Trevor Lawrence Has 'Pretty Good Day' in Jaguars Debut, Still Has Things to Clean Up
Trevor Lawrence's debut with the Jaguars lasted just two offensive series.
Despite the short stint in Jacksonville's 23-13 loss to Cleveland to open the preseason, Lawrence said he felt comfortable running the Jaguars offense. After fumbling on the very first play of his NFL career, one that was recovered by Jacksonville, Lawrence settled in nicely, going 6-9 for 71 yards.
"I feel like for the first time out there, I felt comfortable and poised," Lawrence said after the game. "Obviously, the first play is not kind of what you want for the first play but after that, I thought we did a good job."
The rookie quarterback out of Clemson was sacked twice, one of those for which he took sole responsibility. Outside of that, and one throw he'd like to have back, Lawrence was pleased with his performance.
"We communicated well up front and were good with protection," Lawrence said. "At least one of those sacks was on me for sure, just holding the ball too long. That's something I'll work on. Just maneuvering in the pocket is something I've always got to work on. Other than that, I missed an easy (pass). Obviously, there are things to clean up, but I thought it was a pretty good day.”
Head coach Urban Meyer was a little more critical of the number one overall pick. The first-year head coach was not pleased with the pace of his first-team offense and thought Lawrence was holding onto the ball too long at times.
"We gave up two sacks, I believe, with the number one offense," Meyer said. "If he's holding the ball a little bit long, I kind of felt he did on one of them, but we'll have more after we watch. But just disappointing offense. I don't like slow offenses. I don't want to be one of those slow wallowing offenses and now we'll go get that fixed.”
However, Meyer also noted that he saw a lot of good from his rookie quarterback, while at the same time noting that his offense still has a lot of room to improve.
"He certainly wasn't awe-struck," Meyer said. "I saw good plays. I saw a guy who made a couple of nice plays on third down. I think he held the ball a little bit a couple times, which you would expect out of him maybe. Instead of anticipating the throws, (he was) holding on to it a little bit, but we have a long way to go."
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