Jaguars Training Camp, Day 13: Observations on Final Practice Before Preseason Opener

The Jacksonville Jaguars had the scout cards out for Thursday's practice, which means one thing: game week.

With the backups mixing in with the starters to prepare for Saturday's preseason opener vs. the Dallas Cowboys, practice No. 13 was one of the more toned-down days for the Jaguars at the Miller Electric Center so far. With this in mind, what all did we see?

Tyson Campbell goes through team drills

Jaguars star cornerback Tyson Campbell is seemingly quickly making his way through the concussion protocol, taking another important step during Thursday's practice. While he is still in the protocol, Campbell did not wear a non-contact jersey during Thursday's practice and went through all team drills, even picking off Nathan Rourke during an early team period.

With Campbell still in the protocol, it should be assumed he won't play vs. the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday. He has clearly made progress, though, and any past concern about his symptoms lingering into the regular season can likely be now be put away. Campbell moved around well on Thursday and looks like he isn't far from a full return.

Christian Braswell makes his practice debut

Another cornerback who got time in team drills today after some time away was sixth-round cornerback Christian Braswell. The sixth-round rookie from Rutgers has been working to the side for the entirety of training camp up to this point due to a hamstring injury, but he participated in team drills during Thursday's practice, mostly going against the starting defense.

Braswell has his work cut out for him when it comes to cracking the 53-man roster considering the competition at cornerback between the likes of Gregory Juinor, Divaad Wilson, Montaric Brown, Tevaughn Campbell, and Erick Hallett II has been intense. With that said, it is critical for him that he is able to return ahead of the start of the preseason, with those games now likely being his best chance for reps.

Few surprises in the Jaguars' starting lineup

There won't be many surprises in the Jaguars' starting lineups on Saturday, at least not based on what we have seen from practice. The Jaguars' top four receivers are obviously locked in place, while Travis Etienne is the clear starter at running back. Behind Evan Engram, it looks like a mix of Gerrit Prince, Luke Farrell and Brenton Strange are jockeying for snaps, though the nod likely goes to Farrell based on practice reps. Then there is the offensive line, which has Walker Little, Blake Hance, Luke Fortner, Brandon Scherff, and Anton Harrison set to start.

As for the defense, there are no real shocks. Yasir Abdullah is in the concussion protocol but was never going to start on Saturday to begin with. The Jaguars practiced with Josh Allen and Travon Walker as their outside linebackers, with K'Lavon Chaisson and Jordan Smith next up behind them. Devin Lloyd and Foyesade Oluokun got the nod at inside linebacker, with the trio of DaVon Hamilton, Foley Fatukasi and Roy Robertson-Harris commanding most of the reps. In the secondary, the Jaguars went back to Campbell, Darious Williams and Tre Herndon at cornerback, along with Rayshawn Jenkins and Andre Cisco at safety.

Expect plenty of Nathan Rourke on Saturday

It would be shocking if we didn't see a large dosage of Nathan Rourke on Saturday. Rourke and backup quarterback C.J. Beathard took the majority of reps on Thursday, both in part to help prepare the starting defense while also clearly getting some important work in to prepare the backup passers to play most of the game vs. Dallas.

Rourke was overall more impressive than Beathard on Saturday, showing better short and intermediate accuracy, especially in the red-zone. Beathard is going to clearly be the No. 2 quarterback, but Rourke looks like he will get plenty of chances to impress the Jaguars' staff this weekend.

Play of the Day

This is a tough one for today. There were not many standout plays and the intensity of practice was clearly lower. I'll go with a Christian Kirk catch over his shoulder near the sideline vs. the backup defense based on the fact that it is the closest thing to a big play for the day.

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