One of the most interesting questions entering the NFL season for the Jacksonville Jaguars is how exactly Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell will utilize the talents of first overall draft pick Trevor Lawrence.
If we want to know how Lawrence will be used in the NFL, we have to first understand the offensive minds behind the scenes. Urban Meyer, most recently with Ohio State, ran a spread offence with a run-first variation (power and inside zone). Meyer usually ran a shotgun set with a sprinkle of the option. He does a really good job of successfully switching the offensive philosophies based on the quarterback who is on the field. With Chris Leak, they ran a drop-back passing attack, and with Tim Tebow & Alex Smith, option run-based spread. When Meyer had Braxton Miller and Carlos Hyde, they often ran play-action with zone-read run style.
During his career, Meyer made it known that he loves the spread; and with the Jaguars he will most likely have primarily one-back in the backfield and a shotgun-to-run spread. We can expect a lot of motions, wheels from the backfield, hook & flat concepts from 21 personnel (Etienne from the slot), Smash/Crosser (Hi-Lo) passing concepts, and expect to see vertical stretch passing all attacking Cover 2 and stretching those safeties, and lastly, shovel passes from zone reads.
Lawrence is pretty comfortable with running from shotgun formation and with his athleticism this makes him a deadly dual-threat quarterback who will utilize the read option similar to how Brian Schottenheimer used Russell Wilson.
We should see a heavy run-game early with Robinson and Etienne. Once the run game is established, play-action will freeze the secondary leaving DJ Chark, Laviska Shenault and Marvin Jones one-on-one.
Since Urban’s offense lives and dies by the run. Let’s check out some play-action fakes from Lawrence that you might see in the upcoming season:
Last year against Virginia, Lawrence fakes the toss, pulling the linebackers in and he spots an opening in zone coverage. We see him carry out fakes a little too far sometimes, which can lead to unnecessarily hits that he will have to fix; nonetheless it’s better to fix and over-sell than under-sell.
Against Florida State, Clemson runs a power-read packaged with a Jet Sweep which isolates the defense. The backfield option will hold the safety leaving his receiver one-on-one on the outside.
These are the types of plays we see in the NFL today.