Jacksonville Jaguars Notes, Quotes
by Sports Xchange
"He's probably not 100 percent of what he was prior to the injury, but he's continuing to work and getting better," he said. Porter, though, said he's "fine."
Del Rio said that Porter graded out well in the reps he did have against Pittsburgh, although he didn't make a catch. Unless Porter can add a deep threat to the offense, it'll make it more difficult to get their running game going because teams are loading up to stop the run.
--Derrick Harvey, the team's first-round pick, is still looking for his first sack even though he has started the first two games. In his two starts, Harvey has yet to make a tackle and he didn't even make the stat sheet in the Pittsburgh game.
Harvey may be slowed by the fact that he was a long holdout during training camp. "If you miss all that, as coaches we believe that work's important," Del Rio said.
Del Rio also said that Harvey and Quentin Groves, their second-round pick, are dealing with high expectations because they were drafted on the top two rounds.
"I think that the whole expectation thing is one that probably causes more coaches and players headaches than everything else," Del Rio said. "Just because a guy is taken high or makes a lot of money, it doesn't mean that he's just going to go in and be Superman and people are going to fall away and not be able to block him ever."
Even though Harvey and Groves are fighting the expectations game, Del Rio seems pleased with their progress.
"Those guys bring what we thought they would bring when we selected them. They've got good energy, live legs. They're going to impact our defense in a positive way throughout the course of this year," he said.
Del Rio added that Groves is ahead of Harvey at this point.
"Groves had the benefit of camp so he's probably off to a little faster start. Harvey is working hard to catch up. I think that's the most important part. That's what I need to see right now. That's what they have control over is the effort and the energy that they've put out each day trying to get better and individually and as a team," Del Rio said.
--When the Jaguars go to Denver, they'll become the first team to meet all four division leaders in the AFC. The problem is that they've already lost to three of them -- Buffalo, Tennessee and Pittsburgh.
In the AFC South, they're three games behind the 5-0 Titans and the Titans also have a head-to-head tiebreaker edge because they beat the Jaguars.
The three teams they've lost to have a combined 13-2 record.
BY THE NUMBERS: 42-27 -- That's the record that the Jaguars have the last five years, which is the seventh-best record in the NFL although they only have one playoff win in that span.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "It's always one block." -- Coach Jack Del Rio, on how their running game isn't working because they're missing blocks.
advertisement
