Urban Meyer Offers Explanation For Laviska Shenault's Lack of Targets vs. Titans
It has taken the current Jacksonville Jaguars' coaching staff and regime little time to find out one of the truths about their roster: get the ball to Laviska Shenault and good things happen.
Despite this truth, though, the Jaguars and head coach Urban Meyer are discovering that it takes more than just a public commitment to get Shenault the ball. Instead, it takes a concentrated effort to make him a part of the offense, not allowing the team's depth players on offense to see larger shares of the passing game's targets.
This wasn't the case in Week 5's 37-19 loss to the Tennessee Titans, though, as Shenault saw just three targets (all in the fourth-quarter), compared to Jamal Agnew (eight targets), Dan Arnold (eight targets), and Tavon Austin (five targets). But despite Shenault's lack of complete usage, he still proved to be the Jaguars' top playmaker outside of running back James Robinson.
“What we did was when we lost [DJ] Chark [Jr.], he had to go to play outside as well, but he was point of attack many times. It just didn’t get him the ball," Meyer explained on Monday.
Despite the lack of usage for Shenault, he still finished second on the team in receiving yards on Sunday -- on just one catch. It was a 58-yard catch-and-run that saw Shenault break five tackles and completely flip field position, his second 50-plus yard catch in the last two weeks.
A few plays later, Shenault beat man coverage for a would-be touchdown, but Trevor Lawrence just missed his athletic and talented wideout. On just two targets, Shenault nearly had the biggest day of any Jaguars' pass-catcher, a reflection of both his talent and of the importance for the Jaguars to get him the ball more consistently.
"That’s something we have to make sure he gets the ball because you saw the one that he had. He’s dynamic and he’s arguably our best playmaker right now," Meyer said on Monday.
There are certainly some aspects of his game that Shenault needs to improve at to see more targets, such as getting better at getting himself open on scramble drills when Lawrence breaks the pocket. But Shenault has the ability to get manufactured touches and turn them into big gains, which makes it a bit hard to believe his first target in Sunday's game came with 12:21 left in the game.
Shenault, of course, will also have to face adjustments following Chark's injury. Shenault spent the first four weeks primarily in the slot only, playing just 31 snaps on the outside, per PFF. In Week 5, though, he played 45 snaps on the outside, lining up in the slot on only seven snaps. This is a dramatically different role and position for Shenault, which could also factor into his slow start on Sunday.
But for now, the Jaguars don't have much of a choice in Shenault's usage until they trust Tyron Johnson. The Jaguars simply can not ask Tavon Austin or Jamal Agnew to line up outside and expect positive results, leaving Shenault and Johnson as the only other logical options. Johnson, though, has somewhat been in the coaching staff's dog house, seeing his snaps decrease each week until he played zero snaps in Week 5.
"Tyron is a guy that’s very talented, he just has to [get the] detail of something. Once the detail gets underlined, I believe in Tyron. I believe in his skill set, it’s ridiculous," Meyer said last Friday.
"It’s detail. It’s detail is exactly what it is. To give Tyron credit, the last ten days, and [Wide Receivers Coach] Sanjay [Lal], his detail has improved drastically. Is it to the point where he’s a starter in the NFL? No, not yet.”
But the Jaguars will need to help Shenault ease into the transition much easier than they did on Sunday. It was just a week prior, after all, that Meyer said Shenault is a player who he would like to get 10 touches a game, a far cry the single touch he got in Sunday's game.
