Former All-Pro sees big things for 2023 Jaguars
There's a lot of reason to be excited about the Jacksonville Jaguars this offseason. Coming off the team's first playoff appearance – and win – in five years, all signs are pointing up. Trevor Lawrence took about as big a leap as anyone could have imagined from 2021, flipping his touchdown to interception ratio from […]
There's a lot of reason to be excited about the Jacksonville Jaguars this offseason. Coming off the team's first playoff appearance – and win – in five years, all signs are pointing up. Trevor Lawrence took about as big a leap as anyone could have imagined from 2021, flipping his touchdown to interception ratio from 12/17 to 25/8. '
And that's caught the attention of plenty of talking heads over the last few months. It also hasn't gone unnoticed by those who've played the game at the highest level.
Former Tampa Bay Buccaneer DT Gerald McCoy joined Good Morning Football on Wednesday, and he had a very strong prediction about the Jaguars.
“This year, the Jacksonville Jaguars will be a top three team in the AFC, and Trevor Lawrence will be a finalist for MVP."
"The reason I say this is Doug Peterson, what he was able to do with him last year, if you go back and look before his fall from grace, what he did with Carson Wentz in his second year, Trevor Lawrence made a huge jump. I think people are forgetting Calvin Ridley is officially back. They have Zay Jones. [Travis] Etienne is healthy. On the defensive side of the ball, Josh Allen has been a Pro Bowler. Travon Walker, the first overall pick, I believe he will make that jump. I think they're going to use him the right way. He's going to get more comfortable.
“The thing that people are forgetting is that at the end of the season last year they built up confidence. When you have a leader in Trevor Lawrence, who I believe will make an even bigger jump this year with the confidence they built going toe-to-toe with Kansas City after a huge comeback, I think people need to look out for the Jacksonville Jaguars.” – Gerald McCoy via Good Morning Football, NFL Network.
McCoy, a six-time Pro Bowler and 2013 first team All Pro with the Buccaneers, is right about what Pederson was able to get out of Carson Wentz in his second year in Philadelphia. Wentz finished third in the 2017 AP NFL MVP voting, leading the Eagles to an 11-2 record in 13 starts with 33 touchdowns to 7 interceptions on the way to the franchise's only Super Bowl championship. The season turned out to be an outlier, but there's no denying that Pederson was able to get a lot of Wentz in the early part of his career.
And Lawrence's ceiling is significantly higher, with the Jags' path to the postseason being far easier than virtually any other contender, thanks to the very navigable AFC South. As such, it's not hard to understand why McCoy is gushing on the Jags.
