When the Jaguars drafted Trevor Lawrence first overall in 2021, they saddled him with Urban Meyer as a head coach. Meyer didn’t even last one season before he was replaced with Darrell Bevell for the rest of that year. Lawrence then spent three years being coached by Doug Pederson, who was better than Meyer but never helped Lawrence reach the level of play he was expected to.
Last year, Liam Coen became the Jaguars’ head coach, and it was Jacksonville’s most promising season in Lawrence’s career. Coen thinks Lawrence’s growth has only just begun.
Coen said on SiriusXM NFL Radio that Lawrence’s performance last season was just the beginning, as Lawrence is going to have stability in Coen’s offense that he hasn’t had to this point in his career.
“Four new systems, multiple different head coach situations, OCs, whatever it is,” Coen said. “Go throughout the season, and you find out, I mean, doesn’t miss a single practice, doesn’t miss a single throw in practice, played the whole season. MVP finalist, Comeback Player of the Year finalist, did some great things. There is so much room to continue to improve, and I think that’s what we’re excited about attacking.”
Coen thinks he and Lawrence are going go grow together.
“I’m really excited about working with Trevor again this year,” Coen said.
After an excellent college career at Clemson, Lawrence entered the NFL as one of the most-hyped quarterback prospects in NFL draft history. He hasn’t lived up to that hype yet, but Coen thinks there’s plenty of time for the 26-year-old Lawrence to show just how good he can be.
Travon Walker signed a four-year contract extension with the Jaguars on Saturday and the defensive end told reporters that he doesn’t see the new pact as a sign that he’s reached his peak as a player.
Walker’s $110 million deal reflects the value that the Jags put on the production he’s provided since they made him the top pick of the 2022 draft, but head coach Liam Coen hasn’t been shy about pushing Walker to set high goals for himself heading into his fifth season. While speaking to reporters on Saturday, Walker recounted a conversation that Coen had with him about how much Aaron Donald — Coen was on the Rams’ staff while Donald was playing — used to dominate on a daily basis.
“It’s just taking my game to another level,” Walker said, via the team’s website. “It just kind of help put things in perspective for me to be able to just click into a different type of mindset from how I was going throughout the year. It really dawned on me that it’s just time to ramp things up, take it to the next level. . . . It’s helping everybody else on the team get better, while it’s helping me get better as well. It’s just pure dominance and everybody that plays in this league wants to be great. I think that’s really where he was getting to when he was speaking on that.”
Walker had 20.5 sacks over the 2023 and 2024 seasons, but only had 3.5 for Jacksonville last year. Whatever the number of sacks in 2026 and beyond, Walker’s ability to be a consistent threat to opposing offenses will be the key to making the extension look like a winning move for all involved.
Defensive end Travon Walker will be sticking around Jacksonville for a while.
Walker’s agents announced that he has agreed to a four-year extension with the Jaguars. The deal is worth $110 million and includes $77 million in total guarantees with $50 million fully guaranteed at signing.
Walker was the first overall pick of the 2022 draft and was set to play out the final year of his rookie deal in 2026. He had back-to-back 10-sack seasons in 2023 and 2024 and has recorded 200 tackles, 27.5 sacks, an interception, three forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and a fumble return for a touchdown.
Jaguars General Manager James Gladstone talked about extending Walker at this week’s league meeting. He also mentioned wide receiver Parker Washington and tight end Brenton Strange as candidates for new deals, so there may be more news out of Jacksonville on the contract front in the near future.
Offseason programs will start getting underway around the NFL next week.
The ten teams that hired new coaches this offseason will be eligible to start working with their players on Monday, April 6. The Ravens are the only team that has set that as their first day of work while the Cardinals, Falcons, Bills, Browns, Raiders, Dolphins, Giants, Steelers and Titans have set Tuesday as their opening day.
All of those teams will also be able to hold a voluntary minicamp later in the spring. Every team is also scheduled to hold a rookie minicamp and a mandatory minicamp over the course of the next few months.
The first two weeks of work for all teams is limited to meetings, strength and conditioning, and physical rehabilitation only. The three-week second phase allows for on-field work, but no full-speed team drills while the third OTA phase allows for team drills, but there is no live contact allowed at any point in the offseason.
Most of the 22 teams with returning coaches will be opening their offseason programs on April 20 or 21. The Broncos have set May 4 as their first day.
When it comes to the performative antics of Florida attorney general James Uthmeier, we’ve urged the league to respond with three words: “Bring it on.”
On Tuesday, Commissioner Roger Goodell essentially said just that during his press conference at the NFL annual meeting.
Asked whether the Rooney Rule, which Uthmeier has demanded the NFL ditch as to the three Florida-based teams, is going anywhere, Goodell was clear: “No. No, the Rooney Rule has been around a long time. We’ve evolved it, changed it. We’ll continue to do that as circumstances warrant.”
The league may be changing the Rooney Rule, but it won’t be changing it to create less diversity in the selection of candidates for key jobs.
“Well, the one thing that doesn’t change is our values,” Goodell said. “We believe that diversity has been a benefit to the National Football League. We are well aware of the laws, where the laws are changing or evolving. We think the Rooney Rule is consistent with those. We certainly will engage with the Florida [attorney general] or anybody else, as we have in the past, to talk about the policies and what they are.
“As you know, the Rooney Rule is not a hiring mandate. It’s intended to try to help and has been used by industries far beyond football, far beyond the United States, to help identify candidates — a diverse set of candidates — bring in better talent, and gives us an opportunity to hire the best talent. Ultimately, clubs make those decisions individually and those are, I think, principles of how we try to get better — bring in the best talent.”
Uthmeier believes otherwise, obviously. And he has given the NFL a deadline of May 1 to scrap the Rooney Rule as to the Dolphins, Jaguars, and Buccaneers, or risk potential enforcement action.
Call his bluff. Let him do it. Stick to your principles.
It sounds like that’s what the NFL plans to do.
