Jaguars: Trevor Lawrence’s early progress and other takeaways

Here are some observations about the Jacksonville Jaguars’ first day of mandatory minicamp.

The 2021 NFL Draft came and went, and so did the organized team activities. The Jaguars, just like many other NFL teams are conducting their minicamp this week. Although live contact isn’t allowed during this portion of the offseason, Jags fans learned a few interesting things.

No process is linear and there will always be ups and downs, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that quarterback Trevor Lawrence has had some growing pains. The Clemson product suffered a hamstring injury last week and has struggled during practice. The teams’ brass is taking a conservative approach, as they want their rookie signal-caller to be ready for training camp. Would he benefit from live reps? Sure, if he were healthy. It would be great to see him practice but there’s no point in rushing him into the field.

Lawrence spoke to the local media after practice and said his hamstring it’s feeling good. He is trying to work it back to full capacity and added it’s a little frustrating not to be able to go full speed. Nevertheless, he doesn’t want to have any more setbacks, so he’s taking it slow. Lawrence isn’t slacking, he’s still studying the playbook and working with offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and passing game coordinator Brian Schottenheimer.

The former Tiger wants to master the offense and wants to have complete control of everything, “you can’t really play free and play really well if you don’t know what you’re doing, so that’s the goal, just to master the offense by the time training camp comes around”. Lawrence will play an important role for the Jaguars in 2021, so the team must make sure he’s ready to play in Week 1. For now, they need to let him heal and learn the playbook. He can later take the field and practice against their revamped defense.