Gene Frenette: Tough call for Jaguars, QB Lawrence on whether he should play against Saints

This is unchartered territory for Trevor Lawrence. It’s one call the Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback and the organization can’t afford to mess up.

All this angst over the possibility of Lawrence missing the first football game of his NFL career due to injury Thursday night against the New Orleans Saints was so unnecessary.

With Lawrence injuring his left knee on a sack late in Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts — on a play where the coaching staff inexcusably had him running to get to the left edge while holding a 14-point lead — it makes for a dicey decision on his availability just as Doug Pederson’s team is close to seizing control of the AFC South division.

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Suddenly, there’s an element of risk whether Lawrence extends his durability streak of starting his first 40 NFL regular-season games or not. For the Jaguars, this is the Big Uneasy.

If Lawrence feels medically compelled to go against his competitive nature and sits this one out, and the Jaguars lose this prime-time matchup at Caesars Superdome, it could kill well-earned momentum from a three-game winning streak.

The same is true, win or lose, if Lawrence plays and somehow manages to injure the knee again on the artificial turf, possibly keeping him sidelined longer than anyone in the franchise hates to even think about.

If the Jaguars’ medical people leave the decision up to Lawrence and how he feels Thursday playing with a left knee sprain, it’s hard to imagine him staying on the sideline. His inner drive to lead his team, providing the pain tolerance is manageable, will prevail.

The third-year quarterback acknowledged Tuesday there’s no definitive solution to this play-or-don't-play conundrum. Still, you have to believe seeing elite NFL quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow playing through varying degrees of pain will push him to do likewise.

“Of course, this game is about toughness and it’s about at times playing through injuries,” Lawrence said. “I think it’s also about being smart and you know the position we’re in. There are guys every week that have injuries and might sit or might not play. They’re looking for the long haul, not just for themselves, but also for the team because you want your guys to be healthy in crunch time of the season down the stretch.

“There’s a lot of questions that you have to answer, there’s not a right answer to any of them. Some guys are more conservative when it comes to injuries and some guys aren’t. Some guys play more and some guys don’t. It depends on who you are and what you’re comfortable with.”

Either way, this makes for a tough call.

Jaguars’ culture has persevered

One thing that should make the Jaguars confident of properly navigating through Lawrence’s medical dilemma is how they’ve handled business so far during the most awkward part of their schedule.

They won back-to-back games in London, then completed a sweep of the Colts at EverBank Stadium. Now the Jaguars go back on the road with a short week of preparation to face New Orleans, without knowing for certain Lawrence’s playing status, and possibly missing three other offensive starters in Walker Little, Brandon Scherff and Zay Jones.

Playing the Saints under these adverse circumstances will be challenging, but what’s encouraging to the Jaguars is how the culture built by head coach Doug Pederson allows them to handle rough patches.

It didn’t faze the Jaguars when they were 3-7 last season, four games behind the Tennessee Titans, and rallied to win the AFC South. This tricky part of the 2023 schedule, now compounded by Lawrence’s injury situation, is no different.

The Jaguars just accept that adversity is going to hit them at different times, and they simply move on.

“We went over there to London and it’s already a messed up schedule with the first flight, played that first game [against the Atlanta Falcons] and then the second week was hectic just trying to navigate and get through practice and stuff without all the training facilities that we have here,” said linebacker Foye Oluokun. “Being able to power through that, we just came together as a team.

“Whatever was in front of us, we were able to embrace. We used to call it in college [at Yale], ‘embrace the suck.’ Whatever is about to happen in front of us, just use it as a unifying point and get through it together.”

With 20 of 22 starters at least in their second season playing together, the Jaguars’ making that playoff run in 2022 and righting the ship after a 1-2 start this year makes it easier to not let the current adversity become a huge distraction.

Pederson set a tone with the players for how he wants to operate, so nobody panics when either losses or injuries start accumulating.

“Doug treats us like adults, not teenagers,” said return specialist Jamal Agnew, a seven-year NFL veteran. “He kind of gives us the blueprint, and the leadership comes from within [the locker room]. We’ve built the culture up enough to know what we’ve got to do day in and day out to prepare for a short week like this.

“It’s a testament to the guys they brought in this building, the culture they’ve set, doing the right thing all the time.”

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Trevor durability never in question

One reason many believe Lawrence won’t miss his first NFL start is he’s almost always available. He’s never missed a start due to injury in his NFL career.

Not since his first start as a freshman at Clemson in 2018, when he got hurt in a big second-quarter collision with Syracuse safety Evan Foster, has an injured Lawrence been forced to leave a game for any lengthy period. He did miss two games in 2020 against Boston College and Notre Dame due to testing positive for COVID-19.

But if the Jaguars face the Saints without Lawrence and start C.J. Beathard, the team-wide consensus is the offense won’t have to be scaled back. Beathard has made 12 NFL starts, all with the San Francisco 49ers, but none since 2020.

“He’s got experience in this league, he’s got experience now in our system, the guys around him trust him,” said Jaguars’ offensive coordinator Press Taylor. “We know he can go out and function in a solid way with the possibility to win the game if that’s what we needed to do.”

Beathard performed admirably in his last two starts for the 49ers during the final two weeks of the 2020 season, beating the Arizona Cardinals 20-12 and throwing three TD passes.

“I sat on the other side during one of C.J.’s starts in San Fran and he picked us apart,” said Jaguars’ receiver Christian Kirk, who left Arizona to sign with Jacksonville in 2022. “I know he can do it at a high level.”

Beathard, a 2017 third-round draft pick, is no Trevor when it comes to arm talent, but he’s well-equipped to deal with the noisy, raucous environment of the Superdome.

“It’s not one of those overwhelming things,” said Beathard. “I’m in year seven. I’ve experienced a lot of stuff. I’m ready to handle it all.”

In the unlikely event of the Jaguars having to handle a tough road game without Lawrence, this is as convenient a time as any part of the season. Trevor could return on two weeks rest for the Oct. 29 game at Pittsburgh, followed by a bye week.

So if the Jaguars rest Lawrence against New Orleans, where a loss isn’t as damaging as losing to an AFC opponent, that means No. 16 would only have to play one game against the Steelers in a 28-day span before facing the 49ers at home on November 11.

That’s not a horrible scenario. The Jaguars might consider it the prudent option, if only to properly rest Lawrence's left knee without exposing it to the Superdome artificial turf elements.

Can the Jaguars win without Trevor? The truth is they don’t really want to find out. Not now, and not for a long, long time.

Gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540 

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: The Big Uneasy: Jaguars, Lawrence mull over whether to play in New Orleans