Mike Vrabel may have handed the Jaguars a little extra fuel heading into Week 3.
Jacksonville has already spent part of this week dealing with the sting of letting last week’s game against the Broncos slip away, and now the Patriots coach may have added another layer to the mood with his comments about Trevor Lawrence. The Jaguars know that kind of thing can stick. They leaned into perceived slights a year ago, and it helped power road wins over the San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos.
Vrabel was asked earlier this week by Patriots media about Lawrence’s development after coaching against him for years in the AFC South, and his answer came off like praise with a sharp edge.
"I think he is just much more decisive and comfortable. I think you could always count on some turnovers, maybe three or four years ago. I don’t think that is necessarily the case now," Vrabel said.
That’s one way to compliment a quarterback. Lawrence was among the NFL’s turnover leaders early in his career, and he went 3-3 against Vrabel’s Titans. Still, the wording felt a little more pointed than necessary, especially with Liam Coen now in place.
Vrabel did continue with a more traditional endorsement of Lawrence’s game, saying, "He has done a really fantastic job of being able to move the ball downfield, but keep it out of harm's way. He’s decisive when he scrambles.
It’s a guaranteed first down, if not longer when he decides to scramble. Those aren’t even the designed run plays.
Those are drop back passes that turn into play extensions, and he is either keeping his eyes downfield and hitting somebody, or he’s decisive and he is willing to scramble. So, I just see a lot of maturity, and he is playing at a high level."
Vrabel probably wasn’t trying to light a fire under Jacksonville. But as the Jaguars showed last season, intent doesn’t always matter. If they want to turn this into bulletin board material again, they’ve got plenty of precedent.
Lawrence was also asked this week about Vrabel, though the conversation centered more on whether he had gone back to study old Titans film for clues on the Patriots’ defensive scheme.
"Obviously, we have a lot of inventory with last season and this year and the couple games that they played this year. Our staff has done a little bit of that, and we talked about some of the stuff that has been carried over in our plan that we might have done because we have so much tape of me playing against Tennessee when Vrabel was there," Lawrence said.
"So, there is some of that. I can't say I've gone back and watched necessarily all those games, watching more of New England, the scheme and the guys they have now.
But yeah, definitely there's some of that carryover.”
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For the Jaguars, this is the sort of test that can say plenty about whether last year was a launch point or just a strong run. The line has moved slightly toward Jacksonville, which reflects the belief that the Jaguars should have enough to handle a Patriots team still trying to find its rhythm on offense. A win would quiet some early unease and help separate the Jaguars from the pack in the AFC, but the way this one plays out may matter just as much as the result. [Read more 🡒]