Trevor Lawrence sends message to Jaguars amid losing streak

Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson suggests last week he might consider benching quarterback Trevor Lawrence amid the club’s struggles. That was before Jacksonville fell to 0-4 on the season via Sunday’s 24-20 loss to the Houston Texans, who was Lawrence’s ninth consecutive defeat as a starter going back to last year.

Following Sunday’s disappointing result, Lawrence used a portion of his postgame news conference to send a message to teammates feeling dejected about the club’s record.

“We just have to keep playing,” Lawrence said, as shared by Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk. “We have to stay together. It’s some adversity. It’s been tough, you know, obviously not having the success that we want and it’s a lot of guys in there that put a lot of time in. …So it’s frustrating, it’s hard, but you have some adversity, you got to get through it, get to the other side of it and it will help you in the long run and that’s what we’re preaching as a team.”

Multiple NFL insiders believe Pederson “has moved to the front of the hot seat line,” considering the Jaguars have lost nine of their past 10 games under his watch. With that said, it’s worth noting that Lawrence largely failed to live up to expectations across the campaign’s first four games after he signed a five-year contract extension worth up to $275M with $142M fully guaranteed this past offseason.

Lawrence completed 18-of-33 passes for 169 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions against the Texans. According to Pro Football Reference, he entered Monday ranked 32nd out of 33 qualified players with a 53.3 completion percentage and 23rd out of 33 signal-callers with a 43.7 adjusted QBR on the season.

There’s currently no indication Jaguars owner Shad Khan is preparing to fire Pederson, and Lawrence is on track to start this coming Sunday’s home game against the 2-2 Indianapolis Colts. As of late Monday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook listed Jacksonville as a 2.5-point favorite for that contest.

One wonders if Pederson or Khan could make a big change if the Jaguars fail to beat the Colts.

“We had some mistakes out there,” Lawrence added during his postgame comments on Sunday, “but we just have to stay together. It’s going to teach us something. It’s going to prepare us for the future and stay positive. …I thought we had a lot of opportunities, so just keep working. That’s the message is just keep working this week.”

Jacksonville seemingly needs more than a solid work ethic to save what already feels like a lost season for everyone involved.