Tag: trevor lawrence jaguars

Jaguars vs. Texans: QB Trevor Lawrence expected to play in Week 13

Trevor Lawrence is expected to play in Sunday’s matchup against the Houston Texans.

The Houston Texans entered Week 13 unsure which quarterback would start for the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday at EverBank Stadium.

They have a strong understanding following Friday’s practice.

Fourth-year quarterback Trevor Lawrence is on track to return to the lineup for the AFC South showdown after missing the past two games with a sprained AC joint in his left shoulder.

Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said that Lawrence had a strong week of practice and should have no limitations in his first game since Nov. 3.

“I would say as of right now, yes, he will play,” Pederson told reporters Friday.”You know, we’ll get through today, Friday, Saturday, but he’s had a good week.”

Lawrence injured his non-throwing shoulder during the first half of Week 9’s loss against the Philadelphia Eagles but remained in the game. He missed the next two games, leading to Mac Jones taking over as the starter.

Jacksonville (2-9) had a bye week to rest, giving Lawrence time to recover before retaking the field.  Pederson suggested he would not drastically alter Jacksonville’s offensive game plan should Lawrence play against Houston but will be mindful of putting his quarterback in harm’s way.

“You don’t want your quarterback to get hit anyway, but yeah, you just got to be conscious of moving around or too many design runs or anything like that,” Pederson said. “But if he’s cleared to play, we go play and can’t worry about getting hit or taking a shot or anything like that.”

Jones, who started three seasons for the New England Patriots, hasn’t been the sole problem to Jacksonville’s woes, but the offense has struggled with him under center. Over the past two starts, the Jaguars have managed just a combined 313 yards and 13 points.

In nine games, Lawrence has 61.3% of his passes for 2,004 yards and 11 touchdowns against six interceptions. On Wednesday, he told reporters that his shoulder feels the best it has since the injury and that he wanted to play against the Texans.

“Hopefully, I’m able to get back out there this week or as soon as possible and then it’s going to be just every week kind of evaluating it, seeing where it’s at,” Lawrence said.

Kickoff is scheduled for noon CT. The Texans enter as a 5.5-point favorite.

How the Jaguars can best set Trevor Lawrence up for NFL success

Now that the Jaguars have Trevor Lawrence, how can they best set him up for NFL success?

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.