Jaguars' Trevor Lawrence Takes Giant Leap in QB Tiers

The Athletic's recently released quarterback tiers for the 2023 season show just how far Trevor Lawrence has come.

Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence experienced one of the biggest improvements of any player in football a year ago. Now, he is consistently seeing his name next to the best in the NFL.

Lawrence has been a mainstay in top-10 quarterback lists all offseason long. That didn't change this week with the release of The Athletic's annual quarterback tier rankings, either.

A year after ranking near the bottom of the list, Lawrence found himself in Tier 2 and at No. 8 overall this year, behind only Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson, and Jalen Hurts.

The voting this year consisted of eight general managers, 10 head coaches, 15 coordinators, 10 executives, four quarterbacks coaches and three involved in coaching/analytics.

"Lawrence made the third-largest gain from last year in average tier vote, jumping from the bottom of Tier 3 into the middle of Tier 2. Jackson was the last quarterback to make a bigger year-over-year jump in average tier vote at a similar point in his career,"

The Athletic said.

“I could see him making a jump to a 1 this year,” a defensive coordinator said. “You saw something flip after their bye week. He was more confident in the offense. I still think he’s a little bit slow to trigger at times and takes too many sacks.”

Lawrence took 17 of his 27 sacks in four games.

“He hasn’t been real accurate as a pro passer, not as much as I thought he would have been, but you could see big improvements, quicker decisions,” a GM said. “He took a huge jump last year. He hit a couple throws on the move in their playoff win where you were like, ‘Holy s—.’ He also threw four picks in the first half. But he is going places.”

"Lawrence and the Jaguars went 3-2 last season in games when they trailed by at least 17 points. The rest of the league was 7-74-1 in those," 

The Athletic said.

“Dallas was up 17 on him late and he brought them back,” an offensive coordinator said. “I didn’t think he could do that. Again, Doug (Pederson) has done a great job with him. Doug had (Carson) Wentz playing at a playoff-caliber level in their first year together. Lawrence is a better player, more sudden with his movements, is more of a modern shotgun passer.”

In 17 starts in 2022, Lawrence completed 387 of 584 passes for 4,113 yards and 25 TDs. His 387 completions were the most in a single season in franchise history and his five rushing TDs were tied with Garrard for the most in single-season franchise history.

Lawrence joined Bengals QB Joe Burrow and Bills QB Josh Allen as the only players in the NFL with 25-plus passing TDs and at least five rushing TDs. Against the Titans in Week 14, Lawrence set a career-high with 368 yards passing and was named AFC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance.

The second-year quarterback totaled four 300-yard passing games and orchestrated three comebacks of 17-plus points, including a comeback from behind 27-0 in the postseason against the Chargers.

Last year, Lawrence ranked top-8 in DYAR, DVOA, effective yards, interception %, ANY/A, Sack %, and success rate, while also finishing top-10 in EPA/Play and CPOE. 

“It’s just the light switch is on. Everything is so quick, the way he’s able to go through his reads and developing that," Jaguars wide receivers coach Christian Kirk said on Monday. 

"I think that’s a big thing, last year maybe not being able to get to his third progression, now he’s able to get to that. That’s a big thing of what we do, is if the first and second reads aren’t there and he’s able to back to that third one. Maybe we’re able to look at some things on film that we haven’t taken advantage of, he’s really working that. He’s working through a lot of the things the defense is showing him. The defense has done a great job of mixing up coverages and making sure that he’s staying on his toes. I think he’s doing a great job leading as a vocal leader, but most importantly, his progression and how he’s able to get through each read.”