Trevor Lawrence and Christian Kirk will both be at practice for the first time in a month, Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson announced on Wednesday.
Kirk, the Jaguars' then-leading receiver, has been out since suffering a core muscle injury on the first play of Jacksonville's 34-31 overtime loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Dec. 4. Pederson revealed that the Jags opened the 21-day practice window for Kirk, who has been on injured reserve for four weeks.
Even with that being the case, Kirk's 57 catches and 787 receiving yards are still third best on the team. While there's some optimism he'll rejoin the lineup for Jacksonville's pivotal game against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, Pederson said the team will be smart with reintegrating Kirk.
"We don't want any setback, so this will be a slow, gradual process, but it'll be good to get him out there," Pederson said via ESPN. "... Right now he's just day-to-day. We've just got to see where he is at the end of the week."
Lawrence, by contrast, has played through a litany of different injuries before a sprained AC joint in his right, throwing shoulder finally forced him to miss a game. He was injured on Dec. 24 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and hasn't practiced, or thrown much, since then.
Pederson said that Lawrence will be limited in his return. The signal caller said that he's looking forward to being back at practice and establishing how he and his shoulder feel.
"It's feeling better," Lawrence said. "Certain movements bother more than others. There's some things that I can do and there's some areas where I have totally normal strength and it's functional and all that. In certain positions, there's some aggravation. That's getting better everyday but still would like to see that go down a little bit more before I just totally let it loose."
Kirk and Lawrence availability against the Titans would be a massive boost for a Jacksonville trying to repeat as the AFC South champion and punch its ticket to the playoffs. Should the Jaguars lose, there are pathways for them to still make the postseason, but it would require the help of others.
Both the Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts, who play against one another on Sunday, have 9-7 records and are nipping at the heels of Jacksonville, if it loses in Nashville.
