Trevor Lawrence doesn’t need a long training camp to know what’s at stake. Entering Year 5 under his third head coach, the former No. 1 pick has reached the point in his career where projection is no longer enough. Trust, timing, and tangible results matter now, and the Jaguars believe new head coach Liam Coen might be the one to bring that out of him.
Last season was brutal. A 2–8 finish wiped out Jacksonville’s promising 8–3 start. Lawrence played through injuries, but the cracks ran deeper: dropped passes, a broken run game, poor protection, and a stagnant offense that left him with nowhere to go. Once the clock ticked past three seconds, it got ugly: on dropbacks over that mark, Lawrence had just a 31% success rate (league bottom), –0.44 EPA per attempt (29th out of 33), and completed only 40% of those deep-drop throws—dead last in the NFL. And while not all of it fell on him, this is the quarterback the Jaguars paid $275 million to believe in. That belief now demands results.
It wasn’t all on him, but the ceiling remains theoretical until something changes. That’s where Coen comes in. Hired in January, Coen has drawn praise for turning Baker Mayfield into a 4,500-yard, 41-touchdown quarterback at a 71.4% clip. The Jaguars need a quick turnaround. And if there’s any progress behind the scenes, it starts with Coen’s candid assessments of his quarterback on Action News Jax.
“Yeah, I think there’s no doubt Trevor did not just sit back and relax this summer,” Coen said during the recent sit-down with Brent Martineau and Austin Lane. “I wholeheartedly know he came back here prepared, ready to go. They just took a 100-question quiz in the quarterback room two nights ago, and he did very well.”
Coen emphasized that Lawrence is showing command of the offense, despite a flood of new personnel across skill positions and the line. “We had a little bit of a winter. We had phase one, phase two, phase three, and now we’re in training camp. Been very pleased with his command in terms of understanding the intentionality of what we’re trying to get done offensively. Learning new wideouts, new tight ends, new positions, new offensive line… there is a lot of new for Trevor going on right now.”
But Coen wasn’t sugarcoating anything. “I’ve been very pleased with his dedication to the process,” he said. “And ultimately, man, the results will speak for themselves. That’s what we’re judged by.”
Coen’s early work with Trevor Lawrence has been granular, with a particular emphasis on synchronizing footwork and decision-making under pressure. He’s spoken about creating “black-and-white lines” for mechanics—non-negotiable fundamentals that kick in automatically during high-speed reads. That’s started to reflect in Lawrence’s OTA tape, where Coen noted cleaner footwork and quicker decisions, especially in red-zone situations. The staff has been tying route timing directly to Lawrence’s feet, building muscle memory that aligns progressions with dropbacks.
The team’s physical condition is just as important, and so far, camp hasn’t brought unwelcome surprises. The Jaguars opened training camp last week with rookies reporting to the Miller Electric Center on Saturday and vets on Tuesday. The only notable absence is linebacker Dennis Gardeck, placed on the active/PUP list as he continues recovering from a knee injury sustained in October 2024.
When asked for a broader health update, Coen offered cautious optimism. “They’re all showing up today right now by one o’clock. I haven’t gotten any, uh, surprises as of right now. So yeah, I feel—we’re pretty healthy right now.”
As for Gardeck, the expectation is that he’ll return at some point in camp. “Like you said, Dennis will be, you know, start on the PUP and then hopefully come off here shortly and be able to give us some meaningful snaps,” Coen added.
What happens next hinges on whether Lawrence can finally get back to playing fast and clean. With Coen now scripting the offense, there’s cautious belief that the Jaguars can reset the rhythm of their franchise quarterback—and in the process, the trajectory of their entire season.
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