Jaguars get solid spot in AFC South QB ranking post-Carson Wentz trade

The Jaguars have their QB, they must now get him weapons.

The Jags were a wreck last season and things went south almost as soon as they hired Urban Meyer as their head coach. In retrospect, bringing in Chris Doyle as the director of sports performance should’ve been a sign it wasn’t going to work out. But the organization chose to ignore the red flags and things only got worse afterwards, with Meyer antagonizing players, and ironically, the coaching staff he handpicked. There’s also the time he was caught dancing improperly at an Ohio bar. Things got so bad, that Jaguars owner Shad Khan fired him after just 13 games.

All the team, players and coaches alike, were affected negatively by the toxic environment Meyer created and Trevor Lawrence’s rookie season was pretty much a waste. Sure, the former Clemson Tiger showed flashes of the talent that made him the first overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft but there was no plan in place to groom him and that falls squarely on Meyer’s shoulders.

This offseason, the Jaguars’ brass took Lawrence’s development into consideration when looking for a head coach and it looks like they got it right with the hire of Doug Pederson, who helped Carson Wentz play at an MVP-like level early in his career and also lead the Philadelphia Eagles to their first Super Bowl win in franchise history.

Pederson’s No. 1 priority in 2022 will be to help Lawrence make a significant leap in Year 2. He’s got a proven track record working with quarterbacks, so that shouldn’t be an issue. Having said that, it will take more than just adequate coaching to put the young passer in a position to succeed. General manager Trent Balkee will now need to get him weapons in free agency and the draft.