Rookie Season a Learning Experience for Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence
Trevor Lawrence's first season in the NFL didn't go quite the way he had hoped, but that doesn't mean there weren't lessons to be learned.
After Jacksonville made the former Clemson quarterback the No. 1 overall pick in last April's NFL Draft, there was a lot of optimism surrounding the Jaguars franchise.
Urban Meyer was hired to change the culture of a team that had won a combined six games over the previous two seasons and hadn't made the playoffs since 2017. However, Jacksonville would stumble out of the gate, dropping their first four games, and suddenly all that optimism had vanished.
Jacksonville would go on to finish the year at 3-14 and Meyer was fired back in December with the Jags sitting at 2-11.
For the season, Lawrence saw his share of highs and lows, throwing for 3.641 yards and completing 59.6% of his passes. But he also threw 17 interceptions compared to just 12 touchdowns. While Lawrence would have liked to have led the Jaguars to a few more wins, the rookie quarterback is confident the adversity he faced this season will only make him better.
"I'd say just learned a lot, like that's what I'm taking from this year," Lawrence told Darien Rencher on The Player's Club podcast. "Obviously on the field, it was up and down. Some games I played well, some games I didn't. You know, I learned a lot about ball. The NFL is completely different from college as far as offenses, and defenses as well. Like there's so many things that you learn that you can't learn unless you go through it."
One of the biggest lessons Lawrence had to learn during his rookie season had to do with actually learning how to lose. During his entire collegiate career, Clemson only lost two games that Lawrence started at quarterback and he'd only lost two times as a high school quarterback. The adversity also helped Lawrence grow into the kind of locker room leader that Jacksonville was in desperate need of.
"I've learned a lot about myself, just how I deal with adversity," Lawrence said. "What works for me as far as making sure I'm ready to play week in and week out. Not only like prep as far as film study and game planning and all that but like mentally just making sure my mind's right every week. I learned a lot about that because I was really challenged this season with the ups and downs."
"I think I learned how to lead better for sure. I kind of found my voice more and more as the season went on, and became that steady voice and that guy in the locker room."
Jacksonville was able to end the season on a high note by beating Indianapolis 26-11, a game the Colts needed to win in order to secure a playoff spot. Lawrence threw for 223 yards and two touchdowns in the victory and is hopeful that ending the season on a high note is a sign of things to come. Although, one thing the quarterback is sure of is that the struggles of his rookie season will only make him and the rest of the Jaguars better going forward.
"I think like more good than bad came out of this year for sure," Lawrence said. "And we all know it's a marathon, not a sprint. So really looking forward to the future. I know I'm gonna use this year for the rest of my career and that's going to help me be who I want to be."
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