When Maurice Jones-Drew is recovered from his foot surgery, he'll be returning to a team installing a new blocking scheme.
Per Ryan O'Halloran of the Florida Times-Union, the Jaguars will move from a power blocking philosophy to a zone scheme:
Offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch plans to install the zone-blocking scheme that was popularized by Alex Gibbs when he was the Denver offensive line coach under Shanahan. Fisch learned it when he worked for the Broncos for a year.
The scheme originally featured smaller, quicker linemen, but Fisch said bigger linemen can adjust to it and he believes the Jaguars’ personnel can make the transition to it.
It’s been somewhat controversial over the years because of the cut blocks and chop blocks, which are now illegal.
“The rules have made it harder to do it as often,’’ Fisch said. “They’re going to call more chop blocks. They’re going to call more penalties if you’re not a disciplined team doing it. If you’re doing it legally, then that’s fine. And you can’t practice it. That’s a big issue because you never want to do it to your own players.’’
General manager David Caldwell has indicated the team has enough to work with on the line.
I think they need to add in the draft and upgrade the depth. As they do so they can seek guys who fit what they want to do better than some of the guys they have.
And while we all tend to think only of the run game with the scheme, run blocking is not the biggest offensive line issue for the team Gus Bradley and Fisch inherit.
How will the change of scheme affect the pass protection? That's the question we'll need to examine going forward.