If there’s anyone that knows what it takes to succeed in Jacksonville, it’s Fred Taylor. Nearly inarguably the top player in franchise history, Taylor has appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot multiple times and finished his career with 11,695 rushing yards and 66 rushing touchdowns.
He also played with the best quarterback the franchise has ever had at the beginning of his career in Mark Brunell. So it should say something that even he is buying into the lofty expectations set for Lawrence. On a recent appearance on the “All Things Covered” podcast with Patrick Peterson and Bryant McFadden, Taylor compared Lawrence to another prospect who received “generational talent” hype — and lived up to it.
“Peyton (Manning) lived up to everything they thought he was going to be, and that’s what we all hope as Jaguar fans,” Taylor said. “We hope to get the same thing out of Trevor (Lawrence).”
Though Jags fans would certainly be thrilled if Lawrence’s career played out like Manning’s (who won two Super Bowls and was a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee), they’ll hope he has a stronger start than Manning. The former Jags rival threw more interceptions than touchdowns as a rookie, making his first season a rough one.
Luckily for Lawrence, he’ll have a familiar face to help him along. With the 25th pick in the draft, the Jaguars selected his college teammate in running back Travis Etienne. The move came as a pretty big surprise considering the production Jacksonville got from undrafted rookie running back James Robinson in 2020.
But Taylor said he understands the pick, saying that Etienne brings a level of dynamism to the franchise that it hasn’t seen since Maurice Jones-Drew was in his prime. Before becoming the Jags’ feature back, Jones-Drew spent the early part of his career as part of a 1-2 punch with Taylor, something Jacksonville could bring back with Robinson and Etienne.
“I’m okay with the pick, simply because he’s a guy that is very versatile,” Taylor said. “We haven’t seen that in Jacksonville, really since Maurice Jones-Drew. … There’s some quality in that selection, they are just going to have to find a way to mask what they didn’t get.”
Though Taylor is right that there were possibly higher-value targets still on the board when the team picked Etienne, practically all of them fell out of the first round, giving the team their pick of the bunch at No. 33 (which was ultimately used on Georgia cornerback Tyson Campbell).
Etienne may not have been a need for the Jaguars, but he adds another weapon to a young, up-and-coming offense that could be very solid in 2021 even if the defense continues to struggle.