It was a fairly disappointing season from Jacksonville’s rookie class. Aside from Tyson Campbell, who started most of the year at cornerback on the outside and improved quite a bit, there wasn’t much encouraging from this class.
But there is hope that the group could take a big leap in Year 2, and Pro Football Focus identified two of them as potential breakout candidates in 2022: quarterback Trevor Lawrence and safety Andre Cisco.
Lawrence finished the year with nine touchdowns to seven interceptions, and he completed less than 60% of his passes on the season. Still, he showed enough positives for there to be optimism about his play moving forward.
File this one under “no duh.” Look no further than an 85.1 passing grade in an upset win over the Indianapolis Colts and their top-10 defense in Week 18 to see what Lawrence is capable of. Outside of that, there really wasn’t too much in the way of positive takeaways from his rookie season. Between one of the ugliest coaching situations in recent memory and a banged-up supporting cast, Lawrence wasn’t put in near the situation to succeed that he should be in this upcoming season.
Unlike Lawrence, Cisco didn’t see a lot of action until later in the season. He appeared in every game but only started the final three due to injury. He impressed in those contests and could be poised to win the starting job in 2022.
Cisco was an afterthought when Urban Meyer was the Jaguars’ head coach, but the Syracuse product looked like one of the team’s best defenders when he took over as a starter in Week 16. He allowed only one catch for 12 yards while adding a pass breakup over the final three games of the season. The range Cisco was known for with the Orange stood out amongst the Jaguars safeties. Expect considerably more ball production in Year 2.
The Jaguars expected more from both players this season, but they both had impressive moments and ended the season on high notes. The early returns on the 2021 draft class haven’t been great so far, but the team will hope that changes down the line.