Trevor Lawrence spent the 2025 season rebuilding the way the NFL viewed him.
His peers noticed.
The NFL placed the Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback at No. 62 on its “Top 100 Players of 2026” list, the highest position of Lawrence’s career.
The player-voted ranking also completed a 32-spot rise from his previous appearance, when he landed at No. 94 in 2024.
He did not make the 2025 edition.
The recognition arrives after Lawrence returned from an injury-shortened season and produced the most complete campaign of his five-year career.
It also solidifies his place as Jacksonville’s franchise quarterback entering 2026.
Now that a breakthrough is official, he must show it can last.
Lawrence’s Late-Season Eruption Changed His Standing
Lawrence entered last season after missing seven games in 2024 and undergoing surgery on his left shoulder.
He responded by starting all 17 games and completing 341 of 560 passes for 4,007 yards, 29 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
His nine rushing touchdowns helped him establish a Jaguars single-season record with 38 total scores. Jacksonville finished 13-4, captured the AFC South and closed the regular season with eight consecutive victories.
Lawrence’s rise came during that closing stretch.
According to the NFL’s Top 100 breakdown, Lawrence averaged a league-high 10.5 yards per attempt on third downs during Jacksonville’s winning streak. He also posted a 47% dropback success rate in those situations, eighth among qualified quarterbacks.
His December surge included a six-touchdown performance against the New York Jets. Lawrence became the first player in NFL history to record at least 300 passing yards, five passing touchdowns, 50 rushing yards and one rushing score in the same game.
He followed that performance with four more touchdowns against the Denver Broncos.
Lawrence accounted for 10 total scores without a turnover across the two games, joining Josh Allen, Drew Brees and Patrick Mahomes as the only players to accomplish that feat.
Those performances helped Lawrence move beyond the flashes that defined much of his first four seasons.
He became the driving force behind an offense that set franchise records for points, touchdowns and first downs during Liam Coen’s first year as head coach.
Career-Best Ranking Raises the Bar for Jacksonville
A No. 62 ranking offers validation, but it also justifies the tolerance needed to hang with him earlier in his career.
The Jaguars have committed to him through the five-year, $275 million extension he signed in 2024.
They now have evidence that he can carry an offense through a division race and deliver elite stretches of QB play.
But the unfinished portion of Lawrence’s season came in January.
He threw three touchdown passes in Jacksonville’s wild-card matchup against the Buffalo Bills, twice giving the Jaguars a fourth-quarter lead.
Lawrence also threw two interceptions, including a deflected pass that ended Jacksonville’s final possession in a 27-24 loss.
That defeat doesn’t throw regular-season progress into the garbage, though Lawrence hasn’t enjoyed a playoff victory since the Jaguars’ run to the divisional round following the 2022 season.
Jacksonville should still enter 2026 expecting to contend for another AFC South title, and perhaps a divisional round berth or more.
Accomplishing this task will require the version of Lawrence that emerged during the Jaguars’ eight-game run, becoming the benchmark rather than the peak.
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