When the Jaguars opened rookie minicamp two weeks ago, the team was taking it easy with former Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
Due to the offseason surgery on his non-throwing shoulder, team officials elected to have the number-over overall pick on what head coach Urban Meyer described as a pitch count, in a effort to limit the number of throws for the rookie quarterback.
“He’s on a 30-40 [throw] pitch count right now and that’s just our physical therapist — we’re being very cautious, could probably go a little bit more, but we just want to be very smart about everything,” Meyer said at the time.
However, now that rookie minicamp is over and the team has moved onto OTA’s, Meyer says they have taken the leash off the team’s new franchise quarterback, but at the same time the coaches are keeping a very close eye on Lawrence’s workload.
“He’s not necessarily on a pitch count,” Meyer said on Thursday. “They monitor every throw, and if there’s anything they have to adjust, they will. It’s been full speed ahead since the last two, three practices. So, I don’t want to say he’s off a pitch count because they’re monitoring every throw but when you have three quarterbacks, four quarterbacks, he’s not getting overused right now. In an hour and a half practice, you just don’t get really enough throws.”
Meyer also noted that Lawrence had one of his toughest practices to date on Thursday, one day removed from having one of his better ones. Although, the first year NFL head coach said that isn’t unusual with so many new faces and a coaching staff implementing a new scheme.
“Big reason it was red zone emphasis, and that’s obviously a very hard area of the field,” Meyer said. “The field changes, especially against NFL talent all over the field, and defense had the upper hand today. It wasn’t just him. Just a new area of the field, which is why you spend so much time down there practicing. Completely different game. Very accurate yesterday. Today, we all struggled, not just him, offensively.”
