2024 was never going to be a “prove it” season, or so they’re proverbially called, for Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville.
The Jaguars made Lawrence, their No. 1 overall selection in the 2021 NFL draft, one of the two highest-paid players in football on Thursday night, locking him in on a five-year contract extension worth $275 million.
The term “overpay” was trending on the social media platform X within minutes of the deal being reported, with critics claiming Lawrence had yet to prove such worth as an NFL quarterback.
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The Jaguars clearly don’t see it in that light.
Jacksonville is banking on a 28-game stretch of excellence from Lawrence, between Week 1 of the 2022 season and Week 12 of the 2023 campaign, as a sign of what’s to come for the franchise.
Between Doug Pederson’s 2022 hiring as Jacksonville’s head coach and its 12th contest of last season — before the quarterback suffered a game-ending high ankle sprain in Week 13, one of three considerable injuries he dealt with at the end of the year — Lawrence completed 66.6% of his passes for 6,859 yards, 39 touchdowns and 15 interceptions with 514 yards and eight scores rushing.
Jacksonville went 17-11 in that span, with Lawrence guiding the club away from four consecutive losing seasons all while eradicating the stench of the short-lived yet disastrous Urban Meyer era of Jaguars football.
The zenith of that period transpired when the Jaguars reached the AFC Divisional round of the 2022-23 playoffs.
They pulled off the third-largest comeback in postseason history the week before, erasing a 27-point home deficit against Los Angeles to beat the Chargers in the Wild Card round, 31-30. Kansas City beat Jacksonville at Arrowhead Stadium in the next round, 27-20.
The Jaguars appeared on track to go on a similar run in 2023, opening the campaign 8-3 before Lawrence suffered his ankle sprain, followed by a concussion in Week 15 and an A/C joint sprain in his throwing shoulder in Week 16.
Lawrence missed only one game but was visibly hampered while playing through his hurts.
Over his injury-plagued final five matchups of the season, including his shortened Week 13 when the Jaguars also lost leading receiver Christian Kirk to a season-ending groin injury, Lawrence produced a 62.4% completion rate and averaged 254 yards, 1.8 touchdowns and 1.4 interceptions per game.
When one breaks down Lawrence’s career, it comes in two parts, a peak and a multi-phased…
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