Comedian Shane Torres has a great bit about Guy Fieri.
“Can someone please explain to me what the hell Guy Fieri ever did to anyone? People are horrible to a television personality and he didn’t do anything wrong. Here’s what he did do, America. He started a company where he hires everybody, he pays more than minimum wage, he gives health benefits before he has to, and he ordained a gay wedding. But because he has flames on his shirt, everyone sh*ts on this dude like he’s a member of Nickleback.”
That’s what people are doing to Trevor Lawrence. He’s become Guy Fieri.
I don’t know exactly how we got here, but the “Trevor Lawrence is overrated” takes on the app formerly known as Twitter are starting to separate the people who watch games from those who look at the stat sheet and argue with people who watched the games.
People forget that Lawrence had the Jaguars as the No. 1 seed in the AFC after 11 games. They were 8-3 and getting into a groove offensively after a big road win against the Texans. From Weeks 1-12, Lawrence ranked 10th in the NFL in EPA per play, had the 10th most passing yards in the league, and was PFF’s eighth rated quarterback. He was also completing over 67 percent of his passes, a number that would have been even if Jacksonville wasn’t fifth in the league in drops.
Then he got injured. Lawrence suffered a high ankle sprain against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 13. After that, his season fell off the rails as he played through the pain while constantly being under pressure. From Weeks 14-18, Lawrence had the eighth most dropbacks under pressure in the NFL.
How about the narrative that Lawrence turned the ball over a ton in 2023?Well, throughout the first 12 weeks of the year, Lawrence had 13 turnover worthy throws. In the final month of the season, he had 11, which was second in the NFL from Weeks 14-18. He was also fifth in scrambles over that span, meaning (with a highly sprained ankle, mind you) he had to consistently take off running either because of pressure, his receivers not getting open, or a combination of both.
“But what about the interceptions, Jarrett?”
I’m so glad you asked.
The former number one overall pick threw 14 picks last season- seven of them came in his final four games, and three were thrown in one game against Cleveland- a game in which the Jaguars still only lost by four in large part because of Lawrence. This narrative that Lawrence was a turnover machine is simply false. He was playing hurt trying to will his team into the playoffs, while simultaneously being one of the most pressured quarterbacks in the game and dealing with receivers who were constantly dropping passes.
The point is that Trevor Lawrence is great. A top 10 quarterback in the NFL without a shadow of a doubt. But because he got injured and had a rough stretch of games, a large portion of people started acting as if he was Tim Boyle.
Watch the games. Do the work. There are very few quarterbacks better than 16 in Duval.
