Damning stat shows how much Trevor Lawrence has regressed in Year 4 with Jaguars

The Jacksonville Jaguars found themselves with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when they clinched the top overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. With it, they selected Trevor Lawrence, arguably the best prospect to come out of the collegiate ranks since Andrew Luck. While the former Clemson Tiger has certainly flashed and even played at an elite level at times, he's also left much to be desired. Heck, he's regressed in Year 4 and a concerning stat is proof of it.

The 33rd Team posted on Twitter that Daniel Jones, Will Levis, Jacoby Brissett, and Skylar Thompson have a better passer rating than Lawrence in 2024.

Apart from Brissett, none of the signal-callers the 33rd Team named are what you could call dependable. Brissett has certainly fared well at times throughout his career but he's not considered more than a bridge quarterback at this stage. That's what makes the comparison look Lawrence so bad. But wait, there's more.

Tyler Brooke of The 33rd Team points out that Lawrence's passer rating, yards per attempt, and touchdown-to-interception ratio all have gone down in Year 4. He goes as far as saying that a complete overhaul is the only way to salvage his career.

This is noteworthy when you take into account that Lawrence progressively got better the past two years. Even last season, he gave their Jaguars a chance to win despite the fact that his supporting cast was less than ideal.

Fast forward to 2024, and you would think that Lawrence would be on the cusp of reaching the upper echelon of NFL quarterbacks, but that's not the case. Even worse, Jacksonville just gave him a five-year deal worth $275 million that makes him one of the highest-paid players in league history.

So far this season, Lawrence has completed 52.8 percent of his passes for 560 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. That's certainly not the statline (or shouldn't be) of a franchise quarterback three games into the season. For comparison, his completion rate as a rookie was 59.6 percent, and he posted completion rates of 65.6 and 66.3 percent in 2023 and 2022, respectively.

Trevor Lawrence deserves blame but the Jaguars are mostly at fault for his regression

Trevor Lawrence has made several puzzling decisions this season. That said, most quarterbacks would have trouble succeeding if their offensive line couldn't give them adequate protection and their skill-position players couldn't reel in routine catches. That's his situation right now.

Sure, Lawrence must do a better job of completing short and intermediate passes but that's where playcalling comes in. Currently, the offense has no rhythm, which makes it difficult for the Jaguars to build momentum. Not surprisingly, Jacksonville ranks 30th in points scored three weeks into the 2024 NFL season.

But despite his struggles, Lawrence believes his past experience will help him face the team's current challenges.

"Definitely use all the past experience. That's one thing that's good from having the experience in this league is we've seen a lot," Lawrence said ahead of the game against the Houston Texans. "Seasons are always different, how they unfold, how these games go early and down the stretch. Not just myself, this group, for the majority of us, we've played together for a few years now, so we've been through a lot. It will help us, but we got to use it, and we got to move forward, and it's a long season."

"I don't say that to say that we have time to waste, because we surely don't anymore. But saying that is, it is a long season, and we've been in a worse spot than this before, and we found a way out of it. I got full faith we're gonna do the same, but we gotta go prove it. So I'm excited for that opportunity."

Lawrence is right. He and the Jaguars cannot afford to lose any more time. They must go to work if they want to have a shot at turning things around. If he does his part and gets out of his current funk, their chances will increase considerably.

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