The Jaguars are still a long way from 53, but they took a step in that direction on Saturday morning. The team has confirmed that eight players have been waived -- CB Ashton Youboty, WR Chastin West, QB Nathan Enderle, LB Nate Bussey, RB DuJuan Harris, T Dan Hoch and LB Donovan Richard.
The roster is now down to 82 players. It must be down to 75 by 4 p.m. ET on Monday. The final 53 must be decided on by Friday, Aug. 31.
Youboty is the most surprising of Saturday's cuts. The seven-year veteran started five games for the Jaguars in 2011, wracking up 25 tackles, three pass deflections and one interception. The return of veteran CB Rashean Mathis from a torn ACL and the signing of CB Aaron Ross made Youboty expendable.
Letting go of Bussey this early is surprising as well. He's had a quiet preseason, but with the Jaguars currently dealing with injury problems at LB, Bussey, who played in two playoff games with the Saints in 2011, was helping fill in.
More production at WR needed: Rookie WR Justin Blackmon has been as good, or better, than anybody thought this preseason. He has eight receptions for 120 yards in his two preseason games. Coach Mike Mularkey likes his production but wants more from the rest of the unit.
“I thought (Blackmon) played well again," he told the Florida Times-Union. "He made the catches. We need more guys doing what he’s doing. When the ball is in the vicinity, we’ve got to make catches. He’s doing that. We need more than one guy to do what they did. When the ball is tightly covered, we need to make the plays."
Prized free-agent WR Laurent Robinson is one of the WRs the Jaguars need to step up. He had zero catches Thursday against the Ravens and only has one reception for seven yards in the entire preseason.
Defensive setback: The Ravens torched the Jaguars with nearly 600 yards of total offense in Thursday night's 48-17 loss. That's extremely concerning for the Jaguars since the third preseason game is supposed to be a dress rehearsal for the regular season.
“The third game being the most important in the preseason, you don’t want to come out and play like we did," LB Paul Posluszny told the team's official website. "It was very disappointing. Thankfully, it happened now as opposed to week one, so we need to learn from all the mistakes that we made and fix some of the stuff. We have to play better than we did tonight."
There is some solace in the fact that starting CB Derek Cox and starting LB Daryl Smith were sitting out. That was no excuse, according to veteran DE Jeremy Mincey.
"They came to play," he told the Florida Times-Union. "Things happen like that sometimes. We have to come out with more energy and execute a little better.”
For more news and analysis of the Jaguars, follow Daniel Lewis @CBSSportsNFLJAC.