On Thursday, the Jacksonville Jaguars handed Trevor Lawrence an absolutely massive contract extension. The five-year deal pays him a total of $275 million, $142 million of which is fully guaranteed, and the $55 million average annual value ties him with Joe Burrow as the highest-paid player in league history. With the exception of Patrick Mahomes, who signed a remarkably unique 10-year deal, nobody has even been paid a higher total dollar amount, either.
At first glance, it seems a bit ridiculous that Lawrence would get such a deal. He’s been pretty good since being drafted with the No. 1 overall pick back in 2021, but it’s also fair to say that he hasn’t yet lived up to the billing as one of the top quarterback prospects in recent memory. His rookie season under Urban Meyer was a disaster. He took a significant step forward in Year 2, then seemingly plateaued a bit, along with the rest of the Jaguars offense, last season.
Across the two seasons in which he has had real coaching, Lawrence completed 65.9% of his passes at an average of 7.1 yards per attempt, with 46 touchdowns and 22 interceptions. His 91.9 passer rating during that stretch is ever-so-slightly above the 91.5 league average, and his 0.04 EPA per dropback mark, via TruMedia, checks in 14th leaguewide. He’s done a very good job of limiting sacks (his 5.1% sack rate is 7th-lowest in the league) and has been a very successful scrambler in terms of both volume (17.2% of pressured dropbacks, 7th in the league) and efficiency (8.4 yards per scramble, also 7th). But has struggled to access the deeper parts of the field (his 8.2% explosive-pass rate ranks 18th) and he’s also missed his intended target more often than you’d expect for someone with his arm talent (12.0% of passes, 24th in the league).
In other words, he has been a slightly above-average quarterback in Years 2 and 3 of his career, at least in terms of his performance….
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/trevor-lawrence-contract-heres-why-jaguars-qb-landed-record-deal-despite-underwhelming-start-to-career/
Author : Jared Dubin
Publish date : 2024-06-14 17:02:28
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