Emphasis on Footwork More About Lawrence’s Direction Than His Feet

Liam Coen and the Jaguars want Trevor Lawrence to be where his feet are. As the quarterback progresses on his pitch count toward full participation, they’re using the opportunity in the present to hopefully help his future. It’s all about footwork.

“It's not really a change, just tweaking,” Coen explained. “He's extremely talented and he's made some unbelievable plays in critical moments and led some huge comebacks. He's played hurt, he's done so many good things.

“Now it's just about, ‘OK, how do we fine-tune it and just tighten it up a little bit to get him in a place where he's comfortable to cut the ball loose on time and in rhythm regardless of the circumstances?’”

Coen wants Lawrence to get to a point where he has no fear of failure in the Jaguars’ new system. Much like Coen did with Baker Mayfield’s career year in 2024, the new head coach wants to distribute pressure across the offense, not leave it all on Lawrence’s shoulders.

Louis Riddick said Doug Pederson, Lawrence’s former head coach and himself a veteran NFL quarterback, obviously stressed footwork. Any improvements Coen and new offensive coordinator Grant Udinski make in Lawrence’s technique are as much mental as physical, the ESPN analyst said.

“What's going to determine Trevor Lawrence's improvement is more so when you're talking about self-awareness,” Riddick said last week. “I think it's those times where things get sideways for Trevor, how he's able to get himself back on track, how he's able to kind of find that timing and that rhythm and get himself in that headspace to where things don't continue to snowball on him.

“And then all of a sudden he starts to forget all the fundamental things from a physical perspective and a mental perspective that got him to where he is.”

Riddick, a former NFL player, scout and executive, said Lawrence match any NFL quarterback physically. If he can consistently master his fundamentals regardless of the score, that’s when Lawrence will lead Jacksonville to big victories.

Lawrence said he knew long before Coen’s arrival that his footwork has been a bit of a weakness. Now, he’s attempting to both improve his feet while tying that footwork to the timing of his receivers’ routes.

“More than any system I've ever learned,” Lawrence said, “it's structured and based on that. Everything's tied exactly to, ‘Alright, this route is on this timing,’ so then your next progression is off of this footwork, off this timing. … You don't have multiple routes declaring at the same time, which is hard as a quarterback because then you're sitting back there and you’ve got to make a decision before, really, the guy’s open or covered.

“So, I think they've been a really good job with the system of really thinking through, ‘How does it tie into a quarterback’s feet?’ That’s what we've been talking about and it takes some work and flipping my stance, just some little things like that, that are small that many people wouldn't notice. I have so many banked reps of the other way, I’ve got to just get all these on my own and work them. So once camp comes around, I'm ready to go.”

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