The Jacksonville Jaguars will soon begin training camp and will have a chance to pick up where they left off in 2025. Since the team made the playoffs, the extra week of football made it feel like February's NFL Scouting Combine came out of nowhere. Having that, free agency (heh), and the NFL draft month after month made the wait for more football go down pretty smoothly.
Unfortunately, even that party had to end, too.
Only the most hardcore of fans pay attention to the voluntary and mandatory OTAs that occur before the preseason. Despite the chatter that happens around these practices, it's almost impossible to tell just how much a player has improved (or regressed) since the end of last season.
In Trevor Lawrence's case, that's a good thing, as the national media's still gushing over his amazing string of performances last November and December. However, a couple of contributors from Pro Football Focus aren't ready to coronate The Prince Who Was Promised as a Top 10 quarterback just yet.
Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence just came up short of the top 10
In their recent article ranking all 32 of the NFL's starting QBs ahead of the 2026 season, PFF's Dalton Wasserman and Max Chadwick placed Trevor Lawrence just outside the Top 10 at the 11th spot. The 10th-best field general, if it matters to you, was none other than the San Francisco 49ers' Brock Purdy.
While explaining their train of thought, Wasserman and Chadwick wrote that, "[throughout] his career, Lawrence has been a gunslinger in every sense of the word. Since entering the NFL in 2021, he ranks sixth with 127 regular-season big-time throws. However, his 107 turnover-worthy plays over that span are one shy of the NFL lead. Lawrence must continue to eliminate spurts of reckless play to vault himself into the league’s elite tier."
Look, there aren't a lot of writers who have been more critical than me when it comes to Lawrence's lack of ball security in clutch moments. However, Urban Meyer was his head coach in 2021 and, inexplicably, Doug Pederson decided to focus more on proving Press Taylor could lead a franchise one day instead of building on Lawrence's first season as a 4,000-yard passer.
If Lawrence had the chance to be drafted by Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, or Matt LaFleur, his poor decision-making would probably have been addressed by now, but alas, that just ain't what happened. Luckily, Liam Coen proved that he had the knowledge necessary to develop the Jaguars' first No. 1-overall pick in franchise history into one of the best signal callers in the NFL.
To be honest, it's odd that an MVP finalist isn't thought of as one of the best QBs in the league going into the next season. Could PFF be insinuating that Lawrence's hot streak at the end of last season was a fluke? Or, what if this is just another example of the national media taking a dig at our precious, small-market team in Northeast Florida?
I don't think it's either, so let's hold our horses here
To keep things in perspective, PFF ranked Seattle Seahawks QB Sam Darnold 14th. Between him and Lawrence, the Washington Commanders' Jayden Daniels and the Chicago Bears' Caleb Williams took the 12th and 13th spots, respectively.
Jags fans who are defensive about Lawrence being snubbed from yet another Top 10 list should remember that the reigning Super Bowl Champion has compiled a 28-6 record as a starter since starting his world-famous redemption story as a Minnesota Viking in 2024. Darnold being ranked lower than two of the youngest signal callers from the same conference could (and maybe should) get any Seahawks fan riled up.
Ironically enough, PFF's inclusion of data from the past three seasons makes their list one of the more objective we could ask for. Calling a spade a spade, the lowlights from Lawrence's 2023 and 2024 seasons are probably what kept him just outside the publication's top tier of quarterbacks.
In 2023, Lawrence threw 14 interceptions and only had two game-winning drives and one fourth-quarter comeback. The 2024 campaign was a complete disaster, as The Prince's year was drastically shortened due to injury. In the 10 games he started, the Jags went 2-8.
Of course, my data is largely qualitative and rooted in history, while PFF's is quantitative and looks at the sport through a completely different lens. Despite that, a question that should interest all of us is "How do James Gladstone and Liam Coen view things?"
Trevor Lawrence is already the biggest piece in the Jaguars' game-changing puzzle
It's undeniable that Lawrence was a completely different player once he started to find his rhythm in Coen's offense. His performance down the stretch made him a surprise contender for the NFL MVP Award and helped the franchise have its best regular season since 1999. So, based on the most recent history we have, it seems like Jacksonville's QB-HC combo is ready to take the league by storm in 2026.
That takes us to Gladstone's point of view. To be frank, I think the second-year general manager has loads of faith in his franchise quarterback. That's the only way his lack of aggression this offseason would make any sense. Lawrence won't be mistaken for Josh Allen (who was actually the highest-ranked QB on PFF's list) anytime soon, but I'm sure the two could share a couple of drinks over the more . . . "humble" aspects of the rosters they've been given to work with over the years.
If the upcoming season results in Jacksonville appearing in its first Super Bowl, it will be because Trevor Lawrence stepped up and actually became one of the 10 best quarterbacks in the NFL after all. That means the best way for Gladstone to come out of this thing looking like a genius is for Lawrence to play like his GM did everything possible to help him hurdle the wall that's kept every other QB from becoming their best selves while wearing a Jaguars jersey.
In all fairness, the wall I'm referring to could give the one in China a run for its money. However, a Top 10 QB could, no, would, find a way to make it work. If we're being honest, that's exactly what the Jaguars brass is banking on in 2026.
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