They have experienced the hardships of rebuilding, as their respective teams — the Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Jets — are a combined 5-23.
“It’s a good reminder for y’all because we do tend to celebrate the anomalies like the Herberts of the world,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said.
Former head coach Urban Meyer created a toxic atmosphere in the facility, and he had Lawrence alternating days with the first team with quarterback Gardner Minshew throughout training camp.
He has been wild with some throws, too, and has had little success throwing downfield, completing just 4 of 25 passes that traveled 20 or more yards in the air over the past eight games, per ESPN Stats & Information research.
There are going to be interceptions — he’s thrown those, that’s going to happen — now if he keeps repeating those mistakes then that’s how you know that he’s not listening and not making those corrections.
Lawrence drove the Jaguars 46 yards to set up kicker Matt Wright’s 54-yard field goal to tie the game at 20-20 with 3:45 remaining.
Lawrence completed a 9-yard pass to Shenault, who slid to the turf, and that allowed Meyer to call timeout with one second to play.
When Robinson was benched in consecutive weeks for fumbling, Lawrence eventually told Meyer that they need their best offensive player on the field as much as possible.
The rookie has taken responsibility for every on-field mistake he has made, hasn’t thrown any teammates under the bus and has rarely shown any frustration on the field.
“I’ve said it a few times: When things are crazy, consistency wins and just being the same day in and day out ,” Lawrence said.
It would be understandable if he were shaken, but Lawrence has shown incredible poise — especially after Meyer’s viral videos and also in the days since Meyer was fired.
Granted, the roster needs a lot of work, especially on offense, but working with a young, talented quarterback and an owner who has shown a lot of patience is a sought-after scenario for coaches.
Wilson is battling an inner conflict, trying to conform to the structure of the offense while maintaining the improvisational ability that made him a star at BYU.
“Personally for me, I just need to play loose and not try and be such a perfect pocket passing quarterback all the time,” Wilson said.
That throws off the timing of the offense, a West Coast-based system that demands synchronicity between the quarterback’s dropback and the depth of the receivers’ routes.
“I’ve been critical of Zach this year,” said ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky, a former NFL quarterback.
He rolled to his right, motioned for Davis to run to the end zone and threw a perfect rainbow that traveled 57 yards in actual air distance — one of the Jets’ longest completions in recent history.
He’s not forcing as many passes into coverage as he did early in the year, and he’s using his physical ability to create off schedule.
He learned quickly that he’s a long way from Provo, Utah, where he enjoyed a cozy pocket and threw into windows the size of Fifth Avenue storefronts.
He, too, got off to a shaky start, but he got comfortable around midseason when he started calling plays from the coaches’ booth.
Greg Knapp was supposed to be Wilson’s primary coach, but he was killed in an accident on the eve of training camp.
“It was enormous, enormous,” Orlovsky said of the Knapp tragedy and its impact on Wilson.
If the front office can deliver, Wilson will have a chance to rebound from one of the worst statistical seasons for a quarterback in the past 20 years.