Trevor Lawrence was in an untenable situation last season.
Lawrence found himself in a chaotic environment, filled with personnel breakdowns, miscommunications and mistakes. Then he stepped onto the field and tried to make throws from collapsing pockets in the direction of receivers who at times let him down at the catch point.
Perhaps his luck is about to change.
He now finds himself under the guidance of an offensive-minded head coach with an actual record of quarterback development. Say what you want about Carson Wentz, but during the 2017 campaign, coming in his second NFL season, Doug Pederson had Wentz playing at a near-MVP level before his knee injury.
Now Pederson brings that record to Jacksonville, to try and bring about the same second-year leap for Lawrence.
Early returns are perhaps a bit mixed. Lawrence completed 6 of 12 passes for 95 yards and a touchdown in his first preseason action, in a loss to the Cleveland Browns. As noted by Laurie Fitzpatrick in a great piece breaking down that performance, “we saw concepts from Pederson and his staff that were far more beneficial to Lawrence than anything Urban Meyer’s crew gave him in the Jaguars’ disastrous 2021 season.”
That continued against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Lawrence finished 14 of 21 in that game for 133 yards, and beyond the concepts dialed up by the coaching staff, you also saw his ability to drive the football into downfield windows at a high level.
Particularly when attacking outside.
One of the concepts that the Jaguars have implemented this season pairs a Mesh concept underneath, with a two-man Flood concept on the outside. That gives Lawrence the ability to work the crossing routes underneath, or turn outside as a three-level stretch eventually develops. The go route along the boundary is the vertical stretch, the shallow crosser works across the field to be the underneath “bait,” and the deep out route becomes the intended target for Lawrence:
On this example,…
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