Trevor Lawrence Talks Jaguars Expectations, Playoffs, Tostitos, More in B/R Interview

There are genuine expectations for sustained success for the Jacksonville Jaguars for the first time in years, and their quarterback is ready to embrace them.

"It's exciting. It's cool to have those expectations," Trevor Lawrence told Bleacher Report. "They haven't been there in a while in Jacksonville, that means you're heading in the right direction. We're excited about that. For us, we have high expectations for ourselves, so we don't really listen to the outside noise. But you want to have high expectations."

Those expectations are there for a reason.

After four straight last-place finishes in the AFC South, the Jaguars won the division, defeated Justin Herbert's Los Angeles Chargers in the playoffs, narrowly lost to Patrick Mahomes' Kansas City Chiefs by seven points in the next round and have a young quarterback in place who does not need to learn a new offense during the offseason for the first time since college.

It is clear Jacksonville is ready to be a factor in the AFC for years to come with the continuity the partnership between Lawrence and head coach Doug Pederson provides, but the quarterback knows how important it is to keep the same mindset and approach that was there when they were fighting for contender status.

"We have to treat this offseason like we did last offseason," he said. "Keep that hunger and that drive. The biggest thing was we had a lot of guys at OTAs and the whole offseason program, we had almost everyone there every day. That was big in our development, that helped us build that chemistry faster and faster. That's the goal, and hopefully we get the same thing this year. We have to put together a great offseason, nothing carries over."

That effort last season eventually built toward one of the most memorable playoff games in recent history.

Jacksonville earned that postseason spot with a win in a de-facto division championship game against the Tennessee Titans in Week 18, but it seemed like that would be the end of the line for the upstarts when the Chargers jumped out to a 27-0 lead in the Wild Card Round.

Reaching the playoffs in front of the home fans would have been a solid building block even if that game ended in a loss, but Lawrence's touchdown pass to Evan Engram right before halftime sparked a comeback that will forever be remembered in north Florida.

The defense allowed a single field goal in the second half, Lawrence threw touchdown passes to Marvin Jones Jr., Zay Jones and Christian Kirk, and Riley Patterson hit the game-winning field goal to end a dramatic 31-30 victory.

"Just at home, I think we had four or five comeback wins from double digits," Lawrence said. "That was something we were kind of used to. We were down by 17 to the Raiders, down by 17 to the Cowboys. And then down 27 to the Chargers. Honestly, we weren't surprised. I think when it got to 27 we were all a little bit like 'alright, this is kind of getting out of hand. We've got to do something now or it's going to be too late.'

"We felt that sense of urgency, but nobody panicked, everyone was picking each other up and encouraging each other on the sideline. We all stayed the same. We didn't really worry about winning the game, it was more about making one play at a time and one drive at a time. That's all you can really do. It was fun, though. It was awesome."

The Jaguars wouldn't have even been in that playoff position without the Clemson product making an incredible leap from his first to second year.

The hopes of the franchise were immediately thrust upon his shoulders as the No. 1 overall pick of the 2021 NFL draft, but a tumultuous rookie season saw the team go 3-14 and head coach Urban Meyer fired after 13 games of a brief tenure that included no shortage of off-field controversies.

It was anything but an easy environment for a first-year signal-caller to reach his potential, and Lawrence led the league with 17 interceptions to go with just 12 touchdown passes.

Jacksonville started 3-7 in his second season, but he gradually grew more comfortable with additional experience, and the team won six of its final seven games to clinch the AFC South at 9-8. He ended up completing 66.3 percent of his passes for 4,113 yards, 25 touchdowns and eight interceptions as the Jaguars went from 32nd in points and 27th in yards in 2021 to 10th in both categories in 2022.

"I felt a lot better," Lawrence said of Year 2. "You get more comfortable, find things that you like and figure out what our team's good at. It's a new system with a lot of new guys. Building that chemistry, I think we did it pretty quickly, but it still takes some time. So I think we saw about halfway through the season we all started to play better, especially myself. I felt more comfortable. That was a big jump for us."

Having Pederson, who won a Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles and provided the coaching stability that was missing in Lawrence's rookie year, also drastically helped.

"Coach Pederson has been great," the quarterback said. "He's been a great leader for us and has really brought a lot of energy and life to our organization. A lot of confidence. This was a huge year from a record standpoint, from a wins standpoint and getting a playoff win. And really just giving us that confidence and motivation moving forward knowing our best days are ahead.

"That's the best thing, we're confident in that. There was a point last year where we weren't really sure, it was kind of crazy what was happening, especially when the season ended. But now it's exciting having our coach and a lot of key pieces on our team moving forward and knowing what we're capable of."

Lawrence and Pederson may be the combination to get the Jaguars to the Super Bowl one day, but the former will be involved in this year's big game in a different way.

He partnered with Tostitos, which is the official chip and dip of the NFL, as part of the company's opening of Tost by Tostitos, which is a pop-up restaurant that will be open in Phoenix from Feb. 9-11.

Fans can enter the Tost by Tostitos social media giveaway through Feb. 8 by visiting Tostitos' Instagram page and sharing their favorite chips with the hashtags #TostbyTostitos and #Sweepstakes. The winner will receive a personalized video message from Lawrence to show at their Super Bowl party, exclusive Tostitos swag and the ingredients needed to create dishes the Jaguars quarterback picked from the Tost by Tostitos menu.

He has his eyes on the Tostitos-Style Arizona Cheese Crisp, which features a flour tortilla, green chiles, cheese and Tostitos Toppers Fire Roasted Red Chili Pepper sauce.

"I'm going to try it when we're out there in Arizona, so excited for that," Lawrence said. "I looked at the menu, the Tostitos-Style Arizona Cheese Crisp looks pretty good. I'm excited to try that one. It's really cool what Tostitos is doing and cool to be a part of it. They're going to have the pop-up restaurant in Arizona so people can come by."

Perhaps next year's Super Bowl parties will be centered around a game Lawrence is playing in if Jacksonville continues its upward trajectory.

There is reason for optimism with much of the team's offensive attack returning around the quarterback with Travis Etienne, Christian Kirk and Zay Jones as the headliners. If the Jaguars re-sign tight end Evan Engram and right tackle Jawaan Taylor, there will be plenty of familiar faces.

And one prominent new face in wide receiver Calvin Ridley.

The Jaguars traded for the Alabama product during the 2022 season, although he was suspended after an investigation found he bet on NFL games when he was injured. Yet Pederson told reporters Jacksonville "strongly" believes he will be reinstated for 2023, which would be quite the addition since he had 1,374 receiving yards in his last full season in 2020.

"Look at what we did this year," Lawrence said when asked what he would tell fans looking for reasons to believe in 2023. "We're going to have a lot of the same guys, hopefully we're able to re-sign a lot of our free agents. Hoping those get done because those guys were key pieces. I assume that happens. Plus we're going to have Calvin Ridley on offense to go with the same skill guys. And our defense is just going to get better and better with a lot of young players.

"We're a young team, we have a few veteran guys who helped us with leadership. Brandon Scherff up front has been awesome. But overall, we're a young team with a great coach. You look at how we trended up last year as the season went on, and that's the goal this offseason and moving into next season to just keep getting better and better."

The rest of the AFC is on notice.