Trevor Lawrence and Shaquill Griffin ranked as 23rd best duo in NFL

Quarterback Trevor Lawrence and cornerback Shaquill Griffin found themselves listed as the Jacksonville Jaguars’ best two players. 

You won’t find many Jacksonville Jaguars players at the top of the NFL rankings. They simply haven’t been good in a while, so even though they may have a few deserving players, they will be passed over often. For that reason, it’s refreshing to see a couple of Jags players get a somewhat high ranking when it comes to the best duos in the NFL.

Cody Benjamin of CBS Sports recently put together a list of every team’s best two players regardless of the position and the Jaguars popped up at 23. He says that he selected each pairing based on past performance and potential. Benjamin took positional value into consideration but points out that it doesn’t hold all the weight, so not all clubs had a quarterback as one of their two best players. Also, he says that just because one team has two elite players doesn’t mean the rest of the roster is balanced or deep.

For the Jaguars, Benjamin selected quarterback Trevor Lawrence and cornerback Shaquill Griffin. He thinks Jacksonville has few players with as much potential as the Clemson Tiger and notes that the Jags got the 23rd spot almost entirely because of Lawrence. Benjamin believes he offers as much promise as any rookie quarterback and has higher positional value than a wide receiver or running back. Nevertheless, he says the Jaguars’ duo is extremely unproven even if you plug in center Brandon Linder or running back James Robinson instead of Griffin.

The Jacksonville Jaguars have a building block in Trevor Lawrence.

Lawrence is facing high expectations ahead of the 2021 season and rightly so. Even if he doesn’t reach his ceiling, he has the tools to be a competent quarterback in the NFL. The Jaguars would surely love to see him become an elite player but even if he turns out to be just ‘very good’ he’s an improvement over anybody who took snaps under center last season. After all, there’s a reason Lawrence was drafted first overall earlier this year.

On the other hand, Griffin should be part of the Jaguars’ revamped cornerback group. The team’s brass signed the former Seattle Seahawk to a three-year contract worth $40 million this offseason. You don’t give that kind of money to a player if you don’t expect him to make a huge impact. Even though the 2017 third-round pick not been a shutdown corner, he’s shown he can play at a high level, earning a Pro Bowl designation in 2018.

As Benjamin pointed out, the Jaguars don’t have many upper-echelon players but linebacker Myles Jack could have taken Griffin’s place on the ranking. The UCLA product has been a key cog in Jacksonville’s defense over the last five years and was part of the Jags team that made it to the AFC Championship in 2017.

The Jaguars have a building block in Lawrence. They have spent the offseason fortifying the roster and making sure their franchise quarterback has enough weapons at his disposal. Even though this team hasn’t played a snap in 2021, it looks promising on paper.