NFL bust argues Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence deserves top-tier money

Former NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf wasn't impressed with Trevor Lawrence as recently as 2023. However, it looks like Leaf changed his opinion, as he now believes the Jacksonville Jaguars should pay their star quarterback top-tier money.

Leaf made an appearance on Up & Adams and said that Lawrence deserves to be paid because of his value for the Jaguars, noting that how he views him is irrelevant to the conversation.

"When it comes to contract negotiations, it's much different than how I view Trevor Lawrence as a player and as a human being," Leaf told host Kay Adams. "The kid is — I keep calling him a kid — I met Trevor after his freshman year when I went to Clemson to speak; him and I have stayed in touch ever since. And the kid had never lost before, and then he gets Urban Meyer. Year 1 and loses more games than he ever had combined."

"And to see him fight and keep fighting through it, and he's the leader of that football team. If you're telling me there's another quarterback that's going to do a better job than what Trevor Lawrence can do in Jacksonville and ultimately get them to the place they need to get to, then you're selling me something that isn't real because he is the guy. Yes, he deserves top-tier money. If you don't want to put his statistics out there, fine, I'm okay with that. And that's the way people like to do it. I think he's the franchise of the Jacksonville Jaguars," Leaf said.

Leaf is one of the biggest busts in league history, so you could say that his opinion should be taken with a grain of salt. However, you don't have to play at a high level to know what a good quarterback looks like.

What's noteworthy about Leaf's opinion is that he's done a full 180. Back in 2023, he thought Trevor Lawrence was the eighth-best quarterback in the AFC South despite the fact that he had just led the Jaguars to the divisional round of the playoffs. At the time, Ryan only said that Lawrence had to build off of his sophomore campaign but didn't provide specific reasons for ranking him so low. Perhaps that's why he prefaced his take with the disclaimer.

You could point out that that maybe Leaf still thinks that Lawrence is the eighth-best passer in the AFC but it's hard to fathom the idea of paying franchise-type money to a middle-of-the-pack quarterback. That's why it's easy to infer that Leaf holds Lawrence in higher esteem than he did last year. Here's the full exchange.

Ryan Leaf is right the Jaguars must pay Trevor Lawrence ASAP

Nowadays, you'll have a hard time finding someone who doesn't think Trevor Lawrence deserves to get a top-market contract. The price for a good quarterback seemingly sits at $50 million per year. Just recently, it was reported that Tua Tagovailoa just rejected an offer from the Miami Dolphins, and it's easy to see why.

While Tagovailoa is far from elite, Jared Goff just got a contract worth $212 over four years. Tagovaila probably wants to get a deal in that range, and it's fair to say that Trevor Lawrence could get as much if not more.

The trouble is that quarterback salaries will only go up, which means that the longer the Jaguars wait to pay Lawrence, the more money they will have to fork out. You could argue that he hasn't done enough to warrant a top-market deal but that's not how salaries at the position work.

More often than not, whichever quarterback is in line for an extension gets to reset the market or get close to it. This is due to the scarcity of supply at the position. In the Jaguars' case, they had struggled to find stability behind center for years before they drafted Lawrence even though they made several attempts.

This is to say that the Jacksonville Jaguars at last found an answer at quarterback. To ensure they don't have to start over, they're better off paying Trevor Lawrence as soon as possible. Even Ryan Leaf, who wasn't high on him in 2023, seems to agree.

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