It's taken three coaching changes, but patience has finally paid off for Trevor Lawrence and the surging Jaguars.
When Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence was drafted by the team in 2021, he was viewed by many as the next big thing and the best quarterback prospect since Andrew Luck in 2012.
Lawrence was coming off a stellar career at Clemson that included winning a national championship, being named a First-Team All-American and two-time All-ACC player.
His rookie year in the NFL was one to forget under head coach Urban Meyer, and it has taken some time for Lawrence to find the magic he had while in high school and college.
Some wondered if he would ever find it. His time has finally come in 2025.
Lawrence is enjoying arguably the best stretch and best season of his career. He has led the Jaguars, now 12-4, to double-digit wins for the first time in his NFL career, and has amassed 3,752 passing yards and 26 touchdowns against 12 interceptions heading into Week 18. In the season finale against the Titans on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, FOX), a win clinches the AFC South title for Jacksonville.
While head coach Liam Coen and the offense schemes he has installed are key reasons for Lawrence's ascendance as a pro, the rest of the coaching staff also deserves plenty of credit, including QB coach Spencer Whipple, who is also in his first season with the Jaguars.
Whipple, the son of former University of Massachusetts head coach Mark Whipple, came to Jacksonville from Arizona, where he spent two seasons (2023-2024) as the pass-game specialist for the Cardinals. He was the co-pass-game coordinator in 2022, assistant wide receivers coach in 2020 and 2021, and offensive quality-control coach in 2019 -- all with the Cardinals.
Coen praised Whipple's work with Lawrence during his media session Thursday.
"I think he’s done a phenomenal job with Trevor," Coen said, pointing to way the two communicate, the amount of work they do, and the amount of time they spend doing extra work. "That’s not easy to do.
"It’s a commitment by Trevor, first and foremost, to be challenged to want to do extra, to want to do more, and Spence for the amount of time they put into it," Coen said. "There’s a lot of details that go into a game plan, none any deeper and more important than (at) the quarterback position. And so, Spence has done a great job."
Coen said he's not surprised at Lawrence's growth and maturity.
“Not surprised whatsoever at how calm, cool, collected he’s been throughout this entire season."
Patience is a virtue in short supply lately when it comes to developing quarterbacks in the NFL, but the Jaguars, through all the coaching changes, have been patient with Lawrence -- and it has paid off.
Offensive coordinator Grant Udinski emphasized the commitment Coen and the coaching staff have made to Lawrence and every player in the quarterback room. That dedication is to their process, regardless of results.
"We're going to stick with that process," Udinski said. "We're going to try to improve the process whenever possible. But we have a lot of faith and belief in that process and that really starts with Liam and what he's built here and the foundation and the attitude and the mindset that the guys approach every day of work with."
Lawrence has admitted his preparation and routine have evolved over the years, especially this year with a new staff -- Coen is Lawrence's third head coach in his five-year NFL career, following Meyer (2021) and then Doug Pederson (2022-2024).
"[W]ith a new staff, a new system, and a little bit of a new schedule, and the preparation, you try to keep it as similar as possible to what you're used to," Lawrence told reporters Wednesday. Working with Coen and his coaching staff has given Lawrence a better feel for the season schedule, game-planning, and shaping his own process.
"I feel like we're in a really good routine and flow now," Lawrence said. "[T]hroughout the week, we spend a lot of time together, but at the end of the week, me and Liam spend a lot of time just going back through everything. So, I feel like come Sunday, we're really on the same page."
Games and plans never work out perfectly, he said. "It's football, and there's gray, and you play and you make some mistakes. But I feel like our alignment and how we see the game and kind of what we're expecting to get out of certain plays and just how I'm seeing it, we're very aligned, which I think is really helpful.
"[T]hat's gotten better and better as the season's gone on, and I think just that preparation continues to elevate and get better as we fine-tune our offense and we get more comfortable."
Lawrence and the Jaguars have been fine-tuning the offense throughout the season, and in recent weeks, they can see that coming to fruition. Lawrence has thrown for at least 229 yards in six straight games and has thrown multiple touchdowns in all but one of those games, including his five-TD outing in Week 15 against the New York Jets.
The offense is firing on all cylinders and at just the right time, heading into the postseason. That offense is why the Jaguars are now viewed as a legitimate Super Bowl contender.
For Lawrence and these Jags, it's always one week at a time.