Tag: Trevor Lawrence 2021 NFL Draft

Trevor Lawrence could be in trouble in Jaguars’ limited passing game

If the Jacksonville Jaguars don’t expand their passing concepts, first overall pick Trevor Lawrence might be in trouble.

You’re never going to see everything a team wants to run in the first game of the preseason, and if the team’s coaching staff is new, you’re really not going to have a sense of what the plan is for a while, based on the tape. With that caveat in mind, the Jacksonville Jaguars’ offense in their 23-13 loss to the Browns should be a matter of some concern. First-overall draft pick Trevor Lawrence finished his day with six completions in nine attempts for 71 yards, two sacks, and one big play — a 35-yard completion to receiver Marvin Jones Jr.

Take that 35-yard play out, and Lawrence had a 4.5 yards per attempt average, and when you review what was designed by offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and passing game coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, it was a combination of swings and screens, the “All-stop” stuff that Amari Cooper told Dak Prescott to stop running a few years back, and long-developing isolation routes straight from Mike McCarthy’s Packers playbook. If Bevell and Schottenheimer were not going to give Lawrence designed openings in the intermediate and deep passing game, there were going to be problems.

And there were problems. Lawrence was sacked by former Jaguars defensive tackle Sheldon Day on his first NFL dropback, and he was sacked again with 1:14 left in the first quarter — this time by linebacker Porter Gustin. The 35-yard completion happened on the next play.

Why Trevor Lawrence shouldn’t have to explain his passion for football

The NFL would rather its players not be like Trevor Lawrence — not only smart enough to play the game, but smart enough to see through it.

In three seasons with the Clemson Tigers, Trevor Lawrence completed 756 passes on 1,146 attempts for 10,091 yards, 90 touchdowns, and 17 interceptions. When under pressure last season, he threw seven touchdowns to two interceptions. When blitzed, he threw seven touchdowns and one interception. Lawrence is the consensus first-overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft, and there are all kinds of reasons for that. Depending on which comparison you prefer, he could be the highest-ceiling draftable quarterback since Andrew Luck, or John Elway, or any other slam-dunk you care to mention.

And yet, there are now people questioning Lawrence’s commitment to the game after a Sports Illustrated profile in which he had the unmitigated temerity to admit that he… gasp… doesn’t have a chip on his shoulder. 

“It’s hard to explain that because I want people to know that I’m passionate about what I do and it’s really important to me, but . . . I don’t have this huge chip on my shoulder, that everyone’s out to get me and I’m trying to prove everybody wrong,” Lawrence said in the cover story. “I just don’t have that. I can’t manufacture that. I don’t want to.”

Now, of course, the brickbats are coming. People who likely have never watched Lawrence’s tape, or tried to analyze his game in any meaningful sense, are going to come after him because he has more on his mind — and in his life — than football. And that is plainly ridiculous. But it also hits the mark, to the point where Lawrence felt the need to clarify what he said.

“It seems as if people are misreading my sentiment,” Lawrence said via Twitter on Saturday. “I am internally motivated – I love football as much or more than anyone. It is a HUGE priority in my life, obviously. I am driven to be the best I can be, and to maximize my potential. And to WIN.

“I have a lot of confidence in my work ethic, I love to grind and to chase my goals. You can ask anyone who has been in my life. That being said, I am secure in who I am, and what I believe. I don’t need football to make me feel worthy as a person. I purely love the game and everything that comes with it. The work, the team, the ups and downs. I am a firm believer in the fact that there is a plan for my life and I’m called to be the best I can be at whatever I am doing.

“Thanks for coming to my TedTalk lol.”

Part of this is the silly season less than two weeks before the draft. But there’s a more insidious aspect to the apparent need for a 21-year-old person who’s still figuring out what’d truly meaningful in his life to shut that all down and make everything about football. There is absolutely no way Lawrence would have succeed at the level he did without a true passion for the game; you don’t develop an acuity for any craft without truly committing yourself to it.

Some in the NFL would rather have players who are smart, but not too smart — too smart to avoid questioning their coaches. Too smart to see through the league’s occasional horse hockey. Too smart to be able to walk away if that’s what someone needs to do. It’s better for those who benefit from the effort of athletes if those athletes make their commitments clear, and their distractions non-existent.

But that’s not the way every brain works, and it’s clearly not the way Trevor Lawrence’s brain works. Hopefully, his NFL team (very likely the Jacksonville Jaguars) will take the talent, and the numbers, and the future wins, and fold that into Lawrence’s need to find meaning beyond the game, and understand that it might just make him a happier, more aware, and dare we say it, a better player in the long run.

