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Following the disaster that was the 2021 season, it was difficult to imagine a scenario where Urban Meyer could come off any worse. Then the 2022 season happened.
Not only did the Doug Pederson-led Jaguars rebound from Urban Meyer’s disastrous 3-14 season but they turned the franchise around to such an extent that they even won a playoff game against the Los Angeles Chargers.
If you were to ask Meyer what changed with the Jaguars over the course of the last 12 months, though, he’ll point to the addition of players and not the subtraction of him and his coaching staff.
“They have a lot of different players from when I was there,” Meyer said during a recent appearance on the All Things Covered podcast. “They did a really good job in free agency this year.”
What makes Meyer’s comments so absurd, of course, is that while there’s some truth to them, he’s ignoring that “when he was there” is now considered to be one of the worst head coaching tenures in the history of the National Football League.
In reality, the biggest difference in the Jaguars between 2021 and 2022 has been the play of Trevor Lawrence, who bloomed into a legitimate franchise quarterback this year following a shaky rookie year under Meyer.
After being drafted out of Clemson University as the #1 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, Lawrence completed 59% of his passes for 3,641 yards, 12 touchdowns, and 17 interceptions.
This past year, his statistics improved across the board under the Super Bowl-winning tutelage of Doug Pederson, as he completed 66% of his passes for 4,113 yards, 25 touchdowns, and eight interceptions.
If Lawrence and the Jaguars are going to compete in the AFC in the years to come, he’ll need to continue to improve in his third season if he’s going to compete with the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, and so on.
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