JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Trevor Lawrence said that he’s happy in Jacksonville and has no desire to play anywhere else, including with the Steelers.
During a wide-ranging interview on the “Up & Adams” show on Monday, Lawrence said his agent got in touch with him about a report last week that said Pittsburgh had contacted Jacksonville about a possible trade for the quarterback. Ryan Burr, a sports journalist with the Big 10 Network, broke the news, which was universally slammed for being a flat-out lie. It still made the rounds on social media and had Lawrence’s agent reaching out to see if there was any truth to it.
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“I saw it and it