JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Jacksonville Jaguars learned the hard way last season that no NFL team can have enough healthy wide receivers.
Tandon Doss, who spent all of 2014 on injured reserve after coming over from the Baltimore Ravens, knows there's still a place for him provided he can stay in one piece.
Doss caught 19 passes for the Ravens in 2013 and, more impressively, led the league with a 15.6-yard average on 23 punt returns. While his signing received scant notice compared to those of running back Toby Gerhart and guard Zane Beadles, Doss was expected to give the Jaguars a boost at a position affected by the suspension of Justin Blackmon.
But Doss injured his right ankle during training camp in late July and hurt it again in the final preseason game.
"I pretty much tore every ligament in the ankle, except for the Achilles," Doss said on Thursday after the Jaguars concluded their first work of organized team activities.
After the swelling finally went down, he underwent surgery in December. The fourth-round pick of the Ravens in 2011 is hoping to show he can make a difference on a team that finished in the bottom third of the league in both receiving yardage and punt return average.
"It's tough getting that groove back," Doss said. "From offseason workouts, where you have nobody across from you and you're just running routes on air, to jumping into people guarding you and pressing you, it's been tough. But I'm starting to come around."
Both Cecil Shorts III, who is now with the Houston Texans, and rookie Marqise Lee sustained hamstring injuries that slowed them during the first five weeks of a season the Jaguars started 0-5. Allen Robinson, who missed the entire preseason but had started to emerge as a reliable target for fellow rookie Blake Bortles, was placed on injured reserve in mid-November and needed surgery on his foot.
While Lee and Robinson couldn't take part in 11-on-11 drills this week, Doss attempted to make up for lost time at wide receiver, where the Jaguars added two players through the draft in Rashad Greene and Neal Sterling. Receivers coach Jerry Sullivan said Doss was getting better after looking rusty earlier in the week.
"Rusty? That's an understatement," Doss said. "I ran sprints straight ahead. But running routes day after day after day, I hadn't done that yet."
Lee, Robinson and Allen Hurns combined for more than 40 percent of Jacksonville's receptions last season, easily the highest figure by a group of rookies on any team.
"Some of the young guys are very talented," Doss said. "And they got a lot of experience last year, obviously."
Ace Sanders, the fourth-round pick in 2013, and Bryan Walters, who signed earlier this year as an unrestricted free agent, are Doss' primary challengers for punt-return duties. The Jaguars have not returned a punt for longer than 28 yards since Mike Thomas' 78-yard touchdown against the Indianapolis Colts in December 2010.
"I don't feel like I've lost anything there," Doss said. "I was blessed to be born just being able to judge the ball, and I've worked at it enough where I can just see the point and tell where it's going. After that, it's all hands."
ROOKIES YELDON, GREENE NOT ON HAND
Running back T.J. Yeldon, the Jaguars' second-round pick who signed his contract Wednesday, was not on hand for the third day of OTAs. Both Yeldon and Greene attended a symposium for NFL rookies in Los Angeles.
Yeldon is expected to be the featured back for the Jaguars this season. Greene, a fifth-round selection from Florida State, had been limited earlier in the week because of tendinitis in one of his knees.
Hurns, Doss, Sanders and free agent Tony Washington, who is wearing Shorts' former jersey number (84), have gotten the bulk of the reps at wide receiver. Lee has been watching from the sidelines, but Sullivan has been impressed with the detail to attention that last year's second-round pick out of USC is displaying.
"From a mental standpoint, he's light years ahead of where he was last year," Sullivan said.
INJURY REPORT
The Jaguars announced that first-round pick Dante Fowler Jr. underwent successful surgery on Wednesday in Pensacola for the torn ACL in his left knee that he sustained three weeks ago at rookie minicamp. Dr. James Andrews performed the operation on the defensive end from Florida.
Tight end Julius Thomas, their top addition in free agency, did not go participate in drills because of a lower leg contusion. While his injury is not considered significant, coach Gus Bradley said the Jaguars will be without another tight end, Clay Harbor, for two weeks because of a calf strain. The injury is not the same one Harbor incurred during training camp at a local high school and forced him to miss the first three games of the 2014 season.
You can follow Ken Hornack on Twitter @HornackFSFla or email him at khornack32176@gmail.com.
