If you polled most Clemson fans, a large majority would likely tell you that they don’t have much use for ESPN’s Paul Finebaum.
However, there are times when the longtime ESPN personality actually makes a valid point and on a recent edition of SportsCenter, he did exactly that when discussing the the potential of former Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
“Trevor Lawrence is a transcendent player,” Finebaum said. “He may be as well suited for this game as any kid coming out of college in a long time. I think he’s as close to a can’t-miss as I have seen in my lifetime.”
Lawrence is the presumptive number-one overall pick in April’s NFL Draft. Jacksonville and newly hired head coach Urban Meyer own that pick and Finebaum says that while Lawrence is one of those generational-type players, there are no guarantees.
“But Urban has to be careful. He just can’t screw it up. He needs to look and talk to Dabo Swinney about how Dabo Swinney managed Trevor Lawrence because everything wasn’t perfect, but he let him develop, and as a result he won a national championship and nearly had a couple of more.”
Another ESPN analyst Booger McFarland also chimed in, suggesting that Meyer and the Jaguars take a page out of the Kansas City playbook and do something similar to what Andy Reid did when the Chiefs drafted Patrick Mahomes.
“Andy Reid had traditionally been a West Coast guy,” McFarland said. “That’s the type of offense that he ran. But when he got Patrick Mahomes, he said you know what, scrap all of that, I’m going to build an offense around what I have.”
“So when you get to Jacksonville, if you’re Urban Meyer, it’s really simple. Let’s find out what Trevor Lawrence does best. Let’s accentuate his strengths, let’s minimize his negativity and the negative plays, and allow him to grow. Really simple. In layman’s terms, do what he does well and then over the next couple years, allow him to grow. Because this is not a one-, two-, three-year plan. This is a 10-to-15 year plan hopefully for the Jacksonville Jaguars. So, set him up for success. Give him some layups. Don’t come out trying to shoot 3-pointers. Just shoot a bunch of layups, allow him to get comfortable, because he is a naturally talented athlete.”
