On Sunday, September 11th At 1:00 PM Eastern Time at Everbank Field in Jacksonville, Florida, the season will officially begin for the Jacksonville Jaguars and the visiting Green Bay Packers. The stage is set. The rosters are down to 53 players and the preseason is over. The forecast calls for clear skies and temperatures around 90 degrees at kickoff, with the Florida humidity likely to be in full swing. It’s time for meaningful NFL football.

Week One Preview: Jacksonville Jaguars Versus Green Bay Packers

This is an intriguing match-up of two teams with high hopes heading into the season. Green Bay has been one of the more consistent teams in the league in recent memory, having just one losing season in the last decade. Jacksonville, on the other hand, has enjoyed only one winning season in that same time span. Due to those simple facts, many will look at this game as an easy early season match-up for the Packers, and that may have been true in the past, but this year’s Jaguars club doesn’t look like the teams of late. Jacksonville has been meticulously revamping their roster since general manager Dave Caldwell and head coach Gus Bradley took over the reigns of the organization in 2013. Could this be the year their rebuild comes to fruition? Or will the Packers put a damper on the Jaguars season right out of the gate?

Green Bay Packers

The Packers saw their offensive production take a bit of a dip last year, and it’s no secret why. All-Pro receiver Jordy Nelson missed the entirety of the 2015 season with a torn ACL, and it hurt the offensive production substantially. Nelson was coming off of a career year in 2014 where he caught 98 passes for 1,519 yards and 13 touchdowns. As result, quarterback Aaron Rodgers put up career lows in both completion percentage and yards per attempt. Both the Packers coaching staff and Nelson himself have said that he is 100 per cent healthy and ready to go for Sunday’s bout with the Jaguars. If this is true, assuming Nelson, 31, is still the same player he was before the injury, he could be in store for a very productive game.

Running back Eddie Lacy also experienced a down year in 2015, which has frequently been attributed to his weight and general lethargy. Lacy has reportedly slimmed down this off-season and physically seems to be in better shape. If he can run like he did in his first two years in the league, the Packers offense should be a potent one.

Another issue that could arise for the Packers is the recently created void at left guard. The Packers released Pro Bowler Josh Sitton when they trimmed their roster down to the league-mandated 53 players on September 3rd. Sitton’s release wasn’t performance based or the result of a violation of the NFL’s Conduct Policy. It was simply over a contract dispute. Sitton has since signed with the division rival Chicago Bears, and many Packers fans were left perplexed.

Replacing Sitton is fourth year pro Lane Taylor. The Oklahoma State product was undrafted in 2013, and has spent the entirety of his career in Green Bay. Taylor filled in as a starter twice last year at both guard positions against the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings, respectively. By all accounts, he had a solid outing in both games, but he will undoubtedly be put to a test early in 2015 against the stout interior defensive line for the Jaguars, consisting of athletic pass rushers like Malik Jackson and Sen’Derrick Marks, and well as a big run stuffer in Roy Miller.

On defense, the Packers appear to be better than recent years. The biggest question mark is likely at the inside linebacker position where a pair of young, athletic players, Jake Ryan and Blake Martinez, will be starting. It’s not that either player is particularly bad, but both are just relative unknowns. Martinez is a rookie out of Stanford and Ryan is a second-year player from Michigan, who had 50 tackles in 14 games last season with five starts.

With Ryan and Martinez starting in the middle, All-Pro linebacker Clay Matthews be allowed to return to his natural position at outside linebacker where he made a name for himself terrorizing opposing quarterbacks. The secondary is a relatively solid unit, spearheaded by third-year safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. Cornerbacks Damarious Randall and Sam Shields could have their hands full with Jacksonville’s pair of 6’3″ receivers, Allen Robinson and Allen Hurns.

Jacksonville Jaguars

Jacksonville may have only won five games last year, but their offense had a true breakout season. Quarterback Blake Bortles followed a shaky rookie season with a stellar encore performance in 2015, finishing second in the league with 35 touchdown passes. Bortles has a dynamic duo at the receiver position with the aforementioned Robinson and Hurns. Both players eclipsed 1,000 yards and ten touchdowns last season, with Robinson going for 1,400 and 14 trips to the endzone.

The biggest enigma in Jacksonville’s offense is tight end Julius Thomas, who was a Pro Bowler for the Denver Broncos in 2014. Thomas played well when he was finally able to get healthy last season, but only scored five times, a substantial drop off from the 12 touchdowns that he caught from Peyton Manning in both 2013 and 2014. The Jaguars also brought in the AFC’s leading rusher from a year ago, Chris Ivory, this off-season to pair with sophomore back T.J. Yeldon, who had over 1,000 yards from scrimmage in just 12 games as a rookie.

Similar to the Packers, the Jaguars have a question mark at the left guard position. Former second-overall pick Luke Joeckel slid into the position after he lost his job at left tackle to the newly signed Kelvin Beachum, who missed the majority of training camp recovering from a torn ACL that he suffered last season while playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Joeckel was playing relatively solid football at the left tackle position last season until he was humiliated in the season finale against the Houston Texans, in a game where he surrendered five sacks to the likes of J.J. Watt and company.

In a contract season, Joeckel has been moved to a position that he has never played in his life. He had an underwhelming preseason and was abused by Geno Atkins in the Jaguars preseason exhibition with the Cincinnati Bengals. Joeckel could have his hands full with Packers defensive lineman Mike Daniels.

The Jaguars defense is a young unit, loaded with talented players. The issue is, many of these players have little to no experience playing at the NFL level. The interior defensive line is the strength of the defense. An already stout unit, the interior got even better when Jacksonville landed the prize of free agency, defensive tackle Malik Jackson.

The biggest question mark on the defense comes in the form of pass rusher from the LEO position, which is basically a 4-3 end and 3-4 outside linebacker hybrid that Gus Bradley uses in his defensive system. The starter at the position is Dante Fowler Jr., who was the third-overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, but a torn ACL suffered in rookie mini-camp ended Fowler’s rookie season before it even began. Fowler looked phenomenal in training camp this season, however, he failed to make much of an impact in his limited preseason reps.

The secondary should be significantly better than last year, as free agent signee Tashaun Gipson will be manning the free safety position and rookie phenom Jalen Ramsey will play cornerback both on the inside and outside. Ramsey will likely be tasked with covering explosive Packers receiver Randall Cobb in the opener, while former Packer Davon House will likely be put on Nelson.

Prediction

This Sunday’s game in Jacksonville could very quickly turn into a shootout, which would be an exciting start to the season. We could see a young Jaguars team put up a fight and come away with a win over the formidable Packers. However, beating Aaron Rodgers in a shootout is no easy task. So, despite the Jaguars best effort, the Pack walk away from this one with a hard fought victory.

Prediction: Green Bay 34, Jacksonville 31

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