How Trevor Lawrence is Learning from Playoff Lumps

The Jacksonville Jaguars' 2025 NFL season ended in misery. Unfortunately, this is the stark reality for 31 of the 32 teams in the league. Only one franchise can hoist the Lombardi at the end of the year. All the others can only prepare themselves for a long offseason and plan for how they intend to put themselves in a better position to be the next champion.

It felt like the Jaguars were closer than they ever were this season. Even though they made it to the AFC Championship Game in 2017, this squad felt better equipped. Liam Coen proved to be a wunderkind, leading Jacksonville to the second-most regular-season wins in franchise history in just his first go as an NFL head coach. He seemed to have finally unlocked Trevor Lawrence, constructing a dark-horse MVP campaign for the fifth-year quarterback. And yet, T-Law's season ended the same way it did in his first four seasons: in disappointment.

Jacksonville Jaguars, NFL playoffs, Buffalo Bills, Wild Card, Trevor Lawrence — Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence (16) looks to congratulate other Buffalo Bills players after the game of an NFL football AFC Wild Card playoff matchup, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Jacksonville, Fla. The Bills defeated the Jaguars 27-24. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union] | Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Trevor Lawrence will be better for it

The stat sheet won't be kind to Trevor Lawrence's performance against the Buffalo Bills. His Jacksonville Jaguars fell just short in the Wild Card showdown, 27-24. He finished with 238 total yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions on 18-of-30 passing. Jacksonville got the ball back with just under a minute left in the contest, but the game effectively ended when Lawrence tried to squeeze the rock into a tight window to Jakobi Meyers.

Tre'Davious White tipped the pass up, and Bills safety Cole Bishop came down with the pick to seal the win for Buffalo. It was a brutal end to an otherwise admirable effort from T-Law, one that erased all of the goodwill he built up this season in the minds of a lot of viewers. Jacksonville media asked him what he learned from this loss and his first postseason defeat at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs three years ago:

Last play of the game. pic.twitter.com/0Ghl0GfZ7N
— Fitz (@LaurieFitzptrck) January 11, 2026

"I want to watch the tape and kind of see what happened. But I think in any playoff game, mistakes are always magnified just because it always comes down to the end. You don't see a lot of blowouts in the playoffs. Everything is on the line. Everyone is fighting to keep playing. So whether it's turnovers or turnover on downs — we had three of those, I guess, today total — those add up, and those take points off the board... I've got to be better, cleaner there."

"The reality is you take points off the board, these games are going to be one-score games, and you're going to need them at the end. I wish we played cleaner in certain areas. I wish I made one or two decisions a little bit differently, threw a better ball here or there... That's a bummer, but I know that we left everything out there. I know I put everything into this this year, and it sucks that we don't get to keep playing, because it's a special group, and people don't get to keep watching us, and our fans have been awesome all year. I guess to answer your question... the attention to detail is so important and taking care of the ball is magnified, all those things.”

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