Jaguars rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence has completed his first week of training camp, and as a rookie in the NFL, every day is a learning experience.
On Saturday, the number overall pick in this year’s draft reflected on his first week of training camp.
“It was a good week — yeah, I felt like I definitely made a lot of strides, individually, but as an offense and a team since the spring, you can kind of see everyone getting comfortable and learning the system,” Lawrence said. “It was a really good week. I didn’t have the best day today, but that’s what training camp is about — working out the kinks and really just owning our offense in the situations that were going in and against.”
According to Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer, the real work starts next week for Lawrence.
“He’s good. His skill set is there,” Meyer said. “The thing is that everybody has to remember [is] that defense is not allowed to make a play on the ball right now. That’s what happened in spring, and we almost got fined because we had two defensive backs go after the ball. I told them today it’s over now. Now go make a play, next week we can start that. So, all you can evaluate now is retention and skill set, plus plus. The real stuff starts next week.”
Last season, quarterback Gardner Minshew was the starter for the Jaguars. Coming into this season, Minshew will probably be the backup and Lawrence the starter, but at this point, there’s a “quarterback competition,” and Lawrence enjoys the competition.
“It’s always a competition — I mean, I’d say when I was at Clemson when I first came in, it was a similar situation, and that’s how it has to be. It has to be a competition — nothing can be given,” he said. “When you start giving things to people, you set the wrong precedent for the team. I have a lot of respect for the coaches, the way they’ve handled everything, and my job is to just come in every day, go to work and try to make this team better, and that’s hopefully getting close to the season, we can all gel and get some more work together, but right now, I’m just doing my job.”
Lawrence is going to have good days at camp, and he will have bad days. He also will have struggles during the season, but the Jaguars invested a lot in him, so he will have any and every opportunity to be the guy in Jacksonville. Week one of training camp is done, and Lawrence has to continue to put the work in as training camp continues next week.
