Trevor Lawrence poised for much improved second season in Jacksonville

Most see Trevor Lawrence’s rookie campaign as a failure, but there’s hope for the second year quarterback.

To say Trevor Lawrence’s first season as a professional was a struggle is an understatement.  I’m a casual NFL watcher and even I was barraged with the negativity towards the former Clemson football signal caller.

No one seemed to notice, or care, about the team around him, how he was constantly running for his life, doing and trying anything for the team to be successful.

That was just on the field.  Off the field, asking a rookie to handle the mess that was the Urban Meyer fiasco was unfair.

It’s difficult to think of a worse situation for a rookie – bad team, horrible coach, terrible situation.

No one expects Jacksonville to contend in 2022, but the building blocks are there: A new head coach who’s a former NFL quarterback (and head coach) with experience developing quarterbacks in the league, not to mention one that communicates.

"“I think you can always tell the way a coach communicates with a quarterback because he’s been in my shoes,” Lawrence said during OTAs. “Quarterback’s an interesting position. It’s not a big rah-rah, chew somebody out. I mean you have some coaches that are like that but for me, that’s just not what I need."

It can’t hurt that former Clemson teammate Travis Etienne is healthy and ready to contribute after missing all of last season.

It’s all about the bottom line – winning – in the NFL and while the Jags have a ways to go, but difference should be obvious

How much will it matter on the field?  That’s too be determined and certainly the Jaguars have a long way to go just to be competitive, not to mention winners.  After all, they were 3-14 in Lawrence’s inaugural season.

But Lawrence is learning to trust his head coach and I’m guessing that he couldn’t say that last season and it will make a huge difference.

"“That’s the biggest thing in a team is just trusting each other, trusting the guys in the locker room but also the staff,” Lawrence said. “That’s something, clearly, we didn’t have a lot of last year, so I mean I think our locker room did a great job last year of staying together."

It may not happen overnight, but my guess is the Jaguars will be vastly improved over last season and I’m interested in seeing how that manifests itself in the win-loss column.