Jacksonville Jaguars: Trevor Lawrence Will Live Up to His No. 1 Pick Status with Doug Pederson

The Jacksonville Jaguars are looking to rebound from a disastrous 2021 NFL season. Second-year quarterback, Trevor Lawrence, is ready to start turning things around.

Trevor Lawrence is affectionately known as Sunshine, an homage to the long-haired quarterback from the legendary movie, Remember the Titans. Lawrence’s luscious locks may be the first thing you notice, and as impressive as they are, it pales in comparison to the talent he possesses in his right arm. Dating all the way back to early childhood, Lawrence has always had the look of a future NFL quarterback. He was born and grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee.

After making a name for himself in football circles everywhere, Lawrence eventually attended the Georgia-based Cartersville High School. This is where the label of “best amateur quarterback of all time” began to gain steam. Lawrence played both football and basketball, but as you could probably guess, football was his main focus.

Lawrence started all four years at Cartersville, and as a freshman he led the squad to a 12-2 record. The second and final loss of the season was a 27-3 defeat at the hands of Buford High School. The Buford football team went on to win their seventh state championship in eight years. Remember this loss, because it’s going to be a long time until you hear about another one of those for Trevor Lawrence.

Following this embarrassing loss,  Lawrence helped engineer a 41-game winning streak. This includes back-to-back 15-0 seasons that saw Cartersville hoisting two state championships, all the while exercising their demons by getting payback on the aforementioned Buford High School with a 10-0 victory in 2015.

To nobody’s surprise, Lawrence earned five stars from every recruiting site that exists. Offers began rolling in before Lawrence even had a drivers permit. Prior to his final season, he signed on to be a Clemson Tiger. He chose Dabo Swinney over every single big name school you can think of. It was a regular occurrence to hear Lawrence being labeled as the best amateur quarterback prospect in the history of football. Lofty expectations, but his senior season shows why it’s not unrealistic to say.

As a senior, Lawrence surpassed former Clemson quarterback (and Georgia native) Deshaun Watson in a couple key statistics. Lawrence took over the top spot in the history of Georgia high school for both passing yards (13,902) and passing touchdowns (161). Unfortunately, his story book ending wasn’t a happy one. The only game he lost after freshman year, happened to be his very last one. Blessed Trinity, another powerhouse in Georgia, beat Cartersville in a hard fought 21-17 contest, giving Lawrence a  53-3 record as starting quarterback.

Jacksonville Jaguars: Trevor Lawrence Looks to Rebound from a Down 2021 Rookie Season

With his high school years firmly in the rear view, Lawrence moved on to bigger and brighter things. He arrived to Clemson, and unexpectedly found himself in a quarterback battle with Kelly Bryant. The first four games of the 2018 season saw Bryant and Lawrence split playing time virtually down the middle. After putting up nine touchdowns to only two interceptions, and completing 65% of his passes, Lawrence won the starting gig and was named the full-time starter for the remainder of the season.

In 11 games as the unquestioned QB1, Lawrence proved that the small sample size was a sign of things to come. He threw 21 more touchdowns, with only two more interceptions. His final stat line as a true freshman: 65.2% completion, 3280 passing yards, and a pristine 30:4 TD:INT ratio. Clemson qualified for the College Football Playoffs, and Lawrence showed up for his team in the most crucial games of the season.

Against Notre Dame in the semifinals, Lawrence eclipsed the 300-yard mark, and tossed three touchdowns en route to a 30-3 drumming of the Irish. The Alabama Crimson Tide awaited Lawrence and Co. in the finals. Arguably the best game of his college career to that point, Lawrence diced up the Crimson Tide defense and furthered his argument as the best quarterback prospect ever by winning the national championship in year one.

The hype only increased after such a successful debut campaign. The Tigers entered the 2019 season as the favorite to go back-to-back. They went undefeated in the regular season, yet again. The team beat Ohio State in a thrilling come from behind victory, earning their way into a second straight championship game.

Something about Trevor Lawrence and long winning streaks go together like peanut butter and jelly. As a starter, Lawrence won his first 25 games under the guidance of Coach Swinney. There was a juggernaut standing in their way of completing a second straight title run, though. Joe Burrow and the LSU Tigers were making history of their own at the time.

Burrow put up the best single-season for any quarterback in college football history, and their offense was hovering around the 50 points per game mark. They gave Lawrence fits, resulting in the worst game that he ever played as a member of Clemson. The 17-point loss marked the largest defeat Lawrence had suffered since his freshman year in high school.

The COVID-shortened 2020 season saw the Tigers finish the regular season undefeated yet again, even with Lawrence being forced to miss some time with the virus. This time, Ohio State stopped Clemson in their tracks in the national semifinals. Lawrence played fairly well, but the team was no match for the Justin Fields led squad.

Three straight undefeated regular seasons, three straight playoff appearances, and one championship ring. He was only named a Heisman finalist one time, finishing second place as a junior to former Alabama wide receiver Devonta Smith. Lawrence seemingly has been on the NFL radar since adolescence, and now that he satisfied the “three years removed from high school” rule, he officially entered his name into the 2021 NFL Draft.

Some prospects live up to expectations, and others don’t. Lawrence very much lived up to his. He was hyped up to be a No. 1 overall picks for years, and when the Jacksonville Jaguars opened the 2021 NFL Draft, that dream came to fruition. For the first time in Jaguars history, they opened the event by selecting the first player of the draft. Not a bad reward for going 1-15 the year prior.

Trevor Lawrence’s time with the Jacksonville Jaguars has been a roller coaster, to put it mildly. General manager Trent Baalke chose to hire former Florida and Ohio State head coach, Urban Meyer. Meyer entered his new job with a massive contract and zero experience as an NFL coach of any kind. This inexperience showed quickly.

