Where Darrell Bevell Saw Trevor Lawrence Improve After His Third NFL Start
While last Sunday's 31-19 loss to the Arizona Cardinals is the last result the 0-3 Jacksonville Jaguars wanted, the team and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell did at least see one important development: the tangible improvement of rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
“As you watch and you assess his play, there’s things that he’s getting much better at," Bevell said about the NFL's No. 1 overall pick on Tuesday.
"One of the things that I thought he did a really nice job of was getting through his progressions. I think I mentioned last week there was a couple plays where he did that and this week, he’s doing it even more. I think one of the really good plays was the one where he started off to the left and came back and hit Marvin [Jones Jr.] in the middle of the field. Just plays like that where he’s calm, he’s patient, he gets through it and is reading it out is plays that he’s improving on.”
Lawrence finished the loss with a career-highs in completion percentage, catchable pass % (per sports info solutions), passer rating, and yards per attempt. While the rookie quarterback did throw two interceptions, including a pick-six, his stats improved overall. Enough so that the Jags have tangible improvement with which to work.
In Trevor Lawrence's first two starts (losses to the Houston Texans and Denver Broncos respectively), he threw 84 passes for a 50% completion rate. Of those, Sports Info Solutions rates 73.4% catchable with 70.9% on-target. They went for 5.4 yards per attempt, 3.3 any/a. He had a 4.8 touchdown percentage per throw. After the first two weeks, he had the highest percentage of uncatchable balls in the NFL, according to Pro Football Focus.
One of the unwritten rules when it comes to rookie quarterbacks—especially gunslinger's at that—is that the first few games will come with growing pains. Depending on how good the team is around him, that could stretch to an entire season. At the risk of bringing this stat up too much, we remind you Peyton Manning threw 28 interceptions as a rookie with the Indianapolis Colts. It's a NFL rookie record that still stands 23 years later.
Allowing Lawrence to "figure things out" so to speak is fine with Bevell, as long as they also him to grow within those mistakes. And perhaps even more importantly? Not letting those mistakes deter Lawrence from the style of play that made him a No. 1 overall pick.
"Obviously, we want to make sure that he’s making the decisions correctly," explained Bevell. "I think we’ve had this conversation before, I don’t want to take the aggressiveness away. We always want to read the plays how it’s supposed to be read. If it’s top down, we want to read top down. If the top guy’s open, take it. He’s done a nice job of that but there’s been plays where some of those decisions came into question. But we’ll continue to work with it."
Versus Arizona, Lawrence improved those numbers to 64.7% completion rate, with 83.3% determined catchable and 76.7% on target. While it's easy to look only at the touchdown to interception ratio (Lawrence's currently sits at 5-7), it is the on target, catchable rate that better indicates Lawrence's progression. It shows a better understanding of how quickly windows will close in the NFL and where to put the ball away from sneaky defensive backs.
When those interceptions do come, Bevell has been impressed with Lawrence's ability to not let it effect the next play.
"From our studying him and our studying with him at Clemson and all the way back to high school, things he’s done, that’s been him. He’s been a very steady guy. Obviously, he’s been really successful where he’s been, so the not winning the games has probably been the biggest change for him. But all the other stuff, he’s handled big moments really well and so I didn’t expect anything different.”
Perhaps one of the biggest jumps in Lawrence's game has come simply from better understanding the little things; the NFL intricacies that are different than the college game. For as much as getting the play call in wouldn't seem to affect the passer's on target rate, a successful play often comes from a complete understanding of what needs to happen from idea to execution. If a QB is confused at the line about a play call, even if he audible's to the right call, the quick change can send a wave of unease through the whole operation.
So versus the Cardinals, Bevell saw a continued progression from Lawrence in all of the minor details that add up to make a big difference when playing quarterback in the NFL.
"When you think about quarterback play from when we were all growing up and being very little, there’s three things that nowadays in college that some of these guys come to our NFL and they haven’t done," breaks down Bevell.
"Number one, they haven’t taken a snap under center, so that’s a change for them. Number two, they don’t call a cadence. You think that’s a little thing but that’s a huge thing to be able to bark out the cadence, help you out. Then, they don’t call a play in the huddle. They’re looking off to the side or the coach is changing the play. So, just the three most basic things that a quarterback does, not all the quarterbacks that come into the league are doing it.
"There some of those just simple carryovers that as they come to our league, they haven’t had, so just the basics they’re getting up to speed. Trevor’s progression has been great. He’s doing a great job. He works his tail off. I think his communication with the players on the team and the guys in the offense, communication during the game, all those things he’s just really doing a nice job with it and his play’s getting better and better.”
As the season progresses, so will Lawrence. His performance versus the Cardinals, albeit in another losing effort, shows marked improvement on tangible aspects of his game. That will only get better, and Darrell Bevell feels the Jacksonville Jaguars are in a pretty good position when it comes to their rookie quarterback.
"You can look around the league and I’ll take our guy any day in the rookie quarterbacks and how they’re doing."
