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As Pro Football Weekly advised readers on Monday, new offensive coordinator Carl Smith, the quarterbacks coach at USC last year, chose not to join the Jaguars with "system" in place, preferring instead to devise a scheme after studying Jacksonville's areas of strength.

And after the team completed its series of OTAs (organized team activities) last Wednesday, Florida Times-Union staff writer Vito Stellino reported that Smith liked the way players adjusted to the new offense.

"I'm really happy with the way our offensive guys approached the offseason and they were receptive to our teaching," he said. "Really, I had no idea we'd be this far along."

That's because Smith and the Jaguars have pretty much been creating their playbook on the fly after watching and assessing his personnel and drawing up plays he thought would be a good fit for them.

"We chose plays we thought would be good for this group," Smith said. "We chose language we thought they would understand and they've done an outstanding job of learning.

"You have to know what you have and adjust your offense to the personnel instead of adjusting the personnel to the offense," said receivers coach Steve Walters, who worked with Smith in New England and New Orleans. "That's what Carl has tried to do."

Smith credited assistant coaches Ken Anderson and Andy Heck for putting together a 600-page tome that was shaped with a keen eye on the specific talents of Byron Leftwich and Fred Taylor, the team's top playmakers.

That means Leftwich, having excelled in a wide-open, spread shotgun offense at Marshall, can expect to throw more passes downfield while head coach Jack Del Rio's desire to field a strong rushing attack will ensure that Taylor -- if he's healthy enough to handle it -- will continue to play a major role.

The team continues to insist Taylor, yet to run full speed since tearing multiple knee ligaments on Dec. 19 at Green Bay, will be ready for the regular season. Taylor agrees with that assessment, but we really won't know more about the star tailback's progress until late next month or early August.

Taylor's uncertain status shifts the focus to Leftwich, who has been solid but not spectacular in his first two seasons as a pro. However, most observers seem to concede that the overall offensive stagnation demonstrated by the Jags has been more of a problem than the quarterback.

Under former coordinator Bill Musgrave's West Coast-style offense, the Jaguars never scored more than 28 points in a game in the past two seasons. They were 21st in total offense and 29th in scoring offense last season.

The good news, according to Stellino, is the player who seems to have done the best job of adjusting is Leftwich, "who has taken to it like a duck to water and was impressive in the OTAs."

"Everything is going well," Leftwich said. "[The new offense] is a lot of fun. It's going to allow us to make plays, and we've got playmakers on this team."

Those playmakers can be found on what all involved view as an improving corps of wideouts.

As Stellino put it, "Jimmy Smith is still Jimmy Smith." Otherwise, Reggie Williams has appeared to improve leading into his second season; fellow second-year man Earnest Wilford is a maturing red-zone threat; veteran Troy Edwards keeps making progress; and rookie Matt Jones hasn't had any new hamstring problems since returning to the field earlier this month.

In fact, Times-Union beat man Bart Hubbuch advised readers this week that Jones continues to impress the coaching staff with his rapid transition from college quarterback to pro wide receiver -- a move all but forced on Jones by his 4.3 speed.

According to Hubbuch, "Jones rarely, if ever, drops a ball in workouts and is getting better at his biggest obstacle, running routes."

Jones said, "Every day is getting better."

Walters said he "feels good" about Jones' progress.

Williams, meanwhile, missed most of the OTAs last year because, per NFL rules, he had to wait for his class at the University of Washington to graduate. He's taken advantage of being a part of the entire offseason program this year.

"Everything is more comfortable," Williams said.

Walters said Williams has ability, but needs consistency.

"What I'd like for him is to be more consistent catching the ball," Walters said. "He's working at it and has a great attitude."

Leftwich is extremely optimistic about his wideouts.

"[They are] going to make me look good," he said this week. "There's no such thing as too many wide receivers. You can never have enough."

Given the new scheme and the expected improvement on the outside, Orlando Sentinel staff writer Shannon Shelton stated the case like this on Tuesday: "Leftwich should have all the tools he needs for a breakout season this fall."

Shelton went on to point out that whether through media questions or directions from his coaches, Leftwich is reminded almost daily of this fact. A large portion of the team's success -- or failure -- for the upcoming season will rest on his shoulders.

He seems to welcome the pressure.

"My expectations for myself are higher than anything others put on me," said Leftwich, who was the seventh overall pick in the 2003 draft. "Nobody on this team allows outsiders to put pressure on us that we don't already put on ourselves."

