After signing a five-year, $275 million contract extension with the Jacksonville Jaguars prior to the 2024 season, former Clemson star Trevor Lawrence is now entering his fifth NFL season looking to show he’s worth the Jaguars’ investment.
Lawrence is one of the top five highest-paid quarterbacks in the NFL but is ranked 19th in total QBR over the last two seasons, while the other four QBs on the list (Dak Prescott, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen and Jordan Love) all rank top eight in total QBR over the 2023-24 campaigns. Last season, Lawrence tallied 11 touchdown passes with seven interceptions across 10 games before being placed on injured reserve following his shoulder injury and concussion.
A few years back in 2022, Lawrence earned Pro Bowl honors and led the Jaguars to the AFC South division title, as well as an incredible comeback victory over the Los Angeles Chargers in the AFC Wild Card playoffs. That season, Lawrence posted career highs with a 66.3 percent completion percentage, 4,113 passing yards and 25 touchdown passes with only eight interceptions in 17 games.
During a recent episode of ESPN’s NFL Live, Laura Rutledge, Andrew Hawkins, Peter Schrager and Adam Schefter discussed the expectations for Lawrence in the 2025 season under a new offensive coordinator in Grant Udinski, as well as a new head coach in Liam Coen – Lawrence’s third head coach in five years.
“I need to see him back to his 2022 version of himself,” said Hawkins, a former NFL wide receiver and team captain with the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals. “They bring Liam Coen in, right, and we saw the career year [Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB] Baker Mayfield had under this system. You know, heavy play-action, rollouts, leveraging that athleticism, making decisions easier, giving him clear pictures – all in an effort to make sure Trevor Lawrence can unleash his full potential. Less thinking, playing fast, playing decisive.
“Because the issue is, now Trevor Lawrence is on his third head coach, and I don’t even think it’s about Trevor Lawrence showing us anything. It’s about showing Liam Coen. Because if you don’t see that promise, I don’t know if that’s a wagon he’s going to hitch himself to for the next couple of years.”
Schefter added that the Jaguars are “expecting to take a major leap” on offense in 2025 with the brain trust of Coen and Udinski, to go along with Lawrence and his offensive weapons like Brian Thomas Jr. and 2025 No. 2 overall draft pick Travis Hunter.
“You talked about the brilliance of Grant Udinski, and we mentioned Liam Coen, who the Jaguars made a huge push to go hire,” Schefter said. “And the reason they went and hired him is because of the success that he had initially out in Los Angeles with the Rams, then with Baker Mayfield in Tampa. They recognized the effect that he could have on an offense.
“So, if you’re taking Grant Udinski and you’re matching him with Liam Coen and you’re putting these two guys with a quarterback like Trevor Lawrence, and Brian Thomas, who had a sensational rookie year, and then trade up to get the offensive weapon, Travis Hunter, and you’ve got a lot of different running backs – you’ve got a lot of weapons there, and I think this team is expecting to take a major leap on the offensive side of the football because of that offensive brainpower that they’ve brought in this offseason.”
You can check out more of the conversation about Lawrence on NFL Live in the following video:
–Photo courtesy of Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images