JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Trevor Lawrence is finally healthy and ready to learn from a disappointing finish last season. He also wants to remain with the Jaguars long term, reinforcing his commitment to the franchise that picked him first overall four years ago.
That “want to” is significant for the Jaguars, who have blended poor drafting and turbulent seasons together more often than not during their history. Lawrence is positioned to change that, provided he can bounce back from a particularly uneven season of his own.
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“It’s been really good, I think we’re heading in the right direction and we know what we need to do. We got to attack this offseason and be really intentional, there’s very tangible things that we need to get better at, obviously I’m not going into all of the details right now, but there’s things we need to get better at for myself, for us as an offense, as a team,” Lawrence said.
“We just put all of those out there and now we’re all on the same page of where we’re heading, where we’re going, what we need to work on. I think it’s necessary to do that at the beginning of the offseason You don’t want to waste time.”
Jacksonville has time to work with regarding Lawrence’s future in town. He’s entering the fourth year of his career, but the Jaguars have incentive to try and lock him in long term. Head coach Doug Pederson and general manager Trent Baalke have both said publicly this offseason that Lawrence is the right player to lead the Jaguars.
Far too often, Jacksonville hasn’t had that ability at the most important position in the game. It has drafted four quarterbacks in the first round and only had one (Blake Bortles) last more than four years with the team. Stretch that out to include first-round draft picks and Lawrence is poised to check two boxes.
Historically, Jacksonville hasn’t been the best at drafting in the first round. Of the 27 first-round picks from 1995 to 2019, only 13 have been with the franchise five years or longer — Tony Boselli, James Stewart, Kevin Hardy, Renaldo Wynn, Fred Taylor, Donovin Darius, Fernando Bryant, Marcus Stroud, John Henderson, Marcedes Lewis, Tyson Alualu, Blake Bortles and Josh Allen.
Eleven of those 13 were drafted in the Tom Coughlin or Jack Del Rio regimes from 1995 to 2010. It’s been lean since then.
Lawrence said that he and the team have had discussions on a contract extension but didn’t provide an update on where that topic stands. Players who were selected in the 2021 draft are permitted to sign extensions beginning this offseason.
“I can’t lie, obviously it would be nice to have that done and feel good about it, but no, it’s not really the focus right now. I know where we’re at, I know where we’re heading and I know what I have to do. I know there’s some improvements that I have to move going forward.”
The Eagles just did that with receiver Devonta Smith on Monday, picking up his fifth-year option and then signing him to a three-year, $75 million deal. Smith will play the fourth year of his rookie contract this season, then under the fifth-year option number in 2025.
Then, his new contract will take effect. Smith’s deal doesn’t necessarily mean a potential Lawrence deal would follow those same parameters. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow signed a five-year extension on Sept. 7, 2023, a $275 million deal that removed the requirement that Burrow play on the fifth-year option. Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert signed a contract extension on the first day of training camp last July, a five-year deal worth $262.5 million. He will play on his fifth-year option this year before the new money of that deal kicks in.
The Jaguars have until May 2 to pick up Lawrence’s fifth-year option, a no-brainer for the franchise. The larger question is will Jacksonville opt to get a deal done with Lawrence this offseason, too? Lawrence said that the contract status is something he’s well aware of, but he’s focused more on turning the page on the field and getting better.
“Just recapping last year and you’ve got to move on pretty quickly because it’s a new year. It doesn’t matter who won the Super Bowl last year, now everyone is kind of turning the page and going onto 2024. You move on, but you have to recap, because we only had that one team meeting right before we left to end our season last year,” Lawrence said.
“You talk about it, but it’s hard to digest that in one night before that meeting. We talked about and addressed some of the things that happened, maybe some things that we didn’t do well, some things that we might’ve done okay and need to improve on, just really everything.”