Trevor Lawrence Injury Update: Jaguars QB Approaching Return From Left Shoulder Injury

Trevor Lawrence suffered a shoulder injury in Week 9 against the Philadelphia Eagles. Although he’s gotten in some limited practices since, he hasn’t returned to the lineup.

What is the latest update on Lawrence’s injury? Will the Jacksonville Jaguars QB play again this season?

What is Trevor Lawrence’s Injury?

Lawrence is dealing with a sprained AC joint in his left shoulder. AC joint injuries are relatively common in the NFL and often happen when a player falls the wrong way on their shoulder.

Typically, players don’t need much time with a sprained AC joint. For example, CeeDee Lamb didn’t miss a game, playing through the injury.

For a quarterback, a shoulder injury is much harder to play through. However, since this is to Lawrence’s left shoulder, it’s less of a concern. Even so, his sprain is considered to be far more significant than normal, and as a result, he wasn’t able to play through it.

Is Trevor Lawrence Playing in Week 13?

NFL Network reported that there is a “good possibility” that Lawerence will start against the Eagles in Week 13, assuming he suffers no setbacks. On Friday morning, head coach Doug Pederson said that Lawrence should be ready to suit up, despite the questionable tag he received on the final injury report.

HC Doug Pederson meets with the media. https://t.co/qoqk7BKZFt

— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) November 29, 2024

How Might Lawrence’s Absence Impact the Jaguars if Ruled Out?

Backup quarterback Mac Jones threw for just 249 total yards, no touchdowns, and three interceptions in his two starts, both Jacksonville losses. He ranked dead last in passing success rate (31%) and next-to-last in EPA per dropback (-0.30) from Weeks 10 to 11. Jones’ final start was the largest loss in franchise history, a 52-6 humiliation against the Detroit Lions.

It’s too little, too late to salvage anything of meaning for the 2-9 Jaguars in 2024. Still, they did ink Lawrence to a five-year, $275 million extension before the season, so it’s important to keep the long-term picture in mind. Even if Jacksonville isn’t playing for anything of relevance this season, it would be a sigh of relief to see their franchise quarterback look deserving of his contract before the end of the year.

The reality is that Lawrence hasn’t really played at a particularly high level over his four NFL seasons, with the exception of the second half of 2022. Since the start of 2023, Lawrence ranks 23rd in touchdown-to-interception ratio, 23rd in completion percentage, and 25th in EPA per dropback.

This season, the Jaguars quarterback ranks 27th in PFN’s QB+ metric, which measures quarterback play based on a variety of situational EPA and success rate factors. That gives him a D grade.

Lawrence will return to a lineup that no longer features Gabe Davis or Christian Kirk, both of whom are out for the season. He still has promising rookie Brian Thomas Jr., volume tight end Evan Engram, and the backfield tandem of Travis Etienne Jr. and Tank Bigsby. Still, with Doug Pederson’s staff likely on the way out, it’s questionable how much value Lawrence really has to gain from playing out the string.