Trevor Lawrence, Jaguars agree to five-year, $275 million extension | Pro Football Talk | NFL on NBC

you know we I try to ask nicely for these teams and agents if you're gonna have a big story do it during business hours in the East when people are at work and they're looking for reasons to not work they're not as dialed in when they're on their own time I'd much rather big news hit between the hours of let's just say 8 and 6 I I won't be greedy I won't go 9 to5 although that's that's even better 8 and six is fine East Coast time but last night late afternoon early evening came the news of Trevor Lawrence on getting his new contract let's have a listen to the precursor to this this is Trevor from just a couple of weeks ago at ota's on his contract talks obviously I'm I'm aware of what's going on but I I try to keep my focus on you know doing my job out here you know I have full uh belief that that that'll take care of itself and that's not something that I need to worry about you know that's why I pay people and and hire people to do that for me so um that's not my job but you know obious L I know what's going on I'm aware of the situation I think that's important too but yeah I try to keep all my focus and energy on being the best player I can be to help us win you have any time table at all I mean yeah I think that would be that would be ideal you know just to to put it behind us and um and keep moving and and feel good about that going into training camp but either way like I've said before I have the same job so you know I can't always control all those um factors but I have the same job to do either way you never know when the deadlines are actually going to be and they call it a deadline driven business business and that's a mantra we hear whenever a deal gets done right up against some real or artificial deadline there's no deadline here they still have weeks to go until the start of training camp if that was the deadline but you know sometimes and I applaud I applaud the two sides who can get past the negotiating game and just say let's get this done let's get this done you know we're adults here I'll go toward my bottom line and I'll trust that you'll go toward your bottom line and not drag your feet until we get to a deadline and then you you try to pull me off my bottom line that's where the reticence comes from to go to your bottom line in advance of a deadline you get there early when the deadline arrives they're going to try to get a little more out of you I prefer a more self-aware negotiation where they say we just want to get this done now let's not play games let's not try to screw each other on this let's get this done and kudos to the Jaguars and Trevor Lawrence's representatives for getting it done well and Mike as we always know the sooner you get these done the better it is for the team because the price is only going to go up and I know we're going to talk about other quarterbacks a little bit later in this but th this is going to end up being if Trevor Lawrence is who they think he is and they drafted him number one overall and they've obviously seen enough to think that he's that guy otherwise there was no reason to sign him to this contract so they they think he's the guy if he is this is going to end up being a good deal because they got it done before Tua before Dak before every other quarterback who's up for a contract extension at this point so good for them good for Trevor Lawrence that he now gets his money and now he can go prove that he's the guy that they drafted number one overall and that was supposed to be this generational Talent we haven't seen all of that yet but he's 25 years old we've seen flashes of it we've seen that we think he can do it but now he's got to go do it and he's got to cut down on those turnovers which he's had way too many of it 21 last year which was tied which was third in the NFL he has 60 over his career that's just too many turnovers but if he does that Mike I I think this is going to end up being a good deal for the Jaguars well especially because the market keeps going up the salary cap keeps going up and when you look at this 5 years $275 million 55 million a year matches the the high waterm Mark set last year by Joe burrow remember this two years were left on the Trevor Lawrence rookie deal the full value at signing is going to be lower than 55 we'll have the full breakdown at PFT we always try to get the deal all the points signing bonus first year salary seconde salary how many years are fully guaranteed at signing how many years are guaranteed as a practical matter so far what we know is 200 million is guaranteed generally at signing 142 million fully guaranteed its signing more of it may vest before they would ever get to the point where they would cut him and one of the realities with most franchise quarterback contracts the player doesn't get cut the player gets every penny you don't need to guarantee it unless it is a mobile quarterback who might end up getting injured and becoming ineffective that's when you might have a team looking to escape a contract prematurely usually you don't need to do it and I think of Deshawn Watson if he didn't have every penny fully guaranteed the Browns could be looking to escape that contract already so there's a benefit in having full guarantee last as long as possible if you want to make as much money as you can beyond the point where you're earning the money at the level your contract would suggest but the key with Lawrence is as you said get it done now because 55 today might not have been 55 in two weeks if Tua does his deal if Dak does his deal there's a race by the teams to get these deals done before other deals push the number higher and that's been one of the big criticisms I've had of Jerry Jones for as great of a job they've done of finding young talent and developing young Talent they pay the wrong guys and they don't pay the right guys guys and they wait too long to pay the right guys and the price only goes up unless the guy has a catastrophic injury that limits his career I mean how Dak had the broken ankle and he still got four years 160 before he ever set foot on a field again after that ankle healed it's got to be something that obviously is going to make the player not who he was before you're in a position where the number goes down not up otherwise the number always goes up because that was look one of the things we say when Jared gof gets 53 million when Lawrence gets 55 million when twoa gets whatever he's going to get who are you bidding against there's no one that's saying I'll give him 545 there's no auction for quarterback contracts you're negotiating in a vacuum but what you're trying to do is lock in before and as Tua said last week the market is the market and the Market's going to change I still still think one of these days there's going to be a team that says no the Vikings kind of did that with Kirk Cousins go ahead and hit the market we have our offer go ahead and get something better if you want to and he did and that still might be what happens with Tua it might be what happens with Dak until these deals are done that possibility is there I never got the impression though the Jaguars were even considering anything other than saying hey this is the one guy from the class of 2021 that hasn't been traded for a third day pick to another team let's let's let's invest in this guy and let's move forward yeah because they didn't have to do it now Mike