The Jaguars made quarterback Trevor Lawrence one of the highest-paid players in NFL history earlier this month. If he were eligible to have signed a contract extension any sooner than this offseason, Jags owner Shad Khan would have green-lit the move well beforehand.
“I was comfortable committing [to Lawrence] a long time ago,” Khan said Wednesday, “and I told him that.”
Khan recalled his first pre-draft meeting with Lawrence before Jacksonville made him the No. 1 overall selection in 2021, a Zoom call during the COVID-19 era of NFL scouting.
Lawrence said something during this exchange that resonates with Khan to this day, an objective he came five years closer to realizing when he agreed to his new deal on June 13.
“He told me then, the very first time, he only had one goal in life, that whoever drafts him, he’d like to finish his career there,” Khan recalled. “It’s pretty cool.”
Lawrence is now locked in with Jacksonville through the 2030 season, which will be his 10th year in the pros, after inking the $275 million contract.
The Jaguars are banking on Lawrence’s healthy performances over his last two seasons with the team as evidence of victorious years to come, wiping clean the failed Urban Meyer experiment that was his 3-14 rookie campaign.
Under Pederson, Lawrence has completed 65.9% of his passes for 8,129 yards with 46 touchdowns and 22 interceptions, and led Jacksonville to consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 2004-05, peaking with the Jaguars’ AFC Divisional Round appearance last January.
Before a string of injuries in Weeks 13-16 of 2023, the Jaguars were 18-12 (including the postseason) with Lawrence behind center and Pederson calling the shots.
Khan, whose Jaguars are 60-135 since he officially bought the team in 2012, signed off on Lawrence’s check of course: the NFL requires teams to place future fully guaranteed payments in escrow. Lawrence’s deal includes $142 million fully guaranteed.
But Khan emphasized that he did not impose Lawrence’s extension on the Jaguars’ front office or coaching staff, claiming he kept his preference quiet until Jacksonville’s general manager Trent Baalke, head coach Doug Pederson, quarterbacks coach Mike McCoy and other involved staffers reaffirmed his stance.
“I want the coaches to believe that. I want the GM, the personnel people to believe that and really be vested in it. So I think, I’m sharing that with you today because it’s a done deal, but I didn’t tip my hand to any of these people until they told me why they were sold on Trevor,” said Khan.
“I listened to all that stuff, that kind of reinforced some of it.”
Khan believes Lawrence and star Jaguars edge rusher Josh Allen’s five-year extensions, the first two $100+ million contracts in team history, mark a clear turning point for the franchise.
No longer does the team intend to rely on spending heavily in free agency to lure talent, as Jacksonville has done throughout most of Khan’s proprietorship.
The Jaguars believe they can contend with their homegrown talent and must continue to develop it as they pay their franchise players big bucks.
“[Lawrence], Josh Allen, some of these players, I mean their DNA is kind of woven into this city and that’s what you want,” Khan said. “I mean, now they got to win, okay? But the rest of this stuff, it’s really important.
“I think there’s a sea change for us,” he added. “And this is for our coaching, that they got to develop young players. Our solution isn’t, ‘We’re going to be signing free agents every year.’
“[The] bottom line is that young talent has to be developed. And the coaching staff, I mean, their priorities have to change, their mindset has to change. That’s where we’re going to get our future players and we cannot have this addiction to free agents.”
To Khan, it’s comforting that the Jaguars’ transformation includes the quarterback he’d been searching for since his arrival in Jacksonville over a decade ago.
Plenty of other teams are still looking for theirs, he noted.
“Absolutely. I think it’s very comforting, and I think a lot of other teams are kind of envious of it. Because if you look at it, there are not too many teams that can say, ‘Okay,’ Khan remarked with a laugh.