His performances in recent workouts have been promising. During a June 17 workout, Leftwich, who has a strong arm and can make all the throws, was 27 of 32 with two drops. Coaches say his mechanics improved, resulting in quicker and more decisive decisions.

"It's been great to have him embrace the offense the way he has," Del Rio said. "On a personal level, his footwork and mechanics and the strength he's earned in the weight room has shown out here on the field.

"Of course, the timing with the receivers, getting on the same page and understanding where they're going to break off routes and things -- that's been very good."

"It's been a very very productive spring for Byron."

If nothing else, Leftwich's understanding of Smith's newly-created scheme is encouraging.

"It's easy now," Leftwich said. "Once you get down the terminology and what you're trying to get accomplished, he can just say the play and it can be a brand new play and I can know what we're going to do as a team. It's new, but at the same time it's football. It has a football aspect to it, and that makes it easy to learn."

"Right now I'm comfortable with it. I know what everybody's doing on every single play."

He's so comfortable, that Sporting News columnist Dan Pompei reports, for the first time in his NFL career, Leftwich will be allowed to use audibles. That will allow him the freedom to avoid bad play calls and take advantage of mismatches.

The new scheme has Smith, still one of the most productive receivers in the league, "looking forward to a lot of big plays being made downfield vertically."

As Shelton summed up: "There's that pressure again. Leftwich says he plans to thrive. ..."

For those interested. ... The 56-year old Smith served as the offensive coordinator for the Saints under Jim Mora from 1986-96. Del Rio started his NFL career with the Saints in 1985 and 1986.

Smith also worked as quarterbacks and tight ends coach with the Patriots from 1997-99 under Pete Carroll and as quarterbacks coach with the Cleveland Browns from 2001-03. Last season, he reunited with Carroll at USC and helped Matt Leinart win the Heisman Trophy.

The Saints ranked in the league's top 10 in points five times under Smith but never finished higher than 11th in total offense, prompting fans in New Orleans to criticize him for being too conservative.

Look for that too conservative label to change in J-ville. ...

In a few related notes. ...

As reported in last weekend's Fantasy Notebook, the Jaguars should know in a month whether they have a big problem at running back.

Taylor is scheduled to intensify the rehabilitation work on his injured knee in the next couple of weeks. If it responds well, the Jaguars are set at the position and will be feeling good about making a serious run for a playoff spot this season.

And according to Buffalo News staff writer Mark Gaughan, if it doesn't respond well, their interest in Bills running back Travis Henry probably will increase.

In case you haven't been following along this offseason. ... Taylor, who gained 1,224 yards last year before suffering a knee injury on Dec. 19, admitted last week that the injury was more severe than originally advertised.

The latest word is that Taylor has been running on a straight line, but he hasn't done running on the days in which members of the media are allowed to watch practices. The Jags plan to have Taylor do more extensive cutting and sprinting to test the knee in the coming weeks.

"Now we will see what Fred's status truly is," Del Rio told the local press. ...

Which I might argue, we could have better deduced ourselves if the team had been more forthcoming all along. Fortunately, the Sporting News reported on Monday that Del Rio and the Jags are catching increasing heat for their poor public relations skills.

According to the TSN report, the team is in hot water for announcing in January that Taylor had merely undergone an arthroscopic procedure on his knee when the surgery was much more serious and invasive. ...

Del Rio then made matters worse by announcing that the final week of training camp would be off-limits both to fans and the media, possibly running afoul of NFL rules. The coach also did himself no favors by telling local sports-talk radio show host Mike Dempsey that he expects people covering the team on a regular basis to essentially cheer for the Jaguars is astonishing.

His statement left little room for misinterpretation.

Del Rio was responding to Dempsey's life-long affection for the Jets when he said: "What I believe is that anybody that covers our football team in our city of Jacksonville ought to be pulling for, and rooting for, and considered a Jaguars guy, and be a Jaguars guy."

According to Times-Union columnist Mike Freeman, as a 20-year league veteran, one who has played or coached in seven NFL cities, Del Rio should know that there are certain journalistic boundaries that can't be crossed.

He should know, but obviously doesn't. ...

And in case you're not sure how Del Rio's approach to reporting and discussing injuries affects you, remember that he listed Taylor as questionable and referred to him as a "Dreaded Game Time Decision" six days after he was hurt last December -- after announcing what we now know was two torn ligaments as a sprained MCL. ...

And finally, on a more positive note. ... The Jaguars got through the OTAs without any new major injuries and had good participation in the offseason program. Of the 88 players on the roster, 63 had 100 percent participation.