Should the Jaguars be Concerned About Trevor Lawrence?

In today’s modern NFL, a majority of rookie quarterbacks who are lottery picks are no longer expected to sit behind a veteran and learn the NFL game. They are expected to come in, make an immediate impact on winning football games, and help to change the culture of a franchise. Being drafted as the number one overall pick amounts to a lot of pressure, but especially when you have been labeled as a generational talent, who has been compared to the names of Peyton Manning, John Elway, Andrew Luck, etc. While Trevor Lawrence, the NFL’s 2021 number one overall pick, has not quite played up to expectations so far, the Jacksonville Jaguars should not be concerned with Trevor Lawrence.

The History of All Time Great Quarterbacks

Peyton Manning in the eyes of many is a top five NFL quarterback of all time. Peyton was inducted into the NFL’s Hall of Fame earlier this year and Manning accomplished many accolades during his tenure. Some of Peyton’s accomplishments include the MVP awards (5), Pro Bowl selections (14), 4,000-yard passing seasons (14), single-season passing yards (5,477 in 2013), and single-season passing touchdowns (55 in 2013). Widely acknowledged as the greatest quarterback in the regular season, Peyton Manning had an all time bad rookie campaign. During his rookie season, Manning threw for 26 touchdowns, 28 interceptions, threw for 3,739 yards, and finished with a record of 3-13. Troy Aikman, another Hall of Fame quarterback, had a historically bad start to his career where Aikman threw for 1,749 yards, nine touchdowns and 18 interceptions in 11 games in his rookie season in 1989. We do not define the career of an all time great quarterback by their first year in the league, but it is evident how they had to learn and grow from their mistakes, which is something Trevor Lawrence will have to keep doing.

Evaluating Trevor Lawrence’s Mental Makeup

Trevor Lawrence has struggled mightily to adjust to the NFL game through his first nine career starts, but there is a lot of reason for optimism moving forward. From the moment Trevor was drafted and stepped into the building at TIAA Bank Field, he was a very humble man who said all the right things regarding hard work, patience, and adapting to the NFL game which is what you want to see from your franchise quarterback. Trevor made it very clear that everything is earned and not given in this league. Lawrence understood that he was not going to be a day one starter in this league without working for it and head coach Urban Meyer testified to that. Lawrence stated in his competition with Minshew, “So I’m going to do everything I can to be the best guy for the job and to win games. But at the end of the day, that’s not in my hands, the decisions. I trust the coaches; we’re all on the same team and we’re just trying to win. So my mindset is just to win games, to be the best prepared as I can be.” Trevor ultimately beat out former Jaguars sixth round pick Gardner Minshew for the starting job before the season, and shortly after Minshew was ultimately traded to the Philadelphia Eagles. 

Evaluating Trevor Lawrence’s Play

Through Trevor Lawrence’s first career nine games, he sits with a record of 2-7, he has thrown for 1,983 yards, eight touchdowns, nine interceptions, and only completed 58% of his passes. While these stats do not jump out to anyone, and he hasn’t quite been the so called “generational talent” through his first nine games, stats do not tell a whole story and this is no reason to panic about Trevor Lawrence. Looking at his situation objectively in Jacksonville, Trevor Lawrence was destined to struggle mightily in his rookie year. Trevor is not only a rookie quarterback who is having to adjust to the NFL game on and off the field, but he is also coming into an organization that has been historically a bad franchise. The Jaguars also have a first year head coach in Urban Meyer who has also never coached at the NFL level. Both, Trevor and Urban Meyer are learning a lot about the NFL game every single day.

The Jaguars entire coaching staff and front office has been completely revamped with Urban Meyer coming to Jacksonville and having the ability to hand pick his own coaching staff top to bottom; from the head coach, coordinators, general manager, etc. This is everyone’s first year together with the Jaguars and there is going to be growing pains for not only Trevor, but for the entire organization.

Trevor had the best game of his young career in London where the Jaguars beat the Miami Dolphins and to break a 20 game losing streak that had carried on from the previous season. Against the Dolphins, Lawrence had thrown for 319 yards, completed 25-of-41 passes, and had one touchdown. Trevor Lawrence had poise in the pocket, was able to control the tempo, make some of the throws you want to see from a talented quarterback, and he led the Jaguars down the field to get in field goal range to win the game. Trevor has not had much help offensively speaking with a bad arsenal of weapons surrounding him, and a lack of talent on that side of the ball. Travis Etienne, the Jaguars other first round pick this season, who played at Clemson with Trevor had a season ending injury before week one, and deep threat wide receiver DJ Chark, are out for the season after getting injured. And the lack of talent at the wide receiver and tight end position has shown up time and time again. Marvin Jones Jr, Laviska Shenault Jr, Jamal Agnew, and Dan Arnold are not household names and while they are serviceable, they are not true number one or even number two wide receivers and that has derailed Trevor at times. Trevor has not played well on third down; he is statistically a bottom three quarterback on third down, but players are not catching the ball when it is in their hands, they are not creating separation, or there are execution errors by the rookie quarterback who is still learning every single snap. Trevor has shown the ability to make all the throws you want to see from a franchise quarterback and the Jaguars should not panic or give up on Trevor. He will continue to ascend in this league with his work ethic, but it is on the Jaguars front office this offseason to put more talent around him next year and for the future moving forward.