Jags' hopes high for Nelson

Jaguars' veteran middle linebacker Mike Peterson said second-year free safety Reggie Nelson walked into the NFL physically ready to play. But, as a rookie last season, Nelson took a little while to understand what to do right before the snap.

"He was too quiet last year, way too quiet," Peterson said. "I told him we work hand-in-hand. We work together to make it so the various levels of the defense work together. I'm the right (hand), he's the left.

"He did great with all of the athletic ability God gave him, but here, he's also expected to make calls and translate them to the mike linebacker (Peterson). The middle linebacker and the free safety must be on the same page."

Peterson said the sometimes soft-spoken Nelson didn't always call out the secondary's coverages, meaning Peterson had to do that for the front seven (as usual) and the defensive backs — a lot to ask when it is the offense in control of when the play starts.

Peterson said he sat down Nelson early last season and told him he needed to embrace all of his roles to be a complete football player.

The result?

"He went from not playing like I expected to being the player I thought he could be," Peterson said.

Peterson added Nelson looked very comfortable during organized team activities and should be even better in 2008 than 2007 when he recorded 63 tackles and had five interceptions, tied with Cincinnati cornerback Leon Hall for tops in the NFL among rookies.

"Things are a whole lot different now," said Nelson, who is 5-foot-11, 198 pounds. "A whole lot different. I feel more in tune with everything that's going on. It just took a little time on the field for me to get to that point.

"Things are coming to me much easier having been around the league for a year."

With the extra experience comes higher expectations.

"First of all, I think he's a really fine football player," coach Jack Del Rio said. "I think he'll naturally gain a little bit of strength in our weight program.

"Naturally, he'll be a little more comfortable where last year he was trying to figure everything out. He now has a pretty good grasp on the basic fundamentals of what we're doing defensively, and we want to do as good a job as we can of putting him in position to make some of the athletic plays he's very capable of making.

"I think he's got a bright future."