they could have waited but they obviously have confidence in the fact that they that he's the guy for them and he's going to be the guy long term so they did lock him in so if you if you have that belief forget people are debating is he worth it the market is what the market is and the Jaguars feel like he's the guy so if that's the case and it is you lock him in that and you do it as soon as possible and that's what they've done so kudos to them for believing in Trevor Lawrence and getting that long-term deal done and not waiting when the price only goes up they've only had two other quarterbacks that they drafted earn an extension Mike and that was David Gard seven years 69.4 million in 2007 and Blake bordal three years 54 million um in in 2018 so this is a big deal for the Jaguars and and he's already the best quarterback in team history I would say and after only three years so this he's going to keep getting better he should keep getting better at 25 years old and only three years in the league and the plake Bortles extension wasn't a typical extension what they did they went to him right before his fifth year option salary was going to become fully guaranteed because back in those days pre-2020 the option year for a first round pick was wasn't fully guaranteed until that League year began it was guaranteed for injury when exercise now it's fully guaranteed they went to him and said we're going to cut you we are we are not going to pay this 50-year option salary we're going to cut you we need to do a longer term deal that gives us some more security that you're going to be here and then they caught rid of him they got rid of him so they've they've really only had a very very small handful of guys over the years Brunell and Gard the two you mentioned um how long was Leftwich there was left witch there am I where left witch was I don't know how long he made it there um but regardless this is the guy that could be their potential long-term franchise answer he was the guy after his freshman year at Clemson we all flagged as potential future franchise quarterback he got them to the round of eight in his second season the first year was the Urban Meyer show I had to get it in one time on our last day before before Hiatus and then last year he got banged up a little bit the offensive line this is something Chris has pointed out the offensive line wasn't nearly as good as it's been in the past so they see they see top-of-the market franchise quarterback Potential from Trevor Lawrence and they're willing to make the investment and you know again for every team that considers why are we giving this much money to the quarterback you got to ask yourself what's your alternative and your alternative is a bunch of bad quarterbacks that the Jaguars have had over the years yeah Byron leit by the way thank you Gary was first four seasons in Jacksonville he's 2420 as a starter which in Jacksonville actually has been probably pretty good um Trevor Lawrence is 20 and 30 right now as a starter if you if you do the quarterback's record as a starting quarterback some people like that some people don't but the team is 20 and 30 with Trevor Lawrence so you they started out last year Mike with eight and three and then he had that string of injuries and they didn't finish as well he missed one start with with the three injuries he had which was a high ankle sprain a concussion and a shoulder Sprain and he was the same quarterback and part of that as you has said and Chris Sims said was him just getting beat up by that offensive line it just wasn't good and they feel like they've improved that this year so we'll see I would still say after one year of seeing CJ strout I think CJ strout is the best quarterback in the division but you think about the quarterbacks in that division now that could be a really good Division if those quarterbacks or who those teams think they are I think the jury still out on Anthony Richardson and will Levis but you've got four young quarterbacks there who really could be the long-term answer for those teams the odds of that probably are not very good because four teams aren't going to usually be really good in a division because one team's usually better than the other but um you've got four young quarterbacks there with potential Mike you know that is a good point though within a given division there is an element of that Zero Sum game where somebody's going to be in fourth place and how do you justify giving a big contract to the quarterback of a team that is in third or fourth place every year even if he's got great numbers if you're not winning football games it's hard to get behind the idea of paying the guy market value and everybody wants the franchise quarterback everybody wants the guy who is top five or at a minimum top 10 and you either have one or you don't or you fall into the category of where the Colts and Titans currently are we don't know what this guy's going to be and we're in the process of finding out which way is he going to break is he going to break franchise quarterback or is he going to go the other way and the reality is at any given time there's only five or 10 so you got to start crowding out you got to be boxing out you got to be elbowing out of the way some of these guys who are already established and that's either because they dip or it's because others get better that was the first slide for Russell Wilson when he started to slip down Chris's rankings it wasn't because Wilson was getting worse it's because here's Josh Allen here's Lamar Jackson here's Patrick Mahomes these younger guys come in and they're just better so these young guys need to come in and be better than the guys who are already playing it's it's not an easy thing to do and it's one of the reasons why we saw so many quarterbacks get drafted in round one in the top 12 this year everyone is looking for that guy that they can pay 55 million a year to or 60 million or 65 and remember this point let's not get freaked out by the numbers because it's driven by the cap and the owners are making a hell of a lot more than the 55 they get half and they have 100% of the equity the the tide keeps Rising the boats are all going going up the money keeps going up that's one of the reason why 55 is 55 is more of a bargain this year than last year because the salary cap went up 15% from when burrow got 55 so the market should go up the numbers should increase but we only hear what the players make if we heard with the same degree of specificity what the owners were making oh my God these player contracts would look like nothing in comparison because they are well and you brought up Joe burrow his 55 million last year as you said was a bigger part of the salary cap than obviously Trevor Lawrence's 55 million this year so this is a better deal based on the percentage of the salary cap that you're using and it's again it it's it's the salary Cap's going to keep going up so this is going to end up if Trevor Lawrence is who they think he is end up being a good deal for the Jaguars because they did it now because they didn't wait two weeks from now a month from now two months from now two years from now which they could have done Mike hi it's Mike Florio thanks for watching PFT on YouTube hit subscribe for the latest news and Analysis from pro football talk

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Id: 6bvA5k2C7B8

Length: 15min 14sec (914 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 14 2024