Although a report last night indicated that the Jaguars had offered free agent tackle Will Beatty a contract after working him out, a source tells Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union that the no signing is imminent “at this time.” Those two reports don’t necessarily contradict each other, as Jacksonville may have proposed a contract that Beatty is still mulling over. Indeed, Beatty is apparently in no rush to a sign a deal, tweets Mike Garafolo of NFL.com, who also hears that the Jags did make an offer.
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“[Beatty] did a nice job,” said head coach Gus Bradley, who added that a signing was not on the club’s immediate radar. “For us, I’m sure there is a lot of speculation with what’s going on, but we have two [offensive tackles] out and we’re always going to compete and always bring guys in and just keep our options option. If something comes up later on in training camp or after the preseason, we just want to make sure we have our options open so it was more of a workout.”
Kelvin Beachum, who is projected to start at left tackle for the Jaguars, hasn’t practiced since August 2 as he recovers from a torn ACL suffered in 2015. But Bradley says the Beatty workout wasn’t a sign that Jacksonville is worried about Beachum’s health. “Beachum had another good day today; he’s gone through two days of individual [work],” Bradley said. “In my quick conversations, they thought he did well again. I can tell from his spirit, he feels progress is being made. Now, hopefully it’s rapid.”
The Eagles were the other team reported to have interest in Beatty, but Philadelphia merely contacted the veteran tackle to see how his recovery from a torn pectoral was going, as well as to gather intel on his plans going forward, according to Adam Caplan of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The Eagles are bracing for the loss of right tackle Lane Johnson, who is facing a 10-game suspension for violating the league’s PED policy, and head coach Doug Pederson didn’t sound overly enthused about Dennis Kelly or Matt Tobin, Philadelphia’s incumbent backup plans.
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