A game where the backups and the backups to the backups battled against each other. There are a couple of players of interest/notes from this one, but the overview thing I'd like to say about this game is—given these were 2nd, 3rd, and 4th teams facing off against each other, within the slop...these two teams have a pretty nice depth of talent.
Jacksonville has a nice little team there; I mean, they are the defending champs in the division, but 2026 is going to come down to their smarts versus the Texans' defensive brawn. I'm not sure which way it's going to go, but I lean towards the Texans. Worst case, Jacksonville should make the playoffs.
The Buccaneers, by process of elimination, have to be considered the favorites in the NFC South. The Panthers are all kinds of injured, and Atlanta is destroying their team from within, so it's down to the Buccaneers and the Saints. And the little X-factor that makes me now lean towards Tampa Bay is... they have a halfway decent backup QB in case Baker gets hurt. I'll take Jalon Daniels over Spencer Rattler any day.
The Jaguars shut out the Bucs here, but it was actually a competitive game—one where the Jacksonville smarts outwitted the Tampa Bay athletes. That may be harbinger of things to come for both teams. The coaching advantage goes to the Jaguars in this matchup by a mile... and to think that the Buccaneers could have had Dave Canales and then could have had Liam Coen, but they stuck by Todd Bowles, and that will probably bring them down in the end.
Player Notes...
-- Here I am talking about how confident I am in UDFA rookie QB Jalon Daniels (8-15 for 57 yards, 0 TD/0 INT, 4-9-0), and then he has a mediocre game, and his team gets shut out. Daniels is definitely not all the way there yet. For the first time this preseason, I saw Daniels throw a couple of passes into danger, trying to fit a pass in, that he won't be able to get away with if he's shoved into the starting lineup for any reason.
Still, Daniels looks like the most poised QB of any of the non-Mendoza rookies out there. And Daniels' running ability, his sense for when to run and when not to run, is very impressive as well. One of the biggest shocks of this preseason for me, if not the biggest... that Jalon Daniels might be the clear second-best QB in this entire draft, and yet he went undrafted. And I can't laugh at the NFL too much for that because I didn't think Daniels was going to translate nearly this well as he has this preseason.
-- Jacksonville has a decent-looking UDFA rookie QB of their own, Joey Aguilar (7-9 for 57 yards, 0 TD/0 INT, 1-0-0), and he played longer late-game duty as opposed to Daniels, who started this game for Tampa. But Aguilar has been very decent and not too far over his skis so far in the preseason. He's nowhere near as far along as Daniels, but I see a little something to work with. So did Jacksonville, as they did cut him but also put him right onto the practice squad... cutting all of their other backup QBs and trading for Quinn Ewers.
-- Sean Tucker (5-15-0, 1-(-1)-0/1) got the start for the Buccaneers at running back, and this was being seen as a battle for the #3 RB depth chart spot with Tucker versus Josh Williams (8-21-0, 0-0-0/0).
I thought in Week 2 Josh Williams really stepped ahead of Tucker, who looked like he would rather be anywhere else than playing in that Week 2 preseason game. But Tucker must have read the internet because he was much more engaged and just flat-out looked better than Williams here. There's a future for Williams on an NFL roster with some use case someday, but it's not today. He got cut and put on the practice squad.
-- Speaking of RBs who got cut and put on the practice squad, J'Mari Taylor (12-44-0, 1-7-0/2) was working behind DeeJay Dallas in this game and didn't do anything of note to force Jacksonville's hand to put him on the roster. They really didn't need to; he's safe to be put on the practice squad, as he was. I think Taylor will make it to an NFL roster at some point. If Bhayshul Tuten flops or gets hurt, it might be Taylor who gets a little opportunity to see what he can do. He is pretty quick and has nice hops and a bounciness to his running style, but he's very small.
-- Jacksonville has about a thousand talented UDFA WRs and late-round draft pick WRs on their team... and one of them shined in this game: Michael Wortham (0-0-0, 3-47-0/4). He's a little jitterbug WR who had some nice runs after the catch and also returned a punt 63 yards for a touchdown. I really didn't see his NFL supposed starter-type of speed and agility, but maybe my eyes were failing me because he just kept making plays... granted, it was against low-level defense, but still, he made the most of his appearance here and got himself put on the practice squad as well.
-- As if the Jaguars didn't have enough crazy WR talent among their UDFAs, the most impressive WR they had in this game, to my eyes, was Brady Boyd (0-0-0, 1-4-0/3) out of Utah State... a 4.3s runner, and he just floated with smooth running ability with a quickness that got him open and running great routes, befuddling low-level defenders in this game.
I don't know if he can catch a football on the level that needs to be to become a legit NFL WR, but watching him move in his routes in this game... it definitely left an impression on me.
-- The three most impressive or impactful things that I actually took away from this game; I saved them for last...
1) Perhaps the best pass rusher that I have seen this preseason is second-year edge David Walker (1 tackles, 0.0 sacks, 0 TFLs, 0 PDs, 0 INTs), who got injured in training camp last year and missed his entire rookie season. He's the guy from the FCS ranks at Central Arkansas where he was the 2024 Buck Buchanan Award winner and a multi-time All-American, racking up an absurd 31 career sacks and 63 tackles for loss in just 34 games. The box score doesn't show the disruption, but he was basically unblockable here. And I’ve seen him harassing QBs against all kinds of offenses this preseason. He was supposedly unblockable last training camps, OTAs, etc.
2) A surprise defender who stood out was Jacksonville 2026 UDFA EDGE Bryan Thomas Jr. (5 tackles, 2.5 sacks, 2 TFLs, 1 PDs, 0 INTs). His dad was a 1st-round pick DE/OLB for 10 seasons with the NY Jets. He played so well this preseason that he forced his way onto the 53-man roster.
3) They interviewed Jacksonville head coach Liam Coen on the sidelines during the game and one of the things that he said stood out to me... Coen went on a total stream of consciousness talking about how he craves for the Jaguars to have a real, mean, physical, violent run game.
There is only one running back on this Jacksonville Jaguars roster that fits that description... and you know his name.
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