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 Thursday, August 3
Offensive worries for Jaguars
 
 By John Clayton
ESPN.com

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Tom Coughlin built the Jacksonville Jaguars from expansion to championship caliber on a foundation of a great offensive and great defensive line. Down as many as six offensive tackles because of injuries, the foundation is cracking and Coughlin is running out of plaster.

Right tackle Leon Searcy needs four months to recover from a torn quad. Left tackle Tony Boselli, recovering from a knee reconstruction, won't be ready until the season opener and starting center John Wade has a stress fracture in his right foot and is out for at least three weeks. On a less serious note, new right tackle Zach Wiegert (elbow) and backups Todd Fordham (knee), Mark Baniewicz (knee) and Joe Chutsz (back) missed practice time this week.

Tony Boselli
Tony Boselli won't be ready until the regular season begins.

"I've never had a preseason where I've had all these tackles hurt," Coughlin lamented. "Where would you find a team that has had one group of people -- the offensive tackles -- collapse?"

As one observer put it, if the Jaguars can't find a healthy tackle, they may have to start looking for a quarterback. Mark Brunell may be part of the NFL version of "Survivor" if Coughlin can't "tackle" the injury bug.

Tuesday's practices against the New Orleans Saints were a preview of what life will be like without the league's best one-two tackle combo -- Boselli and Searcy. Blocking breakdowns ruined the timing of the passing game. By the afternoon practices, the offensive was out of sync. Safety Sammy Knight of the Saints was catching as many passes as the Jaguars' talented trio of Jimmy Smith, Keenan McCardell and rookie R. Jay Soward.

"We are not where we want to be," Coughlin said. "The timing is nowhere where it should be."

Other than Wiegert -- the remaining healthy starters -- Steve Ingram, Brad Meester and Dave Kempfert -- have no starts and 10 regular-season games played.

As a result of Wade's injury, the Jaguars have no returning starters in place on their offensive line.

The Jaguars appear to be confident that Wiegert, though signed as a guard, can hold up at tackle. Where they worry is that losing him at guard causes holes in the middle of the line. Meester and Kempfert are converted centers. In other words, the center of the Jags' line is just a bunch of centers.

Brunell, who has become more of a pocket passer of late because of leg injuries, acknowledges he may have to go back to his old scrambling ways for a while.

"Maybe we will go to a quicker passing game. Maybe I might move out of the pocket more," Brunell said. "I worked hard this offseason, working on my legs and working on my feet and working on my speed a lot. The knee feels great now."

With Searcy and Boselli at tackle, it gives us a punishing style with our run game and our pass game. But we can't afford to let our play go down. We can't relax.
Fred Taylor, Jaguars running back

The good news is that Boselli will be back. The bad news is that the line still won't be the same without Searcy, who is considered the best right tackle in football.

"Losing Searcy hurts," Boselli said. "He's very physical. He can dominate any defensive end. He's a veteran who has been through every situation. He's been to the Super Bowl. What Searcy and I have done more than anything is block the defensive end. That allows the tight end or back to get into the pattern."

The running game will also feel an effect.

"With Searcy and Boselli at tackle, it gives us a punishing style with our run game and our pass game," halfback Fred Taylor said. "But we can't afford to let our play go down. We can't relax."

The best case scenerio is for Searcy to come back by December or for the playoffs, but even that may require a miracle. Torn quads take time to heal. Though Searcy has been known for being a fast healer, it's a lot to ask for him to speed up a four-month injury.

Teams hate to look back at decisions, but in retrospect, they may have hurt themselves by not offering more than the $440,000 minimum to Ben Coleman. He had the versatility to get the Jaguars through the rough times. Guard was his best position, but he was big enough to do well at either tackle position. The San Diego Chargers signed him for about $1.1 million and put him as John Jackson's replacement at left tackle.

"Zach Wiegert is a very quick, very athletic player who has good power," Coughlin said. "We thought when we brought him in that he could play either guard or tackle. Now he's been moved out to tackle and he can play that side."

But on his best day, he can't dominate like Searcy. Meester has a chance to be a good guard but he has to learn quickly as a rookie. Expect the Jaguars to trade for a right guard or sign a few veterans once teams start cutting down their rosters.

The Jaguars' starting right guard of the regular season might be in somebody else's camp right now.

"The frustrating thing right now is that if I were able to line up with the people who I started the camp with, I'd be happy with the group," Coughlin said. "But that's the way it is."

In the meantime, Brunell may have to duck and cover for a while.

John Clayton is the senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.
 



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