JACKSONVILLE – Trevor Lawrence has the look of a very good NFL quarterback and probably much better than that.
Still, the Jaguars' rookie quarterback is making a significant jump this week.
It's the jump from college to the NFL. That's historically a big jump – even for a player such as Lawrence, who never lost a regular-season game in college or high school and who has all the physical characteristics it takes to play at this level.
"I have great players around me," Lawrence said Wednesday when asked about his thoughts on his first NFL regular-season start – which will happen when the Jaguars play the Houston Texans in the 2021 regular-season opener at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, Sunday at 1 p.m.
"Just do what I do, and don't try and do too much. Just trust in those guys – Coach Bev (offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell), Coach Schotty (passing-game coordinator Brian Schottenheimer), everybody … -- to put me in a good position and just go play."
The last ten quarterbacks selected No. 1 overall dating to 2007 are a combined 0-9-1 in their first professional starts. But Lawrence isn't worried about that. And he's not worried about what happened in Jacksonville before he arrived – even about a 15-game losing streak to end last season.
"We don't really talk about it much – maybe at first when everyone was kind of new and everyone is getting here and we're asking, 'How was last year?''' Lawrence said. "I was trying to get a feel for what the team was like then and just how it's different now and all those things. But at this point we've got our group and we like who we have, and we don't really talk about what happened last year.
"This is a new team, new coaching staff, a lot of new players, a lot of the same players who are great players. We've moved on."
The Jaguars 2021 roster, as it stands today, has 34 players among the active roster and practice squad who are new to Jacksonville and 19 new coaches who have been working to change the trajectory of the franchise since arriving in January.
Lawrence isn't surprised there is a good vibe in the building – or that the players are optimistic about where they're headed.
"We're a really close team," Lawrence observed. "We've grown a lot since camp started but we've been working on this since even before the draft; guys have been working on this since January, February? A lot of the guys were here, working out, learning the new systems and all that.
"Then the draft class got here in May. So we've been working since OTAs. So it's been a few months in the works of trying to get this thing rolling and we feel like we're in a really good spot. The team is jelling. We have a lot of good dudes on the team, a lot of hard workers."
QUOTABLE I
Lawrence on being named one of seven Jaguars 2021 captains Wednesday: "It was great. It's a really cool feeling, especially as a younger guy … just having that support from my teammates. Now, it's time to go out and win some games. It's definitely an honor. It's a cool moment. It's a bunch of great guys in the locker room."
