NFL Rumors: Execs Feel Trevor Lawrence ‘Handicapped’ by ‘Toxicity Under Urban Meyer’ | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

As the quarterbacks from the 2021 NFL draft continue to make their way around the league to different teams, Trevor Lawrence remains the most intriguing player from that group going into his fourth year with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Per The Athletic’s Mike Jones, talent evaluators around the league Lawrence’s development was “handicapped” by the “toxicity and dysfunction” within the Jaguars during Urban Meyer’s stint as a head coach.

Meyer was fired after 13 games into his first season with the Jaguars. He went 2-11 in a stint that was more notable for how toxic things reportedly got behind the scenes than anything that happened on the field.

Lawrence has had success since Doug Pederson was hired by the Jaguars, but it’s hard not feel some sense of disappointment around his career so far because of the hype around him going into the draft.

Scouting reports for Lawrence were calling him a player with the tools and makeup to be a “generational franchise quarterback.”

The 2022 season feels like the closet that Lawrence has come to playing up to that pre-draft billing. He threw for 4,113 yards, 25 touchdowns and completed 66.3 percent of his attempts. The Jaguars won the AFC South and pulled off the third-biggest comeback in playoff history to defeat the Los Angeles Chargers in the wild-card round.

Everything about the Jaguars took a step back last season, including Lawrence. He threw for 4,016 yards, 21 touchdowns, 14 interceptions and three fumbles lost. Holding onto the ball has been a problem for him throughout his career with 33 fumbles in 50 games.

Lawrence’s struggles do get at the heart of the nature vs. nurture debate about quarterbacks. It’s assumed that a great signal-caller will be able to elevate everything around him, regardless of the circumstances.

History has shown that’s probably not the case. Deshaun Watson played like a top-three quarterback in 2020, but the Houston Texans finished 4-12.

The Jaguars have consistently made puzzling roster decisions ever since they drafted Lawrence. They’ve never given him a true No. 1 receiver, though Calvin Ridley was supposed to play that role last season. They overpaid for Christian Kirk was a free agent after the 2021 season, though he’s at least been good for them.

When they had the No. 1 pick in the 2022 draft, the Jaguars used it to select Travon Walker. The four players selected after him were Aidan Hutchinson, Derek Stingley Jr., Sauce Gardner and Kayvon Thibodeaux.

Jacksonville’s offensive line was a bottom-six unit in pass blocking and run blocking last season, per ESPN’s metrics.

All of this is to say that Meyer’s tenure with the Jaguars absolutely hindered Lawrence’s development, but that’s not the only reason they have failed to find consistent success with a young quarterback who has shown a lot of promise more often than not.

On the bright side, Lawrence seems likely to be the only one of the five first-round quarterbacks selected in 2021 who will start next season with the team that drafted him.

Trey Lance (No. 3) was traded from the San Francisco 49ers to the Dallas Cowboys prior to the start of the 2023 season. Mac Jones (No. 15) is going to backup Lawrence in 2024 after being acquired in a trade with the New England Patriots.

Justin Fields (No. 8) was traded by the Chicago Bears to the Pittsburgh Steelers to be Russell Wilson’s backup. Zach Wilson (No. 2) is still with the New York Jets, but that’s primarily because they are struggling to find anyone who wants to trade for him right now.