QB Battle: Trevor Lawrence vs Joe Burrow

Season Stats:

Trevor Lawrence

Pass Yds	Pass TDs	INTS	Completion %	Rushing Yds	Rushing TDs
178	1	1	61.3	12	0

Joe Burrow

Pass Yds	Pass TDs	INTS	Completion %	Rushing Yds	Rushing TDs
113	1	0	60.9	3	0

This week we have another matchup between two former number 1 overall picks with Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars taking on Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals. Neither of these guys had great week ones for two very different reasons.

While Lawrence did have a few accuracy issues in the 2nd half of the game against Carolina his day was pretty much over at half. The Jags led 20-3 at the half and were never really in danger after that. HC Liam Coen turned to a run game that was having a ton of success and only really turned Lawrence loose on obvious passing downs. The one deep shot they did take in the 2nd half was picked off on an incredible play by Jaycee Horn. Lawrence was maybe a foot more air on the football from connecting with Travis Hunter for a long TD on a nicely designed post route. Watching the play, Lawrence definitely made the right read and a good throw. It was just an elite read and an even better play by Horn. Overall not a great day for Lawrence but certainly good enough to beat the Panthers by two scores.

Joe Burrow's struggles were more directly related to how good the Browns defense played last Sunday. He just simply didn't have a lot available to him. The Browns did a masterful job of taking away the first couple of reads when Burrow dropped back and then getting pressure quick so he can't wait for an opening later in the play. It looks like it might be another rough year for the Bengals O-line but we'll get into that more on Friday's Game Preview. Burrow unlike Lawrence, didn't get much help on the ground to take some of the pressure off either. The Bengals only managed 2 yards a carry on 23 carries.

While Lawrence had the better start to the season, Joe Burrow has had by far the better NFL career to this point. I don't think anyone would argue that for the majority of his career Burrow has played like a top 5 QB in the NFL. He's already made a super bowl appearance and has two trips to the AFC championship game under his belt in his short career. He boasts a 5-2 career playoff record and is the only QB not named Tom Brady to ever stop Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs from reaching the Super Bowl. Lawrence on the other hand has struggled to reach the playoffs in his first 4 seasons. He has just one trip to the postseason where he beat the Chargers in an all time playoff comeback, then fell just 7 points short of upsetting the Chiefs in a game where the Jaguars defense let backup QB Chad Henne score on a 99yd TD drive. The two are also separated by about 6000 career passing yards and around 70 career TDs with Burrow playing in about 19 more games.

Another interesting thing of note for these two QBs is the coaching difference for these guys. Lawrence will be on his 3rd coach in just 5 years with 3 completely different offensive schemes while Burrow has had HC Zac Taylor and his offensive scheme for all 6 years of his NFL career. That's a huge advantage for Burrow, who by now, certainly has a mastery of the offense. After 6 years in a system, he certainly has a mastery of the offense, and has probably seen almost every defensive look against it. There's not a lot a defense can do to "trick" a QB with that much experience. Lawrence will be getting looks that he may have seen before, but will have far less experience finding the answers against those looks, with this new offensive scheme.

The two quarterbacks also differ a lot in how they like to play the game. Burrow loves to create time for himself in the pocket and give his receivers an extra beat to get open on deep and intermediate routes. He knows that with Chase and Higgins on the outside its only a matter of time before one of those guys pops open. Then when they do break open Burrow is deadly accurate down the field. Burrow has a 68.6% career completion percentage while still averaging 7.4 Yards per attempt. Lawrence on he other hand seems to be at his best playing more of a "point guard" role in the offense, using his quick release to hit quick timing routes in zone coverage. He is prone to games or moments where he's inaccurate, particularly on out routes, but when he's on there are few guys who can thread a needle with the same kind of heat, between zone coverage like Lawrence. If you don't believe me go check out his throw to Dyami Brown with 4:25 left in the 3rd quarter. Brown settles into the zone coverage behind the inside shoulder of the outside corner with the slot dropping to close the window. There shouldn't really be a throw to make there but Lawrence rips the ball through a key hole completing the pass anyway.

Burrow's weakness is also the thing that makes the offense so explosive at times. He likes to hold the ball the extra beat because of his belief in his receivers. However he gets away with it far more than any other QB because of elite pocket management. You can find a lot of guys who are way more athletic than Burrow but none of them can work a pocket and evade pressure while keeping their eyes downfield like Burrow. It's a high risk high reward style of play and so far its paid off huge for him as he more often than not rewarded big time. The Jaguars defense will most likely bring a lot of exotic blitzes to minimize the amount of time Chase and Higgins have to work open.

Lawrence's weakness has traditionally been the opposite. He's been exceptional on quick timing routes to a first or second read. Where he's struggled is waiting for a long developing route to pop open and not telegraph it when the pocket is bad. Now this could have something to do with playing behind bad O-lines for at least 3 of the 4 previous seasons in a Jaguars uniform. He likely doesn't feel like he has the time to look off a safety or doesn't feel like he has the extra time to wait for his receiver to break open so he keeps his eyes where he wants to go and throws the ball too early or too late. It didn't seem to be a major issue last week but also wasn't a big part of the game plan. We'll see if this is something he's worked out over the offseason.

Burrow is 2-0 against the Jaguars and will look to continue that streak. Important to note that the Bengals have played the Jaguars 3 times since Burrow was drafted but both QBs have missed a game in that time. Burrow was out with an injury the last time these teams faced off so his last time playing Jacksonville was actually Lawrence's first year. Lawrence was still in college when Burrow played his first game against the Jaguars but he's been in both the previous matchups. Lawrence will look to break out of an 0-2 hole against the Bengals. The Jaguars have blown double digit leads in both of those games so don't count the Bengals out if they fall behind early. Not so fun fact for Jaguars fans (or Lawrence himself): Trevor Lawrence is 0-2 against Burrow all time dating back to college where he also had a 14 point lead and ended up losing.

The good news for Lawrence is he usually has a good day facing the Bengals defense. In his two games against them he has about a 73% completion percentage, 460 passing yards, 4 Total TDs, and 0 turnovers. Burrow has about a 73% completion percentage, 650 passing yards, 3 Total TDs, and an INT in his two games against a Jaguars defense that he hasn't faced since 2021.

This should be a really good matchup for two playoff hopefuls and two very talented former number 1 overall picks. We'll dig into this matchup deeper on Friday's Game Preview. Stay tuned sports fans!