With Week 3 rapidly approaching, Field Yates and the rest of the panel on ESPN's NFL Live used some time on their Wednesday show to discuss two quarterbacks who are about to duke it out as part of a special AFC showdown: CJ Stroud of the Houston Texans and Trevor Lawrence of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
With just one win between the two teams and plenty of questions abound, Yates noted that while Stroud has had a few questionable quarters to start the year, he's more concerned with the play of Lawrence, as he's had five to showcase why he was the first overall pick in the draft, and really hasn't made good on that potential.
“So at CJ Stroud, I'm willing to give a bit more benefit of the doubt than Trevor because it's the beginning of year three for Trevor, for CJ, excuse me. Trevor Lawrence, like when it's year five and we still don't know how good a player is, at least I don't know how good a player is. That leads me to believe that more likely than not, he has not, he is not the player that we expected him to be coming out of college when he was supposed to totally reshape the Jaguars franchise and become one of the best players in the NFL sooner rather than later,” Yates noted.
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“There's some big-time throws on Trevor's tape throughout his career. Where's the consistency? Like, at some point, you have to be the straw that serves the drink. You're like an instant top 12 offense if you were on the field. They've been so far from that.”
Since coming into the NFL as the first overall pick out of Clemson, Lawrence has won 24 of the 63 games he's appeared in, throwing 78 touchdowns versus 54 interceptions while leading his team to the playoffs exactly once in 2022. While he has turned in some plays, quarters, and even games where he looked like a generational talent, the best prospect since Andrew Luck with a cannon for an arm, for the most part, Lawrence's ceiling remains a mystery, which isn't ideal considering he's currently signed to a five-year, $275 million extension.
Can Lawrence turn it all around? Sure, he will certainly have the opportunities to do so, but until that happens, Fields is right to assert that Lawrence simply hasn't looked like the player scouts expected coming out of Clemson.