ESPN Proposes Trevor Lawrence For Caleb Williams Trade

This is, well, a scenario.

The NFL Draft is routinely the most unpredictable spectacle in sports. Nobody knows what they do or don't know, shocking picks and trades happen with seemingly every other pick, and more often than not a lot of guesswork is involved. In most cases, anything can happen.

In the case of ESPN's propsed trade for the No. 1 pick, though, it is hard to suspend belief.

ESPN's Bill Barnwell conducted a trade-only mock draft, which will of course lead to some wild scenarios. One such wild scenario, though, is Barnwell proposing the Jaguars trade quarterback Trevor Lawrence, the No. 48 pick, and the No. 153 pick for the No. 1 pick. In essence, the Jaguars would trade Lawrence and draft capital for Caleb Williams.

"Yes, I recognize this is an absurd trade. If we're trying to find reasonably fair value for both sides, though? This makes at least a little bit of sense, and it's a deal in which both sides could win," Barnwell said.

"For the Jaguars, this would be recognizing that they've essentially wasted most of Lawrence's three bargain-basement seasons as a starter. The disaster of the Meyer season led to a desperate second offseason in which they spent over the top to add solid-if-unspectacular players around Lawrence at receiver. Christian Kirk and Zay Jones were major upgrades, but Calvin Ridley wasn't able to live up to expectations, and they bowed out of bidding for him this offseason after signing Gabe Davis, failing to match Tennessee's offer. Middling offensive line play hasn't helped Lawrence stay healthy. Starting over with Williams would give the Jags another chance to build around a quarterback with franchise-passer upside while he's still cheap."

Lawrence finished the season completing 65.6% of his passes for 4,016 yards, 21 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, along with seven lost fumbles. Lawrence also missed his first career start as he dealt with four different injuries, with Lawrence seemingly having to limp to the finish of the season.

After making it through his first two seasons with minimal injury scares, Lawrence was legitimately walking wounded for much of 2023. Lawrence sustained four different injuries this fall that forced him to miss valuable practice time and play in several games with injuries: a knee injury in Week 6, an ankle injury in Week 13, a concussion in Week 15, and then finally a shoulder injury in Week 16 that forced him to miss his first-career start.

The injuries stacked up during the Jaguars' six-game stretch that saw them go 1-5 and miss the playoffs. The injuries led to Lawrence missing his first career start, which went on to be the Jaguars' only win of the stretch. And among Lawrence's 16 starts, his four starts after each injury saw Lawrence have his 2nd, 5th, 7th, and 8th worst games of the season by total EPA.

“We do have the right quarterback. I’m excited for the future with Trevor, he’s excited based on the conversations we’ve had since the season. I don’t get into the contract stuff, I leave that for Trent [Baalke] and the agents and stuff," Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said at this year's NFL Scouting Combine.

"I just know that our guy is the right guy, he’s got the right demeanor, he’s got the right leadership. It’s our job as coaches now to make sure he takes that next step. This will be another big offseason for him and his development and growth. By no means is he where he wants to be or where we want him to be, but really looking forward to working another year with Trevor.”