Jaguars Camp — Aug 31: Ewers In, the Whole Backup Room Out

The Jaguars will open the season with two quarterbacks on the 53 — Trevor Lawrence and Quinn Ewers — after a weekend in which all three of the camp backups were moved out, per John Shipley at SI's Jaguar Report. Jacksonville acquired Ewers from the Dolphins on Saturday for a 2028 sixth-round pick, first reported by Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo of NFL Network and announced by the team. Nick Mullens, the veteran who held the backup job, was released a day later to make way for him, per Bobby Kownack at NFL.com. Then Sunday's cutdown took the rest of the room: undrafted rookie Joey Aguilar waived, Carter Bradley waived with an injury designation, per John Oehser's roster-reduction report at the team's website. The competition our last episode called cutdown material — Mullens against Bradley against Aguilar, with Aguilar's late charge as the live storyline — resolved to none of the above. Shipley's read at Jaguar Report is that the trade fits general manager James Gladstone's pattern rather than any alarm about Lawrence: let veterans walk toward projected compensatory picks, spend late future picks on young depth like Ewers and Daniel Faalele.

The rest of the ledger, compressed. Jacksonville reached 53 by waiving 25 players, releasing nine veterans and adding two waived/injured designations, per Oehser at the team's website — DeeJay Dallas, Chuma Edoga and Sam Mustipher among the released. The second trade of the weekend went the other direction from the first: tight end Hunter Long and a 2028 seventh-round pick to the Cardinals for a 2028 sixth-round pick, per Josh Alper at Pro Football Talk citing Rapoport's compensation reporting, a swap the team's own release confirms — Quintin Morris held the last tight end spot behind Brenton Strange and rookies Nate Boerkircher and Tanner Koziol after the deal, per Shipley. Cornerback Jabbar Muhammad was waived despite Liam Coen having described him in camp as the most-improved player on the roster, a cut Shipley flagged in his roster breakdown. Trebor Peña, who led the team in preseason receptions, receiving yards and yards per catch — 10 catches on 13 targets for 149 yards and a touchdown, per Carlos Sanchez at Black and Teal — was waived. So was Michael Wortham, two days after returning a punt 63 yards for a touchdown in the finale, per Oehser's game report. The linebacker room came out at five — Foyesade Oluokun, Ventrell Miller, Dennis Gardeck, Jahlani Tavai and Branson Combs, per Shipley — after Jalen McLeod and Yasir Abdullah went into the waived column.

Now the questions our last episode left open, and both got answers. First: Patrick Mekari did land on injured reserve at the cutdown — with a designation to return, per Oehser's report at the team's website, the path Charean Williams flagged at Pro Football Talk when the back surgery was reported, and it costs the right guard at least the first four games. Rookie edge Zach Durfee got the same tag. Second: we asked which five linemen would open the preseason finale together, and the answer was none of them — the entire starting line sat Friday's game, with Oehser's game report listing Anton Harrison, Ezra Cleveland, Robert Hainsey, Mekari and Walker Little among the resting starters. Meanwhile the team's own "The 53" breakdown, also by Oehser, says rookie third-round pick Emmanuel Pregnon holds the starting left guard job. Put those two attributed facts together and the line Jacksonville actually projects for Week 1 — Pregnon at left guard, someone other than Mekari at right guard — has not taken a preseason snap together as a unit.

The finale itself: Jaguars 19, Buccaneers 0 on Friday night at EverBank Stadium, per Oehser. The performance that mattered most by Sunday belonged to Bryan Thomas Jr., the undrafted edge rusher from South Carolina, who posted 2.5 sacks, four quarterback hurries and a pass defensed, per Oehser's game report — and then made the 53 as the team's only undrafted rookie, per Justin Barney at News4JAX. Defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile said Thomas "played explosively in the games" and showed the run-and-hit style the staff liked on his college tape, per Shipley. Cam Little hit a 61-yard field goal in the second quarter, per Oehser. And the quarterback line reads differently now that the roster is set: Mullens went 5-of-7, Bradley 8-of-15 with a touchdown, Aguilar 7-of-9, per Oehser — a full evening of audition tape from three players who were all gone within two days. Neither Coen nor Gladstone had on-record comments about the cutdown itself in the weekend's coverage; Coen's last quotes in the window came after Friday's game.

Smaller resolutions worth a line each. Travis Hunter is listed at cornerback on the initial 53, opposite Montaric Brown, after spending the late preseason focused on defense, per Oehser's breakdown. Parker Washington, who missed practice the prior week, made the roster in a five-receiver room with Jakobi Meyers, Brian Thomas Jr., Josh Cameron and CJ Williams, per Shipley. Running back LeQuint Allen Jr. made it despite the soft-tissue injury that ended his camp, and 33-year-old Ameer Abdullah's rest in the finale signaled a spot that was already safe, per Shipley.

Back in July we previewed Jacksonville as a team the market was taxing too steeply for one good season — a case built on stability: same play-caller, same quarterback, a settled offensive line. Cut day put that split on paper. The play-caller and the quarterback are exactly where July left them, and Lawrence has a new backup behind him. But the settled line the case assumed is officially something else: a rookie starter at left guard, the right guard on injured reserve for at least four games, and a projected five yet to take a snap together. The football itself held up its end — a shutout finale, a 61-yard field goal from the kicker. The stability half of the July case is the part cut day formalized as gone.

What to watch next: the waiver wire clears and the practice squads form behind it — where Peña, Wortham, Muhammad and the rest of this week's cut names actually land is the next episode's job, and nothing about landings is knowable until the claims process. Beyond that, the open Week 1 question is the offensive line: who plays right guard in Mekari's absence, and when the projected five takes its first snap together, because it hasn't happened yet. We'll check back once the claims and the practice squads are in.

_Data via nflverse._