JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It’s a quick turnaround for the Jaguars.
And it’s a chance for the country to see just what Trevor Lawrence is made of.
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On Thursday night, Lawrence and the Jaguars (0-3) share the prime-time spotlight with the 2-1 Bengals and last year’s No. 1 overall pick, Joe Burrow.
The Jaguars enter this one trying to put together four full quarters of football and snap an 18-game losing streak.
As good as Lawrence is expected to be, he’s had his ups and downs during the first three games of his career. Lawrence is second among rookie quarterbacks in passing yardage — New England’s Mac Jones, a Bolles product leads at 737 —with 669. He’s thrown more touchdowns than the other rookies (five) but is tied with New York’s Zach Wilson with an NFL-high seven interceptions.
Things haven’t come easy.
Burrow went through the rookie struggles, too.
He had a solid rookie season with Cincinnati from a statistical standpoint but was just 2-7-1 as a starter before blowing out his knee and missing the final six games. Burrow was sacked a staggering 32 times in 10 games.
Burrow played for Jaguars coach Urban Meyer at Ohio State and later transferred to LSU when he was beaten out for the job by Dwayne Haskins. Meyer said that he’s leaned on Burrow for insight on the best way to help a rookie quarterback like Lawrence in the transition to the NFL.
“When I decided to come here and then I knew we were heading in the direction, regardless we were going to take a quarterback number one, I just wanted to talk to a guy that was in that position in recent history,” Meyer said. “I talked to [veteran NFL quarterback] Alex Smith quite a bit about it and then I talked to Joe. Joe was great. We talked several times throughout the spring just about what I could do to help, what we could do to help a rookie quarterback.”
Lawrence and Burrow faced off in the College Football Playoff National Championship on Jan. 13, 2020, with LSU beating Clemson, 42-25.
Lawrence is looking for a different result this time.
“Yeah, I have met him one time at the [Peyton] Manning camp three summers ago maybe. It was actually the summer before we played in the National Championship and that was the only time, I have really met him or talked to him,” Lawrence said. “After the game I congratulated him after he beat us in New Orleans. I do not know him super well, but I have two teammates that played with him and those guys like him. He is a great player obviously.”
For the Jaguars, they need Lawrence to continue his development, even if that means occasional bad plays and tough losses.
“There hasn’t been anything that we’ve done up to this point that he hasn’t been able to handle,” said offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell.
Incremental progress is progress nonetheless and Lawrence continues to make it. The Arizona game was Jacksonville’s best effort of the season.
“As you watch and you assess his play, there’s things that he’s getting much better at,” Bevell said. “One of the things that I thought he did a really nice job of was getting through his progressions.”
The biggest struggle for Lawrence thus far has been making mistakes and trying to do too much.
Lawrence has thrown multiple interceptions in all three of his games. He said that he’s had “four bad decision turnovers” in those games and has to clean those up. Lawrence’s two interceptions against the Cardinals were forgivable mistakes.
Tight end Jacob Hollister bobbled a ball that was picked off in the red zone. And then there was the flea flicker that would have likely gone for a touchdown had JJ Watt been so much as chip blocked on the play. Lawrence had to get rid of the ball as soon as he got it and wound up throwing a pick-six.
It’s slow and steady progress for Lawrence, who was dubbed a generational, can’t-miss prospect entering the NFL. He’s looked exceptional at times and very much like a rookie during others.
“Yeah, it is always you know it is always good to [remember] everyone is human. No one is perfect, you are not just going to come in and everything go perfect. It does not usually happen that way,” he said. “Like I said, part of me kind of expected that but also everybody is different, everybody’s situation is different. But I am also not expecting this thing to take a year or two until I start taking care of the ball and playing better.”