Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback and former Clemson star Trevor Lawrence has had his ups and downs over the start of his NFL career while experiencing success and also overcoming adversity.

In 2025, after years of battling injuries, enduring coaching changes and facing “generational” prospect expectations, he was seen living up to the hype that made him the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2021.

Lawrence thrived in his first year under Jaguars head coach Liam Coen. He finished the 2025 campaign having completed 60.9 percent of his passes for 4,007 yards and a career-high 29 touchdown passes with 12 interceptions. He also recorded career highs in carries (82), rushing yards (359) and rushing touchdowns (nine) while accounting for a career-high 38 total touchdowns – the third-best mark in the NFL behind only Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (46) and Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen (39).

As a result of his stellar performance, Lawrence was named a finalist for two major NFL awards — Most Valuable Player, as well as Comeback Player of the Year. He finished fifth in MVP voting and placed fourth in the Comeback Player of the Year voting.

Lawrence entered 2025 looking for a bounce-back after an injury-plagued 2024 campaign, and he indeed bounced back in a big way last season. But as good as he was, Lawrence still has room to grow and get better.

Fox Sports analyst Nick Wright believes Lawrence can take the next step and elevate his game to yet another level. On First Things First, Wright explained why he thinks Lawrence can improve on his fifth-place finish in MVP voting and why he believes Lawrence has the potential to win MVP.

“Can he win MVP? Of course he can,” Wright said. “Listen. Trevor has played five years in this league. Two were objectively excellent. Two years he finished top 10 MVP — once seventh, once fifth — but the year he finished seventh, he won a playoff game in stirring comeback fashion after digging himself a hole, admittedly, but still did it. So that’s two of his five years were, in my opinion, excellent. His rookie year was an abject disaster, and the year before this year was an abject disaster.

“The one we will argue about forever was his third year, where they enter Monday Night Football playing for the one seed at 8-3. He gets brutally injured, has to walk himself off the field, so they don’t have a cart in that stadium… and I feel like that injury derailed what was an awesome season. We’ll always argue about that third year. There’s no argument to me about years two and five were great, and years one and four were disasters.”

Wright pointed out that Lawrence is only 26 years old and he believes Coen is the best offensive mind that Lawrence has been with, while Wright also thinks Jacksonville’s 2026 roster is the best it’s been since Lawrence has been there.

Wright says Lawrence’s competition for MVP might not be as stiff, either.

“He should have the most weapons he’s had since he’s been there, assuming Travis [Hunter] comes back, whatever side of the ball he’s on,” Wright said. “… Josh [Allen] is dealing with a new head coach, as is Lamar [Jackson]. Patrick [Mahomes] is coming off the injury. There might be an opening where the guys we normally see atop the MVP ballot.

“And so, yeah, I think Trevor could win the MVP. Of course he could.”

Lawrence will head into the 2026 season having completed 62.8 percent of his passes for 17,822 yards and 98 touchdowns with 58 interceptions, to go with 1,442 rushing yards and 23 more scores on the ground, over his NFL career from 2021-25. The 2018 national champion at Clemson and 2022 Pro Bowler has surpassed 4,000 passing yards three times in the last four seasons.

Before the 2024 season, Lawrence signed a five-year, $275 million contract extension with Jacksonville.