Jaguars have 'no doubt' about long-term relationship with Trevor Lawrence

Trevor Lawrence is eligible to receive a contract extension this offseason after playing out the first three years of his contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

That conversation, and conversations surrounding the rest of the team's players, is something general manager Trent Baalke, head coach Doug Pederson, along with the rest of his staff, and owner Shad Khan will have over the coming days, weeks and months as NFL offseason events and deadlines approach.

"I think we're going to sit down with ownership in the next several days. Sit down with the head coach, sit down with the personnel staff and really review the roster. We've already done it, it's not like we're starting from scratch. Really just have a heart-to-heart on where we're at with all the guys that are potentially coming up," Baalke said Thursday during his end-of-season press conference.

"There's some good players on this roster that we'd like to see moving forward."

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Players who were selected in the 2021 NFL Draft are now eligible for contract extensions, having played out the first three years of their NFL careers. That includes Lawrence, who is coming off of an up-and-down 2023 campaign marred by injuries.

Lawrence signed a four-year, fully guaranteed $36,793,488 deal with the Jaguars, including a $24,118,900 signing bonus after being selected first overall that year. Entering the final year of his four-year deal, Lawrence is also eligible to have his fifth-year option picked up. The option is projected to be worth $21,978,00, according to Over The Cap. It's fully guaranteed and will be played out in the 2025 season.

The deadline to pick up the fifth-year option on 2021 first-round picks, which includes Jaguars RB Travis Etienne, is May 2.

For Baalke, there's no doubt that Lawrence fits with the franchise long-term. While he didn't rule out a contract extension this offseason for the QB, that doesn't mean one will materialize quickly.

"As far as Trevor and the long-term relationship with this team, there's no doubt in that. We're going to get something done at the appropriate time," Baalke said.

A contract for Lawrence will likely be record-setting in some way, shape or form regardless of when it's negotiated.

The most recent recipients of a king's ransom include Los Angeles Chargers QB Justin Herbert and Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow.

Herbert signed a five-year, $262.5 million contract, averaging 52.5 million per year, with over $193 million in guaranteed money. Herbert signed the deal just before training camp this past offseason.

Burrow signed his deal just before the start of the year and is currently the NFL's highest-paid player, making an average annual salary of $55 million. Burrow signed a five-year, $275 million deal with $219.01 million guaranteed.

Lawrence hasn't been as productive as them, but he's shown plenty of reasons why Jacksonville can't afford to lose him, and he will likely fall either just over or at least around those two contracts when he signs his deal.

Perhaps Jacksonville could wait a bit longer, though, as last year's season was a bit of a learning experience for Lawrence and the organization.

In 2023, Lawrence completed 65.6% of his passes for 4,016 yards, 21 touchdowns, 14 interceptions and seven lost fumbles. His inconsistent play down the stretch was brought on for a variety of reasons, but Baalke pointed to his injuries as one of the areas of most concern.

"I think Trevor had another learning year like we all do when we are a third-year guy in this league. I think there are some areas he made great strides in. You look at this season, the two things we've got to do are we've got to do a better job of keeping him safe and protected, and he's got to do a better job of protecting himself," said Baalke.

Since Week 6 of the 2023 campaign, Lawrence suffered a knee sprain (Week 6), high-ankle sprain (Week 13), concussion (Week 15) and an injury to his throwing shoulder (Week 16), something Baalke said is "alarming" to occur in just one season.

The Jaguars lost five of six down the stretch, collapsing to a 9-8 record after beginning the season 8-3, which included a five-game winning streak.

"So, we've got to work to improve that and that's not one factor, there's a lot of things that contribute to that, but we do have to do a better job there," Baalke said of protecting Lawrence and the QB protecting himself.

Lawrence was sacked 35 times, the 12th most in the league last year. He missed just one game due to injury, but due to communication, protection and self-preservation issues Lawrence was hampered due to injury far too often as the season came to an end.

An extension with Lawrence is inevitable, but the timing of it may depend on how comfortable the team feels moving forward with their plan with and around him.

Demetrius Harvey is the Jacksonville Jaguars reporter for the Florida Times-Union. You can follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @Demetrius82.

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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jaguars don't rule out offseason extension for QB Trevor Lawrence