Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence Gives Health Update and Speaks on Coen's Leadership

Feb 17, 2025 at 06:55 PM

John Oehser

Jaguars Senior Writer

JACKSONVILLE – He's getting healthy in the present and looking forward to the future.

Trevor Lawrence's shoulder is improving, and he's impressed with what he has seen from Head Coach Liam Coen and the Jaguars' 2025 coaching staff.

"I'm starting to be able to do more; rehab's going along," he said.

Lawrence, the Jaguars' starting quarterback, joined Up & Adams with Kay Adams Monday and covered multiple topics – including rehabilitating from December surgery on his left (non-throwing) shoulder, an injury that forced him to finish the 2025 season on injured reserve.

"It's feeling a lot better," said Lawrence, who said he has been out of an arm sling for about three weeks. "There's a little more work to do to build some strength, some range of motion, but I'm on my way. It's feeling a lot better than it was in that sling."

Lawrence on Monday, too, discussed Coen – who was hired as the Jaguars' head coach on January 24 and who recently announced a coaching staff that includes former Minnesota Vikings assistant offensive coordinator Grant Udinksi as offensive coordinator.

Coen, 39, spent last season as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' offensive coordinator.

"I like everything we have in place so far and coach Coen and the whole staff that he has brought in," Lawrence said. "I'm really excited and optimistic about the future."

Lawrence said he spoke to Coen during the interview process and has spoken to him more extensively in recent weeks.

"He's passionate," Lawrence said. "He has this drive to win, to have success. This is his first head-coaching gig, and he has a lot to prove. I'm really excited just from a football perspective about the scheme, the offense we're going to run, how he sets everything up, the run game -- I'm really, really excited for that."

Lawrence, too, praised Coen as a leader.

Jacksonville Jaguars vs. New York Jets

QB Trevor Lawrence and TE Evan Engram

"He's a younger guy – just the juice he's going to bring into the building and the staff he hired,it's a good mix," Lawrence said. "We have a lot of young coaches, but we also have some veteran, older guys that have been doing it for a long time, that are experienced.

"He has done a really nice job assembling the staff personality-wise. I love the guys he has gotten. Grant and Spence (quarterbacks coach Spencer Whipple) and everybody else that I've met have been great."

Lawrence, the No. 1 overall selection in the 2021 NFL Draft, has started 60 of 68 career NFL games with 63.3 percent completions with 13,815 yards and 69 touchdowns with 46 interceptions. He missed eight games this past season and underwent season-ending shoulder surgery on December 18, finishing the season with 60.6 percent completions, 2,045 yards with 11 touchdowns and seven interceptions.

"For all of us, it's learning," Lawrence said. "You learn a lot through the good and the bad, but I think through the bad usually more than the good. You learn more and about yourself, about our team, people in the building … you see a different side of them through adversity."

The Jaguars, after back-to-back 9-8 seasons and an AFC South title in 2022, finished the 2024 season 4-13 with Head Coach Doug Pederson being dismissed the day after the season. General Manager Trent Baalke and the team also parted ways this offseason.

"You learn a lot about yourself," Lawrence said. "You have to take inventory. We all have a part in this. We all have accountability. It's obviously disappointing when the season went the way it did. We all have to own our part. You can't put the blame on anybody else. There are times I wish I played better. I had some bad games and was hurt and not able to play the full season."

Added Lawrence, "I take some accountability for that, for what I wasn't able to do for the team. I know moving forward, certain goals I have and kind of that hunger to get back and to be the player I know I could be and to be healthy and to be here for my team.

"That kind of relights that fire in you when you have some adversity and when you struggle and everyone starts to count you out and look past you. That reignites a little bit of that drive to get back to the player you know you need to be."

QUOTABLE

Lawrence: "I'm ready to lead. We have to buy into what he [Coen] is doing, the culture he's trying to set, or we don't have a shot. That's our responsibility, to buy into what he wants us to be and the identity we want as a team and take it and run with it. Scheme is important, but players have to take it and believe it in. The biggest thing is that belief. For me and a lot of guys, we're fully bought in and just excited for April to get here and to start."