The 2021 NFL season was a complete disaster for the Jaguars, to put it lightly. However, that’s part of the past now, as the team hopes that Doug Pederson turns things around after a terrible experience under Urban Meyer.
One of the most important tasks for the new head coach will be to help Trevor Lawrence fulfill his potential and establish himself as Jacksonville’s franchise quarterback. That’s the idea, and he seems to be the right guy for it.
Pederson, who guided the Eagles to a Super Bowl win in 2017, knows a thing or two about the quarterback position. And that’s what it seems to give Lawrence a lot of optimism ahead of his second year.
Trevor Lawrence already likes how Doug Pederson is working at Jaguars
Besides from being an NFL quarterback in the past, Pederson has experience when it comes to bring the best out of a signal-caller – he did so with Carson Wentz, Nick Foles, and Alex Smith. Now he will try to do the same with Lawrence.
"Quarterback's an interesting position,” Lawrence said, per Jeff Kerr of CBS Sports. “It's not a big rah-rah, chew somebody out. I mean you have some coaches that are like that but for me, that's just not what I need.
"I can have a conversation and Coach Pederson's great about that. At every play, he gives you a piece of feedback that another coach might not give you just because he knows what it's like and it's something little that he might see that someone else doesn't see. Having the head coach be able to step in, even today a couple times, three or four times, after a play, he'll come over and give me a little tip or whatever. Just having a head coach that can do that and really, really knows what he's talking about is cool."
Lawrence has not only emphasized on the way Pederson communicates with a quarterback, but he also described how his arrival changed the atmosphere in the Jaguars’ locker room.
"That's the biggest thing in a team is just trusting each other, trusting the guys in the locker room but also the staff,” Lawrence added. “That's something, clearly, we didn't have a lot of last year, so I mean I think our locker room did a great job last year of staying together.
"But it's cool to see him (Pederson) make that a priority and he knows and understands that that is definitely something that we have to make sure that we have in this building. I do think we're building that, and I mean from everything I've seen, everyone's trusting one another, really just going to work, and preparing ourselves."
This should be encouraging for all Jaguars fans. Lawrence has the potential to be special and Pederson has shown how much he can help to develop a quarterback's talent. The fact that their relationship is already off to a good start is very promising.
