Those of us who bleed teal and black want far more for our beloved Jaguars than escaping the depths we've experienced the past decade. 

Instead of winning few enough games to count on one hand, we want strings of double digit winning seasons and deserve enough Super Bowl rings to count on two hands.  The Duval faithful believe we got a huge piece of the puzzle in the last draft with the selection of Trevor Lawrence.  After a disastrous year under Urban Meyer, many of us believe we got another huge piece of the puzzle when we hired Super Bowl winning coach Doug Pederson.  Pederson comes from the Andy Reid and Mike Holmgren WCO coaching trees.  He's a former QB who knows offense, and has a history of successfully getting the most out of QBs, as evidenced by his work with Carson Wentz and Nick Foles.  Understandably, Jaguars fans are excited for the possibilities this combination can bring us.

So if we finally have a franchise QB and a Super Bowl winning coach that can develop him properly, what's so sobering?  Why does it sound like I am throwing a wet blanket on our future?

Under "normal" circumstances, this combination  would be a huge advantage for us.  There might be 3 great QBs and a bunch of mediocre guys.

However, the AFC is absolutely loaded with young, franchise level signal callers.  More loaded with young high caliber signal callers than I have ever seen in all my years of watching football.  For some perspective, the 1983 draft class was viewed as the strongest and deepest draft ever, as well as the best QB draft ever.  All of the 6 QBs that went in the first round of that draft went to AFC teams.  Three of them wound up in the Hall of Fame (Elway, Kelly, Marino), another went to a couple of Pro Bowls (Ken O'Brien) and still another went to a Super Bowl (Tony Eason)  When you add in two other stud QBs over the next two years in Boomer Esiason and Bernie Kosar, at least half of the teams in the conference had a young QB capable of performing at a Pro bowl level.  Right now, these are the QBs in the AFC:

Patrick Mahomes
Justin Herbert
Derek Carr
Joe Burrow
Lamar Jackson
Baker Mayfield
Josh Allen
Mac Jones

Mayfield has yet to reach a Pro Bowl, but he DID get the browns to the playoffs last year and performed well in the process.

This doesn't factor in Zach Wilson, who was taken right behind Lawrence in last year's draft.  It also does not include guys like DeShaun Watson and Aaron Rodgers, who, after trades, could still end up in the AFC.  Nor does the above include Carson Wentz or Ryan Tannehill, who both have had their moments of performing at a Pro Bowl level in their careers. 

As great as Josh Allen has been the past two years, you could make the argument he is maybe 3rd or 4th best in the AFC behind Mahomes, Herbert and now Burrow, again, not counting guys like Rodgers and Watson.  Even if Trevor Lawrence is developed and becomes every bit the player we think he can become, he still may only be somewhere in the middle of that pack, depending on when you are doing the comparison.

The point is even though we may have a franchise QB and a coach that can maximize his potential/production, it wouldn't be the advantage it would be under normal circumstances because many of the other teams have potentially great QBs too.  So to ensure we develop Lawrence into the player we think he can be, and to offset the presence of the other young QBs in the conference, the pressure to add an abundance of good players around him is even greater, if the team is going to overcome the other franchise signal callers and win the Super Bowl.  We'll have to be better than the other teams at the other positions, because even though Trevor Lawrence could be great, the other signal callers can be great enough to offset whatever advantage Lawrence would otherwise provide.  We absolutely have to be better at the other positions to win a championship.

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