FLOWERY BRANCH -- Although his No. 1 overall selection in the draft has not immediately translated to victories, the Jaguars are happy with rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
“He’s growing up,” Jacksonville’s Urban Meyer said to the Jacksonville media. “He’s already a tough guy. We got the right quarterback.”
Lawrence, who played at Cartersville High and Clemson, has completed just 58.4% of his passes and has passed for more than 300 yards just twice this season. He has nine touchdown passes to eight interceptions.
Meyer has pointed to his supporting cast that needs to improve and be upgraded in the future. In the meantime, Meyer doesn’t want Lawrence to get despondent.
“I remind him that they’re all professionals,” Meyer said. “We are all professionals. We’ve got a job to do, go out and do it.”
With the Jaguars’ rushing attack stalled by a knee/heel injury to James Robinson, the Jaguars are putting in more of the run-pass-option (RPOs) plays that Lawrence ran at Clemson.
“Those conversations have been had,” Meyer said. “Do what he does well. Those are conversations that we are having.”
Developing a rookie NFL quarterback is risky. Peyton Manning went 3-13 as a rookie and led the league with 28 interceptions back in 1998 with the Colts. Matt Ryan, with a 2,000-yard rushing attack (Michael Turner and Jerious Norwood), led the Falcons to an 11-5 record and a wildcard playoff berth in 2008.
Meyer believes Lawrence’s growth has stalled.
“Really in the last month because there was a nice trajectory, but that’s when James (Robinson) was running the ball at an extremely high level and you were getting good balance run-pass,” Meyer said. “Coming off that win in London there was some pretty good balance in that game and Trevor played really well. We just have to get that back.”
Meyer knew the RPOs and college plays would be an option for Lawrence and will pattern some things after Seattle’s offense and quarterback Russell Wilson.
“One of the reasons I hired Bev (Darrell Bevell) and also Brian Schottenheimer was because they did it with Russell Wilson,” Meyer said. “They weren’t resistant. We met for a long time. I watched the film and saw what they did with Russell as far as breaking contain, the RPOs and the zone-read type stuff.”
Lawrence could take on more hits from the defense.
“There is a fine line, too,” Meyer said. “Preparing a quarterback for a long career and then also with keeping him out of harm’s way, those are conversations that we have daily.”
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