Jacksonville Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence needs to show improvement in 2025.
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Jacksonville Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence needs to show improvement in 2025.
Jacksonville Jaguars‘ quarterback Trevor Lawrence has a big year ahead of him in 2025. After using the first-overall pick on Lawrence in the 2021 NFL Draft, they proceeded to give him a five-year contract extension for $275 million with $200 million guaranteed. That’s a lot of money for a guy with one winning NFL season (9-8 in 2022) that may not have happened if the NFL didn’t go to 17 games.
For a guy with just about every single physical attribute, why has Lawrence struggled so much?
Former New York Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum went on ESPN’s Get Up and said that his problems are his fundamentals.
“Yeah, and I’ll push back on that, because Dan talked about his mental mindset. I think it’s much more about his fundamentals,” Tannenbaum said. “He was coached by Doug Pederson. Doug Pederson knows how to coach quarterbacks. He was 60.6 percent completion percent, which was 31st in the NFL. He was 29th in completion above expectation. That’s not good enough for somebody that’s that good.”
Does he mean that Pederson did a poor job? Or that it’s remarkable for Lawrence to be this bad while being coached by someone that good?
Mike Tannenbaum says Trevor Lawrence needs to show improvement soon
There have been whispers around the Jaguars for a few years that Lawrence isn’t in love with the game of football. Whether or not that’s true is above my pay grade; only Lawrence would truly know that.
Regardless, Tannenbaum thinks Lawrence needs to get it together soon or the Jaguars need to make other plans beyond 2025.
“And Doug Pederson is a fundamental base quarterback,” Tannenbaum continued. “So to me, this is about his fundamentals more than anything. I know he was hurt last year. I think he’s got a little bit of a free pass.
“I know he has guaranteed money next year, greedy, but not me. It’s getting late early. If I’m Liam Coen and their new general manager, I’m thinking about drafting a quarterback if we don’t see meaningful improvement.”
The Jaguars don’t have a first-round pick in 2026
There are plenty of experts who have speculated that the 2026 NFL Draft class is stacked at the quarterback position. So, Tannenbaum might be correct – in theory – that the Jaguars might want to look at QB in the draft, but it won’t be with a first-round pick.
Remember that time the Jags traded a first-round pick to move up to get Travis Hunter? Yeah, that’s where it went.
Tannenbaum was later reminded of this fact so he shifted gears to suggest making a move to get Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins.
“Maybe it’s Kirk Cousins,” Tannenbaum said. “I don’t know who it is, but to me, if he doesn’t play well, and I’m Liam Coen, just because he has guaranteed money next year, that doesn’t mean…”
Heard loud and clear, Mike. But, that contract could end up being quite the albatross around the Jaguars’ neck. They might have to find out how good of a general manager James Gladstone is. My guess is that his first call would be the Cleveland Browns, because it’s the Browns, and why not?