Meyer hired a former strength coach at Iowa, Chris Doyle, and it caused immediate rifts in the locker room. Doyle was previously accused of racist remarks and bullying players, with a number of former Iowa players speaking out to confirm the reports. Eventually, Doyle was let go and Meyer apologized for bringing a distraction to the franchise. This was merely the beginning.

Meyer never adapted from his college mindset. He continually talked down to players, causing irreparable damage to every relationship he had in the building. The proverbial straw that broke the camels back came when Meyer did not ride back with the team following a loss to the Bengals on Thursday Night Football.

He was reportedly attending a family dinner at a bar that he owned, but unflattering photos later surfaced of Meyer. He lasted a couple months as the head coach, before finally being fired prior to the end of the 2021 NFL season. As you can imagine, this atmosphere is not beneficial to the development of young players, especially a rookie quarterback.

Not only did Meyer look lost at times on the sideline, he let that bleed over to his team. The Jaguars were hardly ever prepared and due to this, it is easy to look at the box score and think that Trevor Lawrence underperformed. But I have went back to watch All-22’s of the Jacksonville offense from 2021, and I don’t even know how they moved the ball at all.

Lawrence is as talented as any quarterback to be drafted in recent years, but even he couldn’t fix that mess. It’s been quite the journey for Lawrence up to this point. What can he do to make the leap this year into a solid starting quarterback?

The most obvious improvement that has already been made, is the fact that Urban Meyer is long gone. It may seem like I’m harping on it, but I cannot stress enough how much Meyer set back the franchise. It looked as though the Jaguars fumbled the bag by not sealing the deal with current Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator — and former Jacksonville Jaguar player — Byron Leftwich.

General manager Trent Baalke, to his credit, pivoted when contract negotiations fell through. He ended up getting former Eagles head coach, and Super Bowl champion, Doug Pederson to come down to Jacksonville to lead the franchise into the future. Going from Urban Meyer to an offensive wizard like Doug Pederson is going to do wonders for Lawrence’s development.

One of their first moves of the offseason was to franchise tag offensive tackle Cam Robinson, ensuring that the former Alabama mauler would return to the Jaguars in 2022. They continued to beef up the offensive line, adding former All-Pro Brandon Scherff to play on the interior. There is still work to be done on the line, but the Scherff move goes a long way.

The next few moves in free agency were questionable, but Baalke made it a priority to add pass catchers. Christian Kirk broke the wide receiver market when he received a four-year, $72 million deal to open free agency. The team also added veterans Zay Jones and Evan Engram to the fold, both on short-term pacts. If we factor in 2021 first-round pick Travis Etienne returning to form, it’s a complete overhaul of the offense.

Marvin Jones and James Robinson were the standouts on the unit last year, and both return in 2022. A number of youngsters on defense are promising, especially the likes of incoming rookies Travon Walker and Devin Lloyd. After an abysmal 2021 season for Jaguar fans, there is reason for optimism heading into 2022.

The upgrade in talent on the roster and on the coaching staff has Trevor Lawrence in an advantageous position to succeed. Granted, the team may not tally many victories in the win column, but for a group this young, the development matters more than the wins.

What can we expect from Trevor Lawrence in 2022? Taking a look back at Doug Pederson’s time in Philly can paint a great picture. Pederson designed a system that utilizes the run game in a big way. So you can expect James Robinson and Travis Etienne to be major contributors on early downs.

Another major calling card of Pederson’s offense is tight end play. Newly signed Evan Engram is not a traditional tight end, but he will be used in the passing game frequently, with a good chunk of snaps in the slot likely. Dan Arnold is one of my favorite tight ends that no one ever talks about. Arnold is also more of a “tweener”, but can serve more of a traditional role too. In order to do what Pederson wants to do, he needs production out of both positions.

When it comes to wide receivers, Pederson is a bit more flexible. He likes route runners, but also guys that can break off big gains from screen plays. Christian Kirk will be the home run hitter of the pass catcher unit, leaving veteran Marvin Jones to dice up defenders in the intermediate game with his proficient route running. Zay Jones and Laviska Shenault are both threats with the ball in their hands, so look for all four guys to see the field in 2022.

It’s far from a perfect situation, but it’s also far from the dumpster fire of 2021. Trevor Lawrence will double his rookie touchdown total (12) with Pederson at the helm. I’d expect that his interception number comes down from 17, likely falling in the 10-12 range. Lawrence will hover around the 4000-yard mark, and hopefully he can bring up his completion percentage, because a sub-60% completion is not going to win you football games.

Furthermore, Lawrence should be asked to use his legs more frequently in 2022. He finished his rookie year with 334 rushing yards. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him eclipse 600 yards on the ground. Everything can’t be blamed on the former regime, however.

Lawrence oftentimes locked on to his target, telegraphing his intentions with his eyes and giving defenders a chance to make a play on the ball. He didn’t have many clean pockets, but there were instances of Lawrence failing to step up or bailing too early. One more thing, Lawrence missed on some timing routes, but that’s something that will be ironed out the more experience he gets under his belt. He looked like he belonged in terms of arm strength and confidence.

You can learn a lot from a guy by the way he handles failure. Lawrence has never wavered, and I am excited to see how he looks with a competent coaching staff and supporting cast. They may not be ready for a playoff run yet, but if Lawrence completes this second year leap, they’ll enter those conversations as early as 2023. He was regarded as the best amateur quarterback of all time for a reason, now with a Super Bowl winning head coach in tow, the Jacksonville Jaguars are ready to start their ascension to the top of the NFL.