Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence, who now has three years of service time under his belt, is eligible for a contract extension. Our Sam Robinson, however, suggested at the end of December that Jacksonville may wait to enter into extension talks with the former No. 1 overall pick, who did not take the leap forward that many had anticipated when the 2023 season began. Jags GM Trent Baalke did not put a timetable on those dicussions, but he did imply that a new deal for Lawrence is not exactly at the top of the agenda at the moment.
“As far as Trevor and the long-term relationship with this team, there’s no doubt in that,” Baalke said at a press conference on Thursday (via Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk). “We’re going to get something done at the appropriate time.”
The Jaguars will surely exercise Lawrence’s fifth-year option sometime before the May 2 deadline. That will lock in a fully-guaranteed salary of $21.98MM for the 2025 season, and when combined with the $1.06MM salary he is due to make in 2024, Jacksonville essentially has Lawrence under club control for two more years at an $11.5MM AAV. Even if the Clemson product is not yet a top tier signal-caller, that qualifies as excellent value.
When asked to assess Lawrence’s performance in 2023 and how to improve his production moving foreard, Baalke said, “I think Trevor had another learning year, right? Like we all do when we’re a third-year guy in this league. I think there are some areas he made great strides in. You look at this season, one thing we’ve got to do is we’ve got to — two things, it works both ways — we’ve got to do a better job of keeping him safe and protected and he’s got to do a better job of protecting himself.”
Baalke referenced the myriad injuries that Lawrence faced in his third year in the league, including a concussion, a knee sprain, an ankle sprain, and a sprained AC joint. Although Lawrence was able to play through the first three of those ailments, they certainly affected his performance, and the sprained AC joint forced him to sit out Jacksonville’s Week 17 contest against the Panthers. That was the first game that Lawrence had missed in his career.
In his final four games of the 2023 campaign, Lawrence failed to post a quarterback rating above 83.9 and completed 60% of his passes for seven touchdowns and seven interceptions. Jacksonville lost all four of those contests, including a Week 18 matchup with the 5-11 Titans that was meaningless for Tennessee but that would have put the Jaguars in the playoffs as AFC South champions if they had won it. In all, the Jags lost five of their last six games to drop them from contention for the conference’s top seed to a postseason non-participant (the only game the club won in that stretch was the Week 17 contest that Lawrence missed).
Now 24, Lawrence still has time to live up to the vast potential that made him such a coveted prospect when he entered the professional ranks. It may even be fair to write off his rookie season in 2021, which was spent primarily under the disastrous stewardship of then-HC Urban Meyer. Nonetheless, Baalke may want to see a step forward in 2024 before making any significant contractual decisions.
In 2023, Lawrence completed 65.6% of his passes for 4,016 yards and 21 TDs against 14 interceptions, good for a QB rating of 88.5. He did run for 339 yards on 70 carries (4.8 YPC), tallying four rushing touchdowns in the process.
Baalke needs to go. He’s never done anything as a GM.
arty! :
Not saying you’re wrong but Kirk,Aluokon,Campbell,Cisco,Engram,Etienne were all good pick ups.
It’s beginning to look like he didn’t miss on Walker either.
Again,not saying he’s been good…but he hasn’t “never done anything”.
Fair enough.
Baalke strikes again lmao
He’s going to salary play chicken with this kid’s talent level thinking what he’s done over 3 years gives him leverage?
bwahahahaha
Extend Lawrence NOW based on those number because if he breaks out this season JAX will financially hobbled for a long time
Baalke and thinking ahead haven’t gone together so far. Perhaps he’d had a change of pace, but we’ll have to see. Whatever Lawrence does, chances are decent that he’s only going to get more expensive…
Northern California guy here, now working overseas, and I had lost track such that Baalke was the Jags GM. No wonder the team massively under achieved. He’s a disaster GM, it’s as simple as that…
Lawrence had to deal with an idiot head coach his rookie year and learning his playbook. Then year 2 upgrades with the head coach who’s won a SB learning his playbook and by year 3 battling nagging injuries. EXTEND him now! He’s on the rise and he should flourish in year 4 if he can stay healthy
Not a huge fan of Baalke or the Jags and I still think Lawrence has another level he will reach but Jacksonville is smart to slow play this. There’s no need to rush into giving him a big extension now. Having the patience to wait to see how next season goes gives the team far more options. Right now the focus needs to be on surrounding him with talent to help him. They need to put their immediate resources into the O line and getting him an elite receiver. They have a couple solid number 2 weapons bit they don’t have that number 1 guy that could help Lawrence become a top tier QB. I’m not saying Lawrence is the next Baker Mayfield….but the team needs to take steps to ensure he doesn’t swing that way. This is a critical year for Lawrence and the team. Gotta put first things first.
Trade him to the bears for the number one pick in the draft
“The Prince that was promised.” Lol ok.
Not a Jags fan but with the number of good players on both side I thought they’d make a deep playoff run. His ‘picks’ late in the season mixed that possibility although he was a big dinged.
With 2 seasons economically cheap allows team to shop / pay a couple other positions.
You have a point, but I still think that the Jags can improve in a lot of areas. They don’t have a bad roster, but they don’t exactly have s “clean” one either. There’s a lot of individual talent, but it hasn’t meshed together into a complete product just yet because there are also a few weaknesses.
Cornerback is a huge need, maybe the biggest overall, and the linebacker depth is suspect. Someone referenced Walker finally looking good, but he’s not the game changer that one would expect from a first overall pick. Their biggest weakness on offense is in the interior of the line. Fortner and Little were both pretty bad, and Robinson missed games in his resurgent season that exposed the lack of depth. I don’t know what’s being done with Ridley, as he’s a good second receiver, but the Jags are kind of already paying big money for a good secondary or slot receiver in Christian Kirk. They don’t have a “scare you” primary receiver in my mind, even though they have a solid foundation. Engram had a career renaissance and certainly is solid, but it wouldn’t be impossible to improve there, even if it’s probably low priority compared to the rest. I’d not worry about him, but my point is that, while the Jags have improved, they’re not exactly set yet.
In my personal outsider non-expert opinion, this roster is in danger of being wasted with a bad GM like Baalke who will ride the present talent to mediocre finishes while missing extant chances to actually push it over the top. The Jaguars aren’t that far away-just a handful of these holes being filled could take them the extra step that they need. If Baalke does what he has in the past, they’ll likely end up missing the best players to do that in lieu of lesser or injury prone options.
They pick at 17 in the 1st round should be decent WR or CB available. 2-3 is where some interior oline should reside – meaning guys that don’t need to sit and learn for a year or two