Jacksonville Jaguars tight end Dan Arnold was only targeted twice Sunday — catching one of those passes for a 20-yard gain — but he said that he and the other pass catchers on the team deserve a lot of the blame for the offensive struggles against the Houston Texans.
“I think Trevor [Lawrence], you know, a lot is on his shoulders,” Arnold told 1010XL’s Mia O’Brien in the locker room after the loss. “I think what a lot of people are going to not see is the amount of balls that we dropped, myself included. And we gotta help him out more. There’s more stuff that we gotta be playmakers out in the field to do that stuff, to help him along.
“That’s the thing with Trevor … okay, he throws a pick in the red zone, whatever he’s like ‘Okay dude, let’s go score, we’re fine. We’ll get the ball back and we’ll go win this game.’ You see that leadership from the entire team, and he went through it all last year and a lot people put a lot of pressure on him last year with all the games that we were losing.
“He’s been through the ringer and he’ll be able to survive it just fine. I think more of its on us as pass catchers and everything, we’ve gotta be better and we’ve gotta help him out.”
Asked Dan Arnold point blank: what did he think of Trevor Lawrence today
“He’s been through the ringer and he’ll be just fine… I think a lot of it was on us as playmakers” #Jaguars pic.twitter.com/hCOkKcL9ki
— Mia O'Brien (@MiaOBrienTV) October 9, 2022
Arnold, 27, was acquired by the Jaguars in a mid-season trade last year and quickly became a favorite target for Lawrence. But after catching 28 passes in eight games with the Jaguars last year, Arnold has been targeted just four times through five games in 2022 as he’s dropped behind other players, including Evan Engram, on the depth chart.
The Jaguars offense recorded 422 yards, but scored zero touchdowns in the 13-6 loss to the Texans.