One of the biggest storylines surrounding the Jacksonville Jaguars is the impact new head coach Liam Coen will have. Although he's coming off a successful season as the offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, this is the first time Coen leads a whole team at the NFL level. However, he appears to be up to the challenge and has wasted no time working with the team's most important player: Trevor Lawrence.
Coen met with the local media during the team's voluntary offseason workout and explained why Lawrence's footwork is so important.
"We've gotten them now in the building. We are trying to create black and white lines when it comes to footwork in ways so that understanding that the game is played in the gray," Coen responded when asked how he's helping Lawrence fix his footwork. "There's so much that occurs on a play. If you can have core fundamentals in footwork that you believe in and that you trust. In those times of crisis, you have something to actually fall back on and play with a quieted mind."
Coen continued, "So this is a great opportunity now that he is a little limited from a throwing standpoint. We can dive into the footwork. He can dive into it on his own time and really work at this thing, so he's committed to it. It's something that we feel strongly about that can help him continue to get better, and ultimately, on Sundays, you know, we hope that shows up."
Just recently, Coen said on SiriusXM NFL Radio that improving Lawrence's footwork would be a point of emphasis this offseason. This makes sense when you consider that No. 16 had inadequate last year, and his mechanics suffered because of it.
Below are Lawrence's and Coen's exchanges with the press corps. The whole thing is worth listening to.
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Trevor Lawrence recognizes that his footwork needs to improve to help the Jaguars
Of course, the Jaguars will go as far as Lawrence takes them in 2025, and if he's to bounce back, he'll need to get back to fundamentals. Not long after Liam Coen took the podium, No. 16 also met with the local media.
Lawrence talked about several topics and acknowledge that his footwork coud use some work.
"There's some things I've known about my footwork over the years of playing that I felt like have been a little bit of a weakness. So there are some things that we've talked about," Lawrence said. "What are those things? What are we identifying as things to work on? And then the system is built around timing and tying your feet to your progression and playing on time. And so it allows you to get backside, allows you to get the check downs, or whatever it may be, and you can feel comfortable playing on time."
Lawrence continued, "And more than any system I've ever learned, it's structured and based on that, and it's so everything's tied exactly to All right, this route is on this timing, so then your next progression is off of this full work off this timing. So it all ties in perfect. You don't have multiple routes declaring at the same time, which is hard as a quarterback, because you then you're sitting back there and you got to make a decision before really the guys open or covered."
"So I think they've done a really good job with the system of really thinking through, how does it tie into a quarterback's feet? And that's what we've been talking about. And it takes some work, flipping my stance, just some little things like that that are small, that many people wouldn't notice, but I have so many banked reps of the other way. I got to just get all these on my own and work them. So once camp comes around, I'm ready to go," Lawrence said.
The fifth-year quarterback goes on to say that he likes the system, pointing out that he'll be able to play fater.
There's still a long way to go before Trevor Lawrence takes the football field. But based on his comments, he's off to a promising start in his first season working with Liam Coen.