Can Jaguars Use Rookie Inexperience to Their Advantage?

London has not been kind to rookie quarterbacks in past years. Is this good news for the Jacksonville Jaguars?

Oct 6, 2024; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) looks on from the sideline against the Carolina Panthers during the third quarter at Soldier Field. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images / Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images

There are few football fields in the NFL that are ever kind to rookie quarterbacks.

Simply put, playing quarterback is hard enough as it is. It is even tougher when one is a rookie due to the adjustment in talent level on defense, increase in game speed, and just how much more sophisticated both offensive and defensive schemes are compared to college.

But over the years, one place has proved tougher for rookie quarterbacks than most: London.

Only six rookie quarterbacks have ever started a game in London, and Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams will become the seventh when the Jacksonville Jaguars play the Bears in Week 6. And for a struggling Jaguars defense to finally bounce back, they will need to ensure they take advantage of Williams' lack of experience.

Of the six rookie quarterbacks to start a game in London, only Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence has won a game -- and the Jaguars needed a game-winning field goal to even do that. Otherwise, no other rookie quarterback has found much success.

In a group that consists of Lawrence, Derek Carr, Gardner Minshew, Zach Wilson, DeShone Kizer, and Blake Bortles, only Lawrence and Carr have thrown touchdowns in London. If you remove Lawrence from the equation, the other five quarterbacks have a 1:5 touchdown-to-interception ratio.

And of the group, Lawrence leads the six in passing yards, passer rating, yards per attempt (tied with Bortles), adjusted yards per pass attempt, adjusted net yards per pass attempt, and success rate.

In short, other than Lawrence's performance against the Dolphins in 2021, rookie quarterbacks have normally unimpressed in London for one reason or another.

With that said, none of the non-Lawrence quarterbacks come close to Williams as a talent. The closest would be Carr, but he was a second-round pick and not the No. 1 pick in the draft. Williams clearly brings more to the table than Kizer, Wilson, Bortles, or Minshew ever did.

But at the end of the day, he is still a rookie quarterback. And the Jaguars need to ensure they make him play like one.

"I mean, you like to play against rookie quarterbacks. You like to play against them, a lot of them want to make the big plays when those numbers get called so they tend to hold onto the ball a little more," Jaguars defensive end Josh Hines-Allen said on Wednesday. "I know with this quarterback he does a really good job of moving away from sacks. So, that gives us more opportunities to rush the ball because I believe he has all the confidence in the world that can't nobody sack him. Obviously the first two weeks they gave him 14.0, or first three weeks. But even still on the tape, he tries to do his best on avoiding sacks so, we can keep our rush lanes and rush more physical upfront."

"Plus on the edges we just win our one-on-one's. If we can do those and effect him to make him step up and make him retreat, just really go chase stuff down. Our DB's are probably going to have to plaster a little bit longer but if we can keep him in that pocket and hold him in there we'll have a lot of success this week."

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