Early losses for Trevor Lawrence might not be the worst outcome, Cowherd explains
Trevor Lawrence looked every bit a No. 1 overall pick Sunday.
The Jacksonville Jaguars got their first win of the preseason on the final weekend of warmup games, taking down the Dallas Cowboys 34-14.
With Lawrence at the helm, the Jaguars scored touchdowns on two of their three first-quarter drives, including their first possession of the game.
The rookie QB had one hiccup in his lone quarter of action, failing to complete a slant to wideout Collin Johnson on a third-and-4.
Aside from that, Lawrence didn't put a foot wrong against the Cowboys. When he exited after 15 minutes with the Jaguars up 14-0, he had finished 11-for-12 for 139 passing yards, two touchdowns and a 154.5 passer rating.
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Sunday's performance certainly helped quell some of the concerns about Lawrence that were swirling after his first two preseason performances.
In his debut against the Cleveland Browns, Lawrence went 6-for-9 for 71 yards and a 90.5 passer rating. Against the New Orleans Saints the following week, Lawrence went 14-for-23 for 113 yards and a passer rating of 73.3.
Not bad by any means, but also nothing to write home about — especially with the QB not finding the end zone in his first two preseason games.
That tide shifted Sunday, and it came thanks to a rethink on offense, according to Jaguars.com correspondent Brian Sexton. Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer challenged offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and passing game coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to find a way to spark Jacksonville's attack.
To do so, they adjusted to offense to something more familiar to Lawrence, adding more plays from the shotgun along with rollouts and bubble screens — the kinds of plays Lawrence ran as a force for Clemson for three years.
"We felt today we were on the same page," Lawrence said in his postgame news conference. "We communicated well, we kept it simple and for me just being accurate, making quick decisions, getting the ball out of my hand and letting our guys make plays, that was the difference."
That difference helped earn Lawrence his first taste of victory as a pro, albeit in preseason play.
However, for a team that finished 1-15 in 2020, racking up wins when it counts might still be a ways off.
And that's just fine and dandy, Colin Cowherd explained Monday on "The Herd." For Cowherd, early struggles aren't a death knell, as long as the coach and quarterback are trending in the right direction.
"You know the best-case scenario for Jacksonville is to do what the Dallas Cowboys did," Cowherd said. "The legendary college coach, Jimmy Johnson and the highly touted quarterback who looked the part, Troy Aikman. Rebuild. Kinda ugly for a year. Stockpile picks. Boom! Dynasty."
The Cowboys went 1-15 in Johnson's first season in 1989, with Aikman posting an 0-11 record in his starts. But by 1992, the duo was on its way to winning back-to-back Super Bowl titles and forging Hall of Fame careers.
As Cowherd laid out, having a plan in place is what he's hoping to see from a team with designs on building from the ground up.
"What I'm looking for is not wins," Cowherd said. "What I'm looking for is something I always look for, it's a plan. What's your plan? Do you see growth?
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Throughout the preseason, the Jaguars and Lawrence have shown they can adapt and grow.
It's still very early, and nobody is claiming the Jags are already on the way to being a reincarnation of the Cowboys of the mid-90s.
But there's a chance that a bright long-term future could lie beyond a dismal near-term one. For a franchise with a 7-7 playoff record in 27 seasons, that might be more than enough.
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