One overlooked area of Trevor Lawrence's game is his ability to take off with the football. The past regime hard ever took advantage of it, but it looks like things are about to change.
Head coach Liam Coen met with the media a couple days after the cutdown deadline and said that he'll consider using Lawrence's wheel in short-yardage and goal-line situations, citing his height as the reason he'll be effective. Here's the skinny:
"I do believe in quarterback sneaks, and we do have a push variation. Obviously, the rule is what it is, so you do need to probably take advantage of it at times," Coen responded when asked if he's a tush-push guy (8:26 mark). "We do have a bigger quarterback that can get a couple yards, you hope, or a yard or two. So yeah, we do have that in our scheme. It's hard to simulate it out here in these settings, but we do have it."
Coen continued, "especially if you need it based on, maybe it's a backed-up, you're on the one-yard line, or one-inch line, and you need to go out and get it there, and we'll look at it. Last year, I think we were, I don't know what we were in short yardage in the NFL, but I think we're, it was good. It was just we didn't do a ton of Q sneaks because Baker was not the biggest, even though he would probably bust my chops for saying that. But he can get him too, though. So it'll be a part of this game."
Earlier this year, the Jaguars were one of the teams that voted against a ban on the famous tush push. That might've been a sign that Coen will consider unleashing Lawrence the way the Philadelphia Eagles use Jalen Hurts at the goal line.
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Why the Jaguars need to take advantage of Trevor Lawrence in the tush push
You could make the case that teams shouldn't expose their quarterbacks to unnecessary risk, but that undermines the fact that football is a collision sport, and injuries are an inherent part of it. Moreover, the Eagles have made the tush push a staple of their offense, and Jalen Hurts has turned out to be fine. Ditto Lamar Jackson, who's a big part of the Baltimore Ravens running game on designated plays.
By having Lawrence run the quarterback sneak, the Jaguars will have opponents on their toes, forcing them to guess whether he'll throw or run. And once Jacksonville consistently deploys No. 16 in short-yardage situations, his conversion rate will increase considerably.
Of course, Trevor Lawrence's best attribute is his arm, and he's expected to make better use of it in 2025. Having said that, why wouldn't the Jaguars want to use a part of his game that would make him even more of a threat?
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