Trevor Lawrence gets starting nod over Minshew, Fares well in Jaguars debut

While the weeks leading up to tonight’s matchup against the Cleveland Browns brought plenty of speculation and questions regarding who would receive the first, first-team repetitions, that was cleared up quickly as first-overall selection, quarterback Trevor Lawrence received the starting nod over Gardner Minshew II.

Lawrence, the rookie quarterback out of Clemson, fared well in his 15 snaps during tonight’s contest against the Cleveland Browns, completing 6 out of 9 of his passes for 71 yards, including a long 35-yard gain to Marvin Jones Jr. early on in the contest.

The rookie quarterback wasn’t perfect, however, holding onto the football, leading to a sack in the first quarter.

At halftime, Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer spoke on the rookie’s debut, noting that he did see some good plays out of the rookie quarterback, but there was still some work to be done.

“I saw good plays,” said Meyer. “I saw a guy who made a couple nice plays on third down. I think he held the ball a little bit a couple times, which you would expect out him maybe. Instead of anticipating the throws [he was] holding on to it a little bit but we have a long way to go.”

Lawrence would fare better than Minshew, though as the third-year quarterback would complete just 4 out of 8 of his passes for 47 yards and an interception at the end of the first half. 23 out of his 47 passing yards would come on one throw against prevent defense.

Lawrence’s day included four targets to Jones Jr., connecting with the veteran receiver three times, for 52 yards, including three times on third down, converting twice.

Minshew would connect with just Jamal Agnew (twice) and Tavon Austin (twice) on the day.

Full context behind every throw both quarterbacks made can be viewed here:

Lawrence played with the majority of the first-team offensive line during his playing time, including Cam Robinson, Brandon Linder, AJ Cann and Jawaan Taylor.

Only Ben Bartch, who replaced an injured Andrew Norwell, was a backup. Minshew played with 3 out of 5 of the starting offensive line, with Bartch and Tyler Shatley (replacing Linder) for the majority of his playing time.

Time will tell whether or not the Jaguars named Lawrence the starting quarterback moving forward, but if tonight’s contest is any indication, that won’t be a tough decision to make.