Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence is eligible to sign a long-term extension this offseason, although no new deal has been struck yet.
To this point, however, Lawrence isn’t panicking that nothing has been officially done yet. He said on Monday that he believes something will get done in time.
“Obviously, I’m aware of what’s going on, but I try to keep my focus on doing my job out here,” Lawrence told reporters at OTAs. “I have full belief that that’ll take care of itself and that’s not something I need to worry about.”
It’s not that Lawrence is putting his head in the sand on the negotiations and keeping his fingers crossed. He’s been apprised of the progress, but the quarterback is leaving it to his team to handle the nitty gritty of the matters.
“That’s why I pay people and hire people to do that for me. That’s not my job,” he said. “But obviously, I know what’s going on. I’m aware of the situation — I think that’s important, too — but I try to keep all my focus and energy on being the best player I can be to help us win.”
Lawrence broke out in 2022 with his best season but slid back a little bit last season. His completion percentage and TD percentage went down, and his sacks and interceptions went up. Lawrence also missed his first career game after starting 49 straight to begin his career.
But the Jaguars still appear to be firmly in Lawrence’s corner, helping bolster the offense this offseason. Last week, Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said of Lawrence’s deal: “Hopefully it gets done, and it will.”
So what’s the hang-up?
Late spring and summer is typically the prime renegotiating season. To this point, the only major QB extension has been Jared Goff signing a four-year, $212 million deal with the Detroit Lions, although pending free agent Baker Mayfield signed an extension prior to free agency with the Bucs, too.
Tua Tagovailoa, Dak Prescott and Jordan Love are among the other big-name quarterbacks around the NFL also currently awaiting their respective paydays. Last year, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow signed extensions averaging more than $51 million per year, with Burrow now topping the whole league at $55 million per year.
With Goff coming in at an average of $53 million per year, it would figure that this group of young quarterbacks might all be seeking deals that surpass that number. Whether they get it is another matter entirely.
In a perfect world, Lawrence said, everything would be sewn up on a new contract prior to the Jaguars reporting to training camp in July, even if he knows that’s no guarantee.
“Yeah, I think that would be ideal, just to put it behind us and keep moving and feel good about that going into training camp,” he said. “But either way, like I’ve said before, I have the same job. So I can’t always control all those factors, but I have the same job to do either way. But yeah, of course, that’d be ideal to get it done as soon as you can and kinda move forward.”
