CBS Sports this week published an article listing the top 10 bounce-back candidates for the 2022 NFL season.
A couple of former Clemson stars appeared on the list in the Jacksonville Jaguars duo of quarterback Trevor Lawrence and running back Travis Etienne.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, Lawrence made 17 starts as a rookie last season, throwing for 3,641 yards and 12 touchdown passes with 17 interceptions while posting a 33.5 total QBR. He also added 334 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns.
Lawrence didn’t have much help on offense in terms of weapons at his disposal last year, though the Jaguars made an effort to change that this offseason, adding free agent wide receivers Christian Kirk and Zay Jones, along with tight end Evan Engram.
Lawrence also has a new head coach, former NFL quarterback Doug Pederson, who replaces Urban Meyer following his disastrous and brief 13-game tenure last season which ended with him getting fired last December.
“The former No. 1 overall pick is still bound for growing pains, but everything around him is better in 2022,” CBS Sports’ Cody Benjamin wrote. “The line is improved with Brandon Scherff now on the interior, the skill groups are at least deeper, and best of all, his head coach is now an ally. It’ll be hard for Lawrence not to take a step forward under Doug Pederson after a listless rookie year.”
Lawrence will also have Etienne in the backfield with him this season after Etienne missed his entire rookie season in 2021 due to a Lisfranc injury.
Last year, before Etienne suffered the season-ending injury in the preseason, he was getting work at wide receiver as well. Pederson and the new Jaguars staff seem to have a similar type of role in mind for Etienne, who took reps as a receiver in OTAs.
Etienne welcomes positional flexibility and is certainly open to the idea of being utilized by the Jaguars in a way similar to how Deebo Samuel has been deployed by the San Francisco 49ers — as a “wide back.”
“After losing his entire rookie season to injury, the Clemson product is angling to be a Deebo Samuel-type hybrid in Jacksonville, and with RB1 James Robinson recovering from his own injury, the opportunity should be there,” Benjamin wrote. “That’s doubly the case under new coach Doug Pederson, who likes to deploy multiple backs as QB safety valves.”
–Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
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