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Brewster knows spot on Jags in jeopardy

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Center Mike Brewster knows he may have played his last game with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

He has gone from being the team’s starter when training camp began to playing in the second half of the final preseason game, and his play in Thursday night’s 24-14 loss to Atlanta at EverBank Field didn’t help. Brewster bounced a snap past quarterback Ricky Stanzi and the play ended up costing the Jaguars three points.

"It’s obviously something I’ve got to get out of my head," said Brewster, who had two high snaps in the preseason opener against Tampa Bay. "I don’t know if I was trying to compensate for last time going high and I was trying to make sure I didn’t go high and I went low."

Brewster was already in jeopardy of not making the 53-man roster before Thursday night’s game, and coach Gus Bradley said the low snap didn’t help. Brewster’s biggest issue is that he’s not a powerful player at the point of attack and he had several chances to seize the starting job and never did.

The Jaguars gave guard Jacques McClendon and sixth-round pick Luke Bowanko reps over Brewster in the third preseason game at Detroit. The Jaguars are likely to keep eight offensive linemen, with the five projected starters (Luke Joeckel, Zane Beadles, McClendon, Brandon Linder, Austin Pasztor) plus swing tackle Cameron Bradfield and Bowanko, who also can play guard. That leaves just one spot remaining and that may go to rookie tackle Josh Wells or veteran tackle Sam Young because Pasztor is going to miss several weeks with a broken right hand.

So Brewster may be out.

"When you have a couple bad snaps in the first game and then you throw a low one back there in the last game, I mean, yeah, it’s not a comforting feeling," Brewster said. "But I know I can play in this league. I have played in this league. I’ve played a lot of guard. I’ve got to get my mind off the snap thing. I feel like I have too much talent to waste it doing something like that. It’s tough. So, we’ll see.

"Whatever happens, happens. I can’t blame anybody but myself and whatever the problem is I’ve got to move beyond that."

Bradley and GM David Caldwell said in late March at the NFL’s owners meetings that they believed Brewster could be the replacement for 14-year veteran Brad Meester, who retired after the 2013 season. However, several weeks later they signed restricted free agent Alex Mack to an offer sheet ($42 million over five years). The Cleveland Browns matched the offer and the Jaguars went into training camp with Brewster as the starter.

He has dropped down the depth chart since and may not survive the roster cut to 53, which has to be done by 4 p.m. ET Saturday.

"I’ve just got to clean this issue [bad snaps] up," Brewster said. "It’s not like it’s a problem throughout the week. Just got to stop thinking and stop thinking so much and just make it more natural and not worry about it, I guess. Stop compensating.

"I want my main position to be center. Obviously, they’ve got to be able to trust you and, obviously, they probably don’t at this point."