Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence ascension in power rankings on hold after Chiefs loss

It looked like Trevor Lawrence was on his way to the upper echelon of NFL quarterbacks following the Jacksonville Jaguars' win over the Indianapolis Colts in the opener. However, his ascension is temporarily on hold after losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 2.

Power rankings for all starting quarterbacks come up and Lawrence failed to move up. In some instances, he even regressed. For example, Cody Benjamin of CBS Sports placed him at No. 12, noting that he's been "up and down in the Jags' 1-1 start". On the other hand, Benjamin says that he and Jacksonville would be undefeated if it weren't for their wideouts consistently failing to stay inbounds.

Not everyone was so harsh on Lawrence though, Steven Ruiz of The Ringer kept him at No. 5 for the second straight week. Similarly, Darren Klassen of The 33rd Team isn't letting one down game skew his assessment of Steezy Trev, nothing that brighter days will come to Jacksonville.

"Things will turn around for the Jacksonville Jaguars’ passing offense. It’s not hard to boil their struggles down to a few back-breaking turnovers, which weren’t Trevor Lawrence‘s fault. The Jaguars have been a good offense on a down-to-down basis."

Klassen goes on to say that he believes the Jaguars have enough pieces in place to right the ship in the upcoming weeks. Also, he doesn't think the O-Line will get pummeled the way they did against the Chiefs.

Lawrence has completed 63.0 percent of his throw for 457 yards with two touchdowns and one interception this season. However, his two scores came in the opener and has gone 0-of-7 in red-zone attempts this season, so it's easy to see hasn't been ranked higher. Then again, it's important to point out that his receivers dropped four passes and three of them may have been touchdowns if Zay Jones had gotten both feet in the end zone or Calvin Ridley managed to come down with the ball.

There's nowhere to go but up for the Jaguars and Trevor Lawrence

Lawrence is off to a slow start based on expectations around him heading into the regular season. While it's true that he can play much better, he's not the only Jaguars offensive player that has room for improvement. Travis Etienne was a non-factor in Week 2 while most of the offensive line has underperformed the past two games.

In particular, right tackle Anton Harrison has struggled to make the adjustment to the NFL. In the same manner, left guard Ben Bartch was underwhelming against the Chiefs. Having said that, pinning the blame on both of them may not be reasonable.

Bartch missed most of the offseason while recovering from a knee injury last year while Harrison is getting used to playing on the right side after mostly lining up at left tackle at Oklahoma. There's a reason to believe they'll get better as the season progresses.

Also, the Jaguars will get the running game going. This is mostly the same group from last year and they did a good job of protecting Trevor Lawrence and paving the way for the running game, so the pieces are there for the offensive line to improve in the upcoming weeks.

Nobody will deny that Trevor Lawrence and the offense were underwhelming in Week 2 but it's too early to rule them out. After all, they showed last year they can raise their play to an absurd level. They just need to figure out what's holding them back and they should be alright.

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