In his first season as the Seattle Seahawks’ head coach, Mike Macdonald had two games against rookie quarterbacks. He did what all quality defensive coaches do when they get to take on rookies. He confused the hell out of them.
Bo Nix’s first NFL game came against Macdonald’s Seahawks. It was Nix’s worst game of the year – his only passer rating under 50 for the season. He threw 42 times for a paltry 138 yards. No touchdowns. Two interceptions and a couple of sacks. A bit of a rude intro for a QB who would go on to finish third in the offensive rookie of the year race.
But you say that was just Nix’s first game. Maybe not a fair gauge. Fine. In the second-to-last week of the season, Macdonald again got a rookie QB. This time it was Caleb Williams, the number one overall pick.
The Seahawks have a huge tactical advantage in Week 6 against Jacksonville
Sure, he had struggled for much of the year, but entering the Seattle game, Williams was riding a six-game streak during which he averaged a rating of 101. And in the final week, he would record a 95.2
Against Macdonald’s defense, Caleb Williams registered a 53.0 passer rating. 122 yards. Seven sacks. Mike Macdonald knows how to make life miserable for young quarterbacks.
Why does that matter going into a showdown with the 4-1 Jacksonville Jaguars? After all, their quarterback, Trevor Lawrence, is in his fifth year. He has 65 NFL starts under his belt.
It doesn’t matter. In a lot of ways, Trevor Lawrence still plays like a rookie. Macdonald should have a clear edge in the matchup.
Trevor Lawrence has all the physical talent you could possibly want in a pro quarterback. He has the size and the arm. He runs surprisingly well for a lanky QB. He can make every throw on the field.
After a successful college career at Clemson, Lawrence entered the league in 2020 with great fanfare. Draft guru Mel Kiper had him rated as the fourth-best QB prospect he had ever scouted. Elway, Luck, Manning (the Peyton variety), and Lawrence. That’s rare company.
The fact that Lawrence has been a major disappointment thus far may not be entirely his own fault. Jacksonville has made one brain-dead decision after another with regard to his development.
It began with the single worst NFL coaching hire this century in Lawrence's rookie season. Hiring Urban Meyer amounted to organizational malfeasance. The college legend was fired before his first season was over, but he may have done irreparable harm to the franchise’s prized rookie signal caller.
This began a meandering journey during which Lawrence has played under four head coaches and even more offensive coordinators in his brief career. Suffice to say, he has never had an atmosphere conducive to success.
And he has rarely had the talent, either across the offensive line or at the skill positions.
This year, that appears to be changing. Liam Coen may finally be the coach to unlock Lawrence’s talent, and in Travis Etienne, Jr., Brian Thomas, Jr., and Travis Hunter, he may finally have runners and receivers who relieve the pressure on the quarterback.
But Lawrence continues to make the kinds of dumb plays that franchise QBs in their fifth season should have retired by now. He makes poor red zone decisions. He loses track of the play clock at key moments. He sometimes lacks a basic understanding of game management.
Whether this is due to the constant re-learning of new offenses or some other inability to feel comfortable when the game is on the line is anyone’s guess.
The final drive in the Jags’ Week 5 win over Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs was a perfect microcosm of the good and bad Trevor Lawrence.
He got the ball on his own 40-yard line with 105 seconds left and two timeouts. The Jags were down four and therefore needed a touchdown to win.
On the first two plays, Lawrence scrambled for six yards without getting out of bounds and then took a sack. Consequently, he had burned 44 seconds and a timeout while gaining just three yards. That’s the bad Trevor Lawrence.
On the next play, he hit Thomas with a 33-yard strike against close coverage that few people on the planet could make. He followed with a laser out to Dyami Brown for 13 more yards. 46 yards in thirteen seconds on two perfect sideline throws. That’s the good Trevor Lawrence.
His game-winning touchdown came a few plays later, when he tripped pulling away from center, stumbled while trying to get back up, and eventually dove into the end zone. That was the good and bad Trevor Lawrence in a single play.
One of the things Mike Macdonald prizes most in a defender is versatility. Almost anyone of the field can and will blitz. Many of his front seven are comfortable dropping into short zones on zone blitzes. Look for him to show Lawrence a thousand false fronts and disguised coverage schemes.
Lawrence has a tendency to change calls right up until the final seconds of the play clock, which is why he takes delay of game penalties. See if that doesn’t happen at a key moment on Sunday.
The bottom line is Trevor Lawrence, even with his immense talent, evolving supporting cast and quality coach, can be baited into making mistakes. Mike Macdonald is the perfect coach to take advantage of that flaw in his game.