Jacksonville Jaguars' rookie offensive lineman Emmanuel Pregnon earned some opportunities with the starters during Tuesday's training camp practice. Pregnon was one of the standout performers during the Jaguars' preseason opener against New Orleans, and he's continued to trend upward since then. From the way Liam Coen described it recently, it does sound like the Jaguars would prefer to have Pregnon continue developing in a backup role. However, numerous injuries up front aren't giving Jacksonville that luxury at the moment. The Jaguars are currently without Chuma Edoga, Cole Van Lanen, Patrick Mekari, and Wyatt Milum. So to navigate these injuries, John Shipley of Jaguars on SI noted that a popular offensive line configuration on Tuesday consisted of Pregnon at left guard and Ezra Cleveland at right guard. Afterward, offensive coordinator Grant Udinski praised Pregnon's progress.
"He puts in a lot of extra work on his own time," Udinski said, via Jaguars on SI. "I see him in here at the facility. I'll take a stroll downstairs and it's 10 o'clock at night and I'm expecting it's only the cleaning crews around, but it's Emmanuel rolling around through the locker room, just finishing up his recovery work. So, I probably don't have enough good things to say about a guy like that.”
In a short matter of time, Pregnon has gone from primarily working with the backups to being a part of the potential preferred starting five in this week's preseason game. That said, Jonah Monheim is another candidate to start at right guard, which would allow Cleveland to stay at left guard. In the long run, Milum's absence is expected to be brief, and Edoga could still return during camp. Cole Van Lanen potentially coming back before Week 1 changes things as well, allowing the Jaguars to move Walker Little to right guard. But regardless of how things shake out up front, Pregnon's play is a very promising development. This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: Jaguars rookie trending upward at rapid rate