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Ben Arthur
AFC South Reporter
Coming out of 2022, a record-setting extension looked inevitable for the Jaguars’ Trevor Lawrence.
He’d established himself as a franchise quarterback, guiding Jacksonville to a surprising five-game winning streak to end the regular season with an AFC South title. He won a playoff game, too. The expectation was that Lawrence’s ascension would continue into 2023, with the quarterback being in his third NFL season and his second with offensive guru Doug Pederson.
Instead, he took a step back.
How could that complicate extension talks?
“That’s not something I’m really thinking about right now,” Lawrence said last week when asked about the upcoming offseason business.
The No. 1 overall pick in 2021, Lawrence is eligible for a second contract this spring, entering the final year of his rookie deal.
The Jaguars have until May 2 to exercise his fifth-year option, which would keep him under contract through 2025 (according to OverTheCap.com, his fifth-year option would be $21.9 million fully guaranteed for 2025, as he met the playing time threshold through three seasons). But that could just be a placeholder for an extension. That was the case for Joe Burrow last offseason, when the Bengals picked up his option and then signed him to a record-setting extension five months later.
Burrow is in a different tier as a quarterback, though.
Lawrence’s numbers this season took a dip in several major categories from a year ago, including in passing yards, passing touchdowns, interceptions, passer rating, completion rate, EPA per dropback and success rate per dropback. He ranked third-worst in the league with 21 giveaways (14 interceptions, seven lost fumbles). Since entering the league in 2021, he has 60 turnovers, the most in the NFL in that span.
Pederson said at his end-of-season press conference that turnovers are the No. 1 thing that Lawrence has to work on.
“We just can’t have this…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/will-jaguars-qb-trevor-lawrences-regression-complicate-extension-talks
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Publish date : 2024-01-18 20:28:53
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