Lawrence relishing 1st normal offseason with Jags

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence is having a normal, relaxing offseason.

Finally.

“It was definitely a different feel in this offseason, being able to unwind a little bit and then disconnect,” Lawrence said Monday after the Jaguars’ seventh organized team activity at TIAA Bank Field. “My rookie year didn’t really have an offseason going into the league. Then last year with the coaching change and all that, not sure what was going to happen, and then having Coach [Doug Pederson] hired and trying to learn the system and all that, [you] really don’t have much of an offseason because you’re trying to figure out what the next step is.”

Lawrence doesn’t have to worry about adjusting to life in the NFL after going through the pre-draft process, getting to know a new head coach (for the second time in two years), or learning yet another new offensive system. Instead, he can focus on fine-tuning his fundamentals and working to get the offense to function at a higher level.

The Jaguars finished Lawrence’s second season with an offense that ranked 10th in scoring and points. Not having to learn a new offense for the first time since he went into his final season at Clemson in 2020 should make bettering those numbers an easier task. And it also makes for a much more stress-free spring and summer.

“To have the same staff, to have a lot of the same players, to have that carryover, and the system [being the same], that feels good having that and being able to focus on little parts of my game instead of just making sure I got the installs and know the plan coming into practice,” Lawrence said. “Not having that stress of just learning the playbook, I can just really focus on my game and my mechanics.”

Lawrence finished the 2022 season as one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Over Weeks 9 to 18, he was second in the NFL in completion percentage and passer rating and threw 15 touchdown passes and only two interceptions. The Jaguars went 7-2 in that stretch and won the AFC South in Week 18 by beating the Tennessee Titans.

They rallied from a 27-0 first-half deficit in an AFC wild-card game to beat the Los Angeles Chargers 31-30, thanks in large part to Lawrence’s four touchdown passes, before losing to the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs in a divisional playoff game.

That was a pretty strong finish for Lawrence, and now that he’s finally able to have a normal offseason the expectations are even higher. From himself and from Coach Pederson.

“The way he ended the season last year is what we’ve got to see to start the [2023] season and then just continue that progression with him,” Pederson said. “He’s on the right track. He’s doing everything that we’ve asked him to do.

“He’s the key to the offense and makes it work. So he understands his role from the standpoint of put the ball in the playmaker’s hands. But now having a full year of our offense under his belt too, that gives him a lot of confidence. He’s still learning, but he’s now teaching the offense to the other guys.”

Just like in his second and third season at Clemson. It’s a familiar feeling, and something Lawrence said he was looking forward to once the offseason conditioning program began in April.

“Now we have our culture set, we have our staff, we have our system,” he said. “It feels good having that in place.”

It feels … normal.