoda Watson.