Trevor Lawrence shares candid opinion on Doug Pederson 'losing Jaguars locker room'

A couple days after the Jacksonville Jaguars fell to the Houston Texans in Week 4, a report surfaced that head coach Doug Pederson has lost the locker room. Not long after, he offered a rebuttal, and Trevor Lawrence wasted no time revealing where he stands.

Lawrence met with the local media ahead of Week 5. The report was brought to his attention at the beginning of the exchange. He stood up for Pederson, flat-out saying that wherever it came, it simply wasn't true.

"You got to do your job, so you got to ask it," Lawrence said. "But I shouldn't even have to answer it. I mean, not at all, and I don't know where that's coming from, so I don't even want to really expand on something that's just not true."

Later in the press conference, Lawrence was asked if he felt like 2021. That year, the Jaguars lost five straight to start the season before upsetting the Miami Dolphins in Week 7.

"Definitely doesn't feel like 2021. Even in 2021, being a rookie and pretty naive, I didn't really understand the situation either until later in the season," Lawrence said. "That's when it started to feel pretty, I guess, grim. Towards the end, honestly, at this point, even in 21, Week 4, we lost to Cincinnati, and we've lost a close one, not to bring it up anyways, we lost a close one in Cincinnati on Thursday night. We lost on a walk-off field goal to Cincinnati, ended up going to the Super Bowl that year."

"This is a much better team, as far as from a lot of standpoints, but talent-wise, we just got to click. We got to go prove it. Obviously, the talent only gets you so far. We've been saying that we're a good team, and we got to go win some games. So we know that. I can keep saying that, and we got to go prove it. But I have a lot of faith in this team. The group we have is a tight-knit group. We got some good leadership. Like I said, it just takes one. We got to go do it this week, Sunday."

The Jags ended up winning just three games in 2021, but as Trevor Lawrence points out, their 2024 counterpart is a much better team. The trouble is that they've been marred by mistakes in their four losses.

Lawrence himself has made several mistakes. Then again, the playcalling has been far from great and the offensive line has been less than optimal. Not surprisingly, Jacksonville ranks 30th in points scored four games into the 2024 season. Meanwhile, their 2021 counterpart finished dead last.

Trevor Lawrence isn't giving up on Doug Pederson and gives the Jaguars a chance

If the Jaguars end up turning things around, one big reason will be that Trevor Lawrence will be playing like a top-10 quarterback. As he says, he just has to keep working, and sowing division in the locker room won't help things one bit.

The truth is that Lawrence is showing leadership by backing up Pederson. It's also noteworthy that the quarterback isn't going anywhere after signing a five-year, $275 million in the offseason, so he could've easily drawn his line on the sand. Instead, he's standing up for his head coach because he knows everyone will need to do their part if they want to have a shot at turning things around.

If there's a bright spot in light of the team's struggles, is that Trevor Lawrence hasn't thrown in the towel. By showing support to his head coach, he's signaling that there's still time to steer the ship in the right direction.

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