JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jaguars’ offense is playing about as poorly right now as it has all season. The team is consistently behind the sticks and has been unable to pull itself out of the quicksand, instead only seeming to find themselves deeper and deeper with penalties, sacks, and drops.
That said, there’s plenty of blame to go towards Trevor Lawrence as well, who’s certainly also had flashes of brilliance as well this season. But, he has certainly played a role in the team’s struggles.
The Jaguars lead the league in drops and are 32nd in the NFL at converting catchable targets into catches, according to FTN Fantasy. If you are curious about the struggles at receiver, I just wrote a story on the position group earlier in the week. For this evaluation, I wanted to take a look at Lawrence outside of the drops and other issues at receiver.
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Well folks, it isn’t pretty. Trevor Lawrence’s 71.5% adjusted completion %, a stat that accounts for drops, throw aways, batted balls, spikes, and throws while hit, ranks just 25th among the NFL’s Top-32 quarterbacks.
His accuracy has been particularly concerning in the short game, where he ranks 25th (90.7%) and 24th (80.4%) in adjusted completion % behind the line of scrimmage and from 0-10 yards downfield. In the intermediate, he’s actually been fairly solid, ranking 16th in the NFL.
However, in Liam Coen’s screen heavy game, his short accuracy simply has to improve. One instance this past weekend, Lawrence seemed to rush an easy swing pass, throwing it wide of the running back in the flat. He simply can’t be 25th in adjusted completion % behind the line of scrimmage, while also ranking fourth most in volume in that area. It isn’t a recipe for success.
Beyond accuracy concerns, decision making has been an issue for Lawrence the last few weeks, but not in the way one might think. When someone says decision making for a quarterback, most only think interceptions. In this instance, it’s been the sacks.
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Lawrence has actually improved greatly at avoiding turnovers this season. He’s posted a career-low “Turnover Worthy Throw” rate at just 2.9%. It’s even lower than his eight interception season in 2022. He has just one interception in the last four games, coming off of a questionable no-call against the Chiefs. The sacks though…
According to Pro Football Focus, Lawrence is tied for the third most QB responsible sacks (9) and is tied for the seventh-most QB responsible pressures (13). These can be for a variety of reasons, such as holding the ball too long or not seeing easy throws that could get you out of danger. Throwing the ball away is also always an option.
Whatever the case, Lawrence, a quarterback who’s usually been fairly solid across his career in regards to taking sacks, has accounted for a fair amount of the team’s sacks this season. He posted two of his longest average Time-to-Throws ever against the Chiefs and Seahawks, leading to both pressures and sacks.
In fact, the first play each of the last two weeks have been quarterback sacks on first down. It has put the Jaguars so far behind the sticks from the get-go and forced the Jaguars to play from behind early, having to abandon the run-game almost all together. Penalties have done much of the same, consistently keeping the Jaguars in long down and distances.
Whether it’s the drops, penalties, inaccurate passes, or sacks, the Jaguars are playing on hard mode right now. They simply can’t get out of their own way and it’s led to early deficits each of the last three weeks as the team has struggled to get anything going.
They’ll need better play from everyone going forward to right this ship. A return to Etienne and a strong run-game couldn’t hurt either
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