Jaguars’ Trevor Lawrence SB Interviews Observations

Lawrence has recently been making his interview rounds during Superbowl week. We discuss a few key takeaways from each sit-down and what it could mean for the team going forward.

On Tuesday, the Jacksonville Jaguars third-year quarterback sat down with Kay Adams of Up and Adams, from SuperBowl Radio Row to discuss his injury-plauged 2023 season and what it means for the team moving forward.

Later on Tuesday, Lawrence then joined NFL Network’s ‘SuperBowl Live’ with Patrick Claybon and Bucky Brooks to discuss more on the 2023 season and any lessons he took from it moving forward.

In addition to the items below, Lawrence also discussed the prospect of him receiving or not receiving an offseason extension, the prospect of Josh Allen getting a long-term contract to remain with the team, and would Like Fortner cheer for Will Levis or Trevor in Lawrence’s upcoming table tennis tournament. If you have 17 minutes, I would recommend fans watch both interviews in full above.

Injuries:

I would say [injuries) we’re a factor. Guys are dealing with things every week so it’s never an excuse. It doesn’t make you feel better; you’ve still got to perform every Sunday, (Lawrence stated to Adams).

2023 ended up as potentially Lawrence’s most injury-riddled season of his short career. Lawrence suffered four injuries to different areas throughout 2023 that forced him to miss practice time and play at less than 100%. He first suffered his knee injury in week six, an ankle injury in week 13, his concussion in week 15, and a shoulder injury in week 16 that forced him to miss both practice and the game. That was his first career missed start, snapping his consecutive start streak at 51 games. These were probably four of Lawrence’s worst games of the season.

His Offseason Wish List:

There are definitely conversations that I have with Coach Pederson, with Trent (Baalke, Jaguars GM), with Press (Taylor, Jaguars OC) on the offensive side that is about personnel – guys who that like, maybe who are up as free agents and maybe want to come back… But I can’t be the best quarterback I can be if I’m also trying to be the GM or the head coach. I think it’s healthy to have some separation there (Up and Adams interview).

Many fans of the team have openly vocalized that the team should pick whoever Lawrence wants in free agency and allow him a seat at the table in building the team. Here Lawrence clearly delineates his role like a veteran NFL player. After an inconsistent third season, his focus should solely be improving on his progression reads, getting in sync with his receivers, and healing up for 2024. If your QB is handling GM and HC duties and isn’t a truly elite QB, then you need a new GM and HC immediately.

Reading Their Press Clippings:

I think it’s just, it’s an eye-opener for us. And I think it could be a good thing for us in the long run. Sometimes when you have a season that finishes that way, especially not making the playoffs and the position that we were in, it kind of heightens the sense of urgency for everyone. We know, all right, we’re not where we need to be. We know we’re not where we want to be. And you’re coming off that instead of, you know, maybe a year, maybe we make the playoffs. We found a way to make the playoffs this year, and we don’t learn the lessons we do because we think we’re a little bit better than maybe we are. So I think it could heighten the sense of urgency, you could, you know, put a little pressure on us in a good way. And we need that (Super Bowl Live interview).

This also goes back to something Coach Pederson previously mentioned during his postgame presser after the week three Houston Texans loss.

In that same postgame presser, Doug later stated:

We’ve got ourselves in a little bit of a pickle here and we have to work it out. We need to play better. We need to execute better. Whether we are reading our press clippings, we need to get out of our own way right now.

It seems, based on Pederson’s in-season comments, Lawrence’s postseason comments, and much of what we have collectively heard around the team that decision-makers and players alike may have viewed this team as better than they truly were based on the last half of 2022 while dismissing or minimizing any team deficiencies from the first half of 2022 when heading into this season. In some ways, based on their 2022 success and week 18 victory over the Tennessee Titans the team may have skipped the line on learning some lessons to make them better long-term (re: team-building from the trenches, starting hot early in games versus playing from behind consistently, etc).

Random Takeaways:

• Per Lawrence, backup quarterback CJ Beathard is potentially one of the best table tennis players on the team.
• Also, I just thought this was a pretty random Up and Adams pre-interview crash by someone who interviews for a living in Seth Meyers

Boo, Pittsburgh. Boo to you and your towels.

What takeaways did you walk away with from Lawrence BCC?