JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Trevor watch continues, but the Jaguars are moving full speed ahead with backup C.J. Beathard.
Coach Doug Pederson said on Wednesday that quarterback Trevor Lawrence remains in the NFL’s concussion protocol after self-reporting a head injury after Sunday night’s loss to the Ravens. Players aren’t permitted to do interviews while in the protocol, so Beathard took Lawrence’s normal time slot Wednesday. Right now, Beathard is the player who will lead Jacksonville (8-6) into Sunday’s 4:05 p.m. game against the Buccaneers (7-7).
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“It’s the same, right now I’m preparing as if I am going to be playing on Sunday,” Beathard said. “If tomorrow or Friday or whenever that day comes if he clears it, that’s great news for us. Right now, I’m preparing as if I’ll have to go Sunday and see. Hopefully, he clears protocol by the end of the week.”
Lawrence’s health has been the topic of much interest in the second half of the season. He suffered a sprained ankle against the Bengals on “Monday Night Football,” then returned in time for a Sunday trip to Cleveland. Late in the fourth quarter of this past Sunday’s game, Lawrence was dinged on a running play and went to see team doctors afterwards.
Unlike an ankle (Bengals game) or a knee (Colts), a head injury follows a more detailed process before a player can be cleared for a return. In data collected over a six-year period (2015-2020), nearly 40% of players who entered the concussion protocol missed at least one game.
“It’s really based on symptoms and how he feels. If he can sit in a meeting and tolerate a meeting, it’s OK. If not, then we don’t put him in there because you’re stimulating the brain,” Pederson said. “It’s just based on symptoms. If it’s his knee or ankle, he’s in those meetings and he’s getting the gameplan and listening and all of that. You just got to do it really case by case.”
Whether Beathard or Lawrence faces Tampa Bay, Jacksonville needs to find some type of spark to escape a three-game losing streak and maintain its tiebreakers ahead of Houston and Indianapolis. Little has gone consistently on offense for the Jaguars. The ground game has been anemic (just one game with a player over 100 yards this season) and the offensive line remains a work in progress. Giveaways and struggles in the red zone have tormented Pederson and the Jaguars this season. The defense has had some recent clunkers in losses to the Browns and Bengals, but played much better against the Ravens.
“I don’t know if you ever want to feel desperate. I think you’ve got to feel a sense of urgency, you’ve got to feel like your back is against the wall a little bit,” Pederson said. “It’s just time to go play. I don’t think you ever want to be desperate, because then, you do things out of character.”
The Buccaneers are in the conversation for a playoff berth, so they will be just as ready as the Jaguars were at this point last year.
Beathard hasn’t started a game since he was in San Francisco in 2020. He’s had spot duty or mop-up work backing up Lawrence in Jacksonville, but nothing significant. But Beathard’s work in practice this season has been the most that he’s had with the starters during his two-plus seasons here.
“Yeah, it helps a lot. You can’t see me throwing an out route or go route to Calvin [Ridley] with the speed he has and the way he runs routes,” Beathard said. “Definitely helps getting routes with the starting guys in there.”