What fans didn't know about Jaguars' Trevor Lawrence as a rookie

NFL insider Albert Breer shared something interesting regarding Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence in a piece published Wednesday.

"Trevor Lawrence is enormously talented," Breer explained. "But one thing I’d heard pretty consistently, and over and over again through his rookie year, is how it was undersold just how raw he was coming out of Clemson. ...While he did play a lot of football over three years as a collegian, he ran an offense under (head coach) Dabo Swinney and (coordinator) Tony Elliott that was relatively simple and predicated on executing and playing fast." 

Leading up to the 2021 NFL Draft, some referred to Lawrence as the best quarterback prospect to enter the league since the Indianapolis Colts made Andrew Luck the first pick in 2012. Of course, such takes didn't account for Lawrence having to deal with the disaster that was Urban Meyer's brief tenure as Jacksonville's head coach when he was a rookie. It's nevertheless somewhat concerning that Lawrence seemed to take a step backward in his second campaign of working with current head coach Doug Pederson. 

According to Pro Football Reference, Lawrence ended the 2023 regular season ranked 18th in the NFL among qualified players with a 56.1 adjusted QBR. Only three quarterbacks tossed more interceptions (14) than Lawrence last season. As NFL.com's Christian Gonzales noted, though, he dealt with multiple injury-related setbacks as a third-year pro that shouldn't become long-term issues. 

Lawrence is well beneath the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Joe Burrow in offseason quarterback power rankings shared by Cody Benjamin of CBS Sports, but he certainly isn't a bust at this stage of his development.

"I’m still a big believer that he’s going to make it for two reasons," Breer added about Lawrence. "First, he won and won and won and played great on big stages in college. That counts for something. Second, he endured the football adversity of 2021 and came out the other side better for it, which shows real resilience." 

Lawrence turns 25 this fall and, by all accounts, needed a reset when Pederson joined the Jaguars in February 2022. Jacksonville could lock Lawrence down via an extension this offseason, but he may want to bet on himself and see if he can raise the value of that deal via a second bounce-back season of his young career.