Jacksonville Jaguars at New Orleans Saints

Neither team's actual starting quarterback threw a pass. Jaguars coach Liam Coen kept Lawrence and the rest of his front-line group out entirely, a call that made sense given how much work the starters had already logged in Thursday's joint practice with New Orleans. Saints coach Kellen Moore did the same with Shough, handing the keys to Spencer Rattler as the club opened camp evaluation mode a week before the games start to matter.

Zach Wilson ended up being the most efficient arm on the field for New Orleans, going 11-of-16 for 145 yards and a touchdown in relief. Rattler, the presumptive QB2, had a rougher time of it — 8-of-11 for 42 yards with a lost fumble — while Hunter Dekkers closed the game out on the third-string reps. On the other sideline, Jacksonville leaned on Nick Mullens and Carter Bradley to run the show, with a defense that got after it: four total sacks, two picks (Jaylan Ford and Jayden Price), and Michael Heldman alone getting to the quarterback twice in the first half.

The scoring wasn't exactly a backups' snoozer. Ty Chandler took the opening kickoff back 86 yards — the Saints' longest preseason return since 2010 — and Audric Estime punched in a 9-yard touchdown just 21 seconds into the game. New Orleans also got a touchdown from Oscar Delp off a Wilson pass set up by a 27-yard Bub Means catch, plus two Tanner Brown field goals. It was enough to keep things tight, but not enough to hold off Jacksonville.

Both clubs enter the summer coming off 4-1 stretches to close last season, and both figure to lean on that carryover depth as they sort out camp battles. For Jacksonville, this was the first live look at the group fighting for the QB3 job behind Mullens, plus early run-game reps for Bhayshul Tuten and Chris Rodriguez as co-starters at the position. For New Orleans, the Rattler-vs-Wilson question just got a lot more interesting heading into the rest of camp.

Neither team was operating anywhere close to full strength on the injury front either — New Orleans was already down Audric Estime's backfield mates Devin Neal and Kendre Miller before kickoff, and Jacksonville is still working Travis Hunter back in as a two-way piece. None of that touched the outcome much given who was actually on the field, but it's the kind of context worth banking before these rosters start cutting down.

Sources