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The Jacksonville Jaguars and Trevor Lawrence endured an embarrassing loss to the Chicago Bears on Sunday and it caught Bill Simmons's eye. While the Jaguars had blame to go all around, Lawrence certainly didn't play his best brand of football. He threw 23-for-35 with 234 yards and two touchdowns, along with an interception.
The numbers don't look bad but it's not what people are used to seeing. Simmons had some harsh criticism for the former first-overall pick on The Bill Simmons Podcast.
“He’s 21-35 in his career, that’s 55 games… how many guys have started at least 55 games but won less than 25 games,” Simmons said. “Well it’s a nine-person list and here’s that list. It goes in order of 21 and 25 wins; Trevor Lawrence, Tim Couch, David Carr, Josh McCown, Rick Mirer, Daniel Jones, Blake Bortles, Charlie Batch, and Josh Freeman.
“Nine quarterbacks and the worst one of all was David Carr at 23-56. Josh McCown was 23-53, but that’s just an awful list, I was shocked. I was like ‘Is there anybody good on this list'? Daniel Jones, kind of. They went 9-8 maybe.”
Trevor Lawrence still has the Jaguars' trust amidst Bill Simmons' criticism
Lawrence had a rocky rookie season, and the Jaguars finished with a 3-14 record. He also led the league with 17 interceptions that season. Despite this, Lawrence bounced back and had a major turnaround led by current head coach Doug Pederson. They went 9-8 and made his first Pro Bowl. During that season, he threw for 4,113 yards, 25 touchdowns, and only eight interceptions.
Despite the success in the previous season, the Jaguars quarterback has been a shell of himself. After being dismantled by the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football, retired NFL players LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson called out the quarterback. They even referred to Lawrence as ‘garbage' and ‘trash' throughout that game.
Simmons mentioned another statistic between Lawrence and a former Jaguars quarterback.
“Blake Bortles started 73 games, he had 103 touchdowns and 75 picks, and Lawrence has started 55 and has 64 touchdowns and 41 picks,” Simmons said. ‘When you see all these numbers it’s pretty alarming and then when you watch the games he makes dumb plays at bad times.”
It's hard to deny the evidence. There have been errant throws this season that haven't occurred in prior seasons. The Jaguars defense hasn't done Lawrence any favors either. Regardless, it doesn't explain some of the throws into double coverage, completely misreading a route or not putting enough power on the ball. However, Lawrence can rewrite the script in Week 7 against a New England Patriots that just allowed 41 points.
