When Bears safety Kevin Byard played against Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence in 2021 with the Titans, Lawrence threw four interceptions in a 20-0 loss.
The next time he faced Lawrence, in 2022, Lawrence threw for 368 yards and three touchdown passes in a 36-22 victory.
“He’s kind of streaky that way,” Byard said. “But there’s a reason why they made him the No. 1 overall pick [in the 2021 draft] and paid him the money.”
Well, sometimes there is and sometimes there isn’t. With each game in his fourth NFL season, Lawrence becomes a cautionary tale for teams searching for that elite franchise quarterback.
Lawrence made the Pro Bowl in his second season when he threw for 4,113 yards and 25 touchdowns, with eight interceptions for a 95.2 passer rating that ranked ninth in the NFL.
The following season, Lawrence threw for 4,016 yards, but his touchdowns dropped (21). He interceptions went up (14). And his passer rating was 88.5 — 21st in the NFL.
In this day and age, that was enough for the Jaguars to sign Lawrence to a five-year, $275 million contract, with $200 million guaranteed. The $55 million average annual salary tied him with the Bengals’ Joe Burrow for the highest in NFL history.
He’s still trying to earn it. Lawrence is coming off a season-best performance — 371 yards and two touchdowns with one interception for a 119.5 passer rating in a 37-34 victory over the Colts. But the week before that he was pretty average (169 yards, 89.1 rating) in a loss to the Texans. And the week before that he was even worse — 178 yards, 4.0 yards per attempt, one touchdown and one interception in a 47-10 blowout loss to the Bills.
Even Lawrence’s biggest accomplishment — a 31-30 victory over the Chargers in the AFC playoffs after the 2022 season — is a testament to his inconsistency. In the first 25 minutes, Lawrence threw four interceptions as the Jaguars fell behind 27-0. In the final 35 minutes, he threw four touchdown passes as the Jaguars rallied for a stunning victory.
“He presents a unique skill-set where he can run and pass,” Bears defensive end Montez Sweat said. “All those guys like that, who can get out of the pocket and make plays with their feet, it’s obviously a challenge. He’s not just [another] quarterback.”
Lawrence has yet to prove he can will a team to victory like the best quarterbacks do. So for the Bears’ defense, which leads the NFL in opponents’ passer rating (68.2), it’s a matter of maintaining discipline and doing what it does to prevent the talented-but-inconsistent Lawrence off his “A” game.
“We’d like to get him to second-and-long,” Bears defensive coordinator Eric Washington said. “We’d like to keep him out of manageable down-and-distance situations. And we’ve got to have pressure with our front four. We have to make sure the pocket is collapsed and we’re doing a great job of disguising our looks, and not giving him any information that he can easily access and figure out what to do with the football.”
The first step is containing the Jaguars’ running game. Led by Travis Etienne and Tank Bigsby. The Jaguars are 11th in rushing yards, with 126 or more in four of five games. The Bears are 18th in rushing defense, allowing 119 yards or more in four of five games.
Still, the Bears have played well enough this season to like the matchup.
“Honestly, this matchup, any matchup, I like our defense against anybody,” Byard said. “They have some really good skill position [players] — I like our secondary versus those guys.
“We’ve been doing a lot of work this week making sure we shore up the run, because they’ve been running the ball pretty good. They’re gonna lean heavy on their run game and obviously they’ll take their shots when they need to. But I like our defense versus anybody.”