It’s already pretty obvious that Lawrence gets the game. Why can’t he be allowed to get everything else?

What Happens To The 2021 NFL Draft If There’s No 2020 NFL Season?

How do you prepare for the 2020 NFL Draft if you don’t know if there will be a season? Even harder, what will the 2021 NFL Draft look like?

How do you prepare for the 2020 NFL Draft if you don’t know if there will even be a season? Even harder, what will the 2021 NFL Draft look like if there’s no 2020 season?

CFN 2020 NFL Draft Prospect Rankings
from the college perspective …
QB | RB | WR | TE | OT | OG & C
DE | DT | LB | CB | Safeties
Greatest NFL Draft Picks From Each School
ACC | Big Ten | Big 12 | Pac-12 | SEC
32 Greatest Draft Picks of All-Time
Full 2020 NFL Draft Order
CFN Top 106 Player Rankings (1st 3 rounds)

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

All apologies in advance – this is one of those only-questions-no-answers things, because I have no earthly clue what the best possible solution is.

And I really, really hope this is a wasted theoretical exercise.

Work with me here.

The 2020 NFL Draft is just fine. Cincinnati takes Joe Burrow, Washington does whatever it’s going to do at the two, and we all love every moment of a sports event that actually matters.

And then …

Hypothetically, the doomsday scenario happens and there’s no 2020 NFL season.

Of course we all want football as long as it’s safe – with safe being loosely defined as everyone on the field being confirmed negative for the coronavirus – but how do you practice, train, travel, play, etc. without testing everyone daily, and on and on and on with all of the practical and logistical issues?

For now, at least consider the possibility that all of a sudden it’s July, and 345 Park Avenue doesn’t have it. After brainstorming every plan and idea, the NFL can’t find a way to make it work for 2020.

What happens to the 2021 NFL Draft?

You can’t just cancel it.

CFN in 60: Why You Don’t Take A QB Early

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Eligible college players will be ready to make the jump, NFL teams have contracts to deal with, free agency will still happen, players will get older, some will retire – you need to have a 2021 draft.

Do you keep the same draft order from 2020? Good luck selling THAT to teams picking late in the 2020 first round.

Do you come up with some sort of lottery for just the top ten picks? Again, have fun getting Kansas City, San Francisco and Green Bay to be on board, and have an even better time convincing Cincinnati, Washington and Detroit to give up their prime positions when they don’t have anything on the field to go off of.

Do you create a tiered lottery with teams without a 2020 first rounder getting their slots back for 2021? Maybe teams keep their 2020 positions with picks 1-5 all in Tier 1, teams 6-12 in Tier 2, and on from there.

What the hell do you do with conditional picks, or worse yet, traded first round picks? Miami gets Houston’s 2021 first rounder, Jacksonville has the Rams’ first, and don’t even start with all the past trades that kick in along with whatever deals come from the 2020 draft.

It would be the mess of all messes to get the 32 owners as well as the Players Association to agree on how it to do something that’s fair to everyone.

But NFL teams had better have a plan in place for every possibility.

If you’re a pragmatic NFL general manager worth your paycheck, how do you draft this weekend without having an answer to one key question?

If you were told right now that there isn’t going to be a 2020 season, would you change anything about your draft strategy?

Do you move heaven and earth now to trade up to grab a quarterback early, knowing you might have a free year to develop your guy?

Do you move heaven and earth now to trade up to grab Tua Tagovailoa, rolling the dice that you might get a full 12 months or more to let his hip get even better?

Do you plan your draft around positions that are fine for this season, but will be an issue next year once contracts expire or change? GMs do that no matter what, but maybe a player currently on a roster is more valuable to sign back up if he has a year off. Maybe he’s easier to let go because he’ll be a year older and you see strength at the position around your 2020 slot in the 2021 draft.

Try this out.

Cincinnati takes Joe Burrow with the first pick on Thursday night. There’s no 2020 NFL or college football season, and with the first pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, the Cincinnati Bengals select … Trevor Lawrence.

Welcome to the mother of all trade talk scenarios – and a dream for sports media everywhere.

Does Washington take a massive home run swing and trade Dwayne Haskins for a whole lot of prime picks/players now, thinking there might be a shot at Lawrence or Justin Fields if the same draft positions hold for a 2021 draft without a 2020 season?

Or will teams simply go full steam ahead and not even entertain the possibility of there not being a season?

Do your draft, don’t get caught up in hypotheticals, the future will take care of itself, take one game and draft pick at a time, and …

This is going to be the weirdest NFL Draft ever.

Let’s just hope it’s not topped in 2021.

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