Building Mental Toughness: Jaguars Embrace 'The Grind' During This Phase of Training Camp

Jaguars Senior Writer

JACKSONVILLE – This was familiar, and it was very much the start of something.

The familiarity for the Jaguars on Day 9 of 2023 Training Camp Saturday was being back in EverBank Stadium. As for the start of something? It's about to get tough and physical.

"This is the grind part of training camp here," Head Coach Doug Pederson said shortly before practice on Military Appreciation Day.

Saturday was the only '23 camp practice scheduled inside EverBank Stadium, where the Jaguars play home games and where they practiced daily last season. All other '23 camp practices will be held in the recently-completed Miller Electric Center – a state-of-the-art facility adjacent to the stadium.

The team will train at the MEC year-round, continuing to use their former in-stadium, year-round locker room on game days. That was the routine for Saturday's practice.

"A nice little dry run," Pederson called Saturday.

Pederson built this year's training camp schedule with the idea of making Days 9-11 "the grind" part of the preseason. The Jaguars will work in pads all three of those days. Although there were no "live" contact periods Saturday, 2022 camp featured such a practice during a similar mid-camp stretch.

"It's more about the mental toughness at this point, because we know the season's a long season and things come up," Pederson said. "You have to endure some adversity from time to time. There's going to be some. It's going to be hot. It's going to be warm. Guys aren't going to feel good. Coaches aren't going to feel good. But you know what? This is what we signed up to do.

"These three days are going to show a lot that way, to see who's really focused and locked in."

Pederson added, "I'll take care of them with water breaks and different things like that, keeping them hydrated and all. But this is a good little stretch."

Pederson on Saturday also discussed offensive and defensive identity, saying the offense must be "multiple."

"We talk a lot about the run game, play-action – all of that is critical – but our offense needs to be fluid," he said. "That identity needs to be fluid. It needs to be something where it's sort of changing every week, being able to throw our skill guys in positions to move around. That's something we've been able to establish these first couple of weeks and the guys have done a nice job with that."

Pederson said the defensive identity must be aggressive and physical at the line.

"We do understand that generating pass rush in this league is a lot of it, but being able to stop the run – I really think our defense's strong point is being physical," he said.

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