One Key Difference Between Pederson's and Meyer's Handling of Lawrence
There are, well, a lot of differences between Doug Pederson and Urban Meyer. A lot.
Pederson is a player's coach who has won a Super Bowl as an NFL head coach, has coordinated NFL offenses and even has playing experience at quarterback in the pros. Meyer's credentials, or lack thereof, have been well-documented, but they aren't anything like Pederson's.
But even for all of the differences between the ice cream-loving Super Bowl champion and the now-fired and disgraced former Jaguars coach, there has been one key difference between the two that has especially stood out after months of Pederson on the job as Meyer's replacement.
That difference? The handling and development of quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
There are of course the differences in how each approaches teaching the quarterback position, and Pederson clearly has much more to offer in that regard than Meyer. But the primary stark contrast between how each has approached the 2021 No. 1 overall pick is a willingness to throw him into the fire and give him the reps he deserves.
One of the biggest storylines of Lawrence's first offseason and training camp with the Jaguars was Meyer and the Jaguars' staff forcing Lawrence to split first-team reps with Gardner Minshew, who the Jaguars would trade for a sixth-round pick before the season began.
It was a maddening pattern, with Lawrence frequently spending entire practices running with the second offense instead of with the starters he was set to play beside for all 17 games. The competition was never a real one, but Minshew still got the reps, leaving Lawrence without some key practice time ahead of his rookie year.
Pederson, though, has taken a different approach. There isn't a single rep Lawrence hasn't taken under Pederson to this point, with the clear emphasis of the Jaguars' practices and offensive strategies being placed around Lawrence's development.
“We’ve only been at this now really four weeks on the field, three weeks of phase two and a week of phase three, and so, as a staff, we’re doing our due diligence to try to make sure all the guys get proper snaps, the amount of snaps that they need," Pederson said on Tuesday ahead of the Jaguars' fourth OTA practice.
"Everybody needs to get snaps and reps. Obviously, we want to focus on Trevor [Lawrence] and getting him as many reps as we can."
The Jaguars are seemingly saying the same things privately that they are saying publically, too. After a rookie offseason where Lawrence's ability to get reps and experience in a new offense was derailed by Meyer's strange handling of the position, the Jaguars have had the opposite approach with Pederson.
"From talking with people inside the organization, I get the impression Etienne's heavy workload at receiver is less about Etienne himself and more about Lawrence as the captain of this offense and Pederson's philosophy as a program builder as a whole," CBS Sports reporter Jonathan Jones said this week.
"This offense will go as Lawrence goes, and right now he needs every rep he can get in Pederson's system with OC Press Taylor and QBs coach Mike McCoy. Getting Lawrence to grow in this passing offense should be Priority 1 for that group."
Anyone who watched the Jaguars practice at this point last year and in training camp knows that wasn't the priority. With Pederson though, it is. And that is the key difference between him and Meyer thus far.
