Urban Meyer Claims Trevor Lawrence 'Isn't Ready Yet' to Be Jaguars Starter
By Peter Dewey
Trevor Lawrence is the future for the Jacksonville Jaguars, but Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer isn’t going to just hand him the starting job.
Yes, that’s a real thing. We won’t be seeing Gardner Minshew start over Lawrence (I hope not), but Meyer certainly wants more out of his rookie quarterback during training camp.
"He's not ready yet, but he doesn't have to be ready yet," Meyer said. "We got a long training camp coming up. He's probably advanced maybe a little quicker than we would've thought, so which was a positive. One thing that we worked on — when we made a decision that Trevor was going to be our No. 1 pick, we went from the evaluation stage to the preparation stage. And that means that I want to see — I can't remember the exact date, but we started installing the playbook with him well before the draft. So you can see the retention, he's got a really good work ethic and he's progressed very well."
It’s nice that Lawrence is progressing, but it is strange to see his head coach claim that he’s not ready to be a starter just yet. Lawrence is one of the best quarterback prospects in a long time, and WynnBET thinks he’s going to have a great rookie year.
Lawrence has the best odds to win Offensive Rookie of the Year at +275. On top of that, the Jags are favored to win over six games in 2021 (-135) which is a huge leap from the 1-15 season they had in 2020.
The Jaguars should have a solid supporting cast around Lawrence that will help him succeed as a rookie.
James Robinson, who ran for over 1,000 yards as a rookie, and first rounder Travis Etienne should be a dynamic duo in the backfield, and the Jaguars added wide receiver Marvin Jones Jr. in free agency.
Laviska Shenault and D.J. Chark are also two solid young receiving options, and as long as Lawrence keeps progressing the Jaguars will have to name him the starter at some point.
Meyer seems to be trying to be play everything as if it’s a competition, but he’s going to have a hard time if he plans on sitting Lawrence behind any other quarterback on the Jags’ roster.