Coming into his rookie season, fans were well aware of Trevor Lawrence’s ability to use his feet, but according to Next Gen Stats, he was elite in one category tied to mobility. That category was pressure evasion, where he ranked third in the league when looking at the quarterbacks who registered a significant amount of snaps.
The database had Lawrence down with a 23.2% evasion rate, which only ranked under Arizona Cardinals signal-caller Kyler Murray and Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen.
II. Ability to Evade Pressure
Murray also led all quarterbacks in pressure evade rate (25.8%), which measures the percentage of dropbacks where the QB was under pressure during the play, but avoided pressure at the time of throw. pic.twitter.com/zTIkSlenWp
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) July 21, 2022
Not only did the Jags have issues off the field that didn’t help Lawrence when considering everything Urban Meyer had going on, but he also had to deal with not having a lot of talent around him on the field. While he was far from perfect himself, one of the other issues that hurt the offense was the play of the offensive line, which ranked 24th by the end of the season according to Pro Football Focus. As a result, the rookie had to be evasive in the pocket on occasions — and we now have confirmation that he was quite good at it.
Heading forward, fans can only hope that Lawrence won’t have to rely on his evasiveness due to pressure as much as he did as a rookie. The team added a former All-Pro and four-time Pro Bowler in Brandon Scherff, who should help with that issue. Additionally, their returning starters on the line could take a step forward, too, under new offensive line coach Phil Raucher, who is one of several new offensive assistants Doug Pederson hired this offseason.