Jaguars’ Trevor Lawrence Problem Reveals Silver Lining For Patriots

After only three games into the 2024 NFL season, the Jaguars might be feeling like they made a huge mistake.

Jacksonville will enter Week 4 as one of only three winless teams in the league. Doug Pederson’s side dropped its third straight Monday night when it stunk up the joint at Highmark Stadium. Trevor Lawrence and the offense looked listless again, and the primetime contest became such a laugher that Mac Jones saw playing time in the fourth quarter.

It doesn’t feel dramatic to say it’s panic time for the Jaguars, especially when you consider the franchise-altering decision they made in the offseason. Jacksonville in late April signed Lawrence to a monstrous five-year, $275 million deal ($142 million guaranteed), which at the time made the 2021 No. 1 overall pick the league’s highest-paid player alongside Joe Burrow.

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Jacksonville made that significant investment in Lawrence despite not winning more than nine games in any of the last three seasons, although his sophomore campaign did yield an AFC South title and a wild-card win. The Jaguars now are basically stuck with a talented yet unproven signal-caller who didn’t receive virtually any support from his head coach after Monday night’s rout.

The Jacksonville-Buffalo blowout should have provided a sense of relief to the Patriots, who watched their former starting quarterback make a fool of himself in mop-up duty. Jones showed signs of franchise quarterback potential as a Pro Bowler in 2021, but New England quickly learned he wasn’t the future in New England. The Patriots didn’t pick up his fifth-year option and eventually traded Jones after only his third campaign in Foxboro, Mass.

Jones’ exit was followed by another breath of fresh air in New England. A little over a month after the deal with the Jaguars, the Patriots selected Drake Maye with the third overall pick in the 2024 draft. The plan for Maye in New England seemingly was evident from the moment Eliot Wolf and company turned in their first-round card: Learn from the mistakes the organization made with Jones and iron out a guideline to best set Maye up for success.

To be clear, no one knows yet if Maye will be a true starting quarterback and face of the franchise. The North Carolina product entered the league pretty raw and the Patriots are staying relatively patient with their highest draft pick since 1993. But the potential and promise are still there, and Maye hasn’t cost the franchise much yet.

New England put itself in that position by making a sound judgment call on Jones. Jacksonville locked itself into Lawrence, and it could have a longstanding negative impact on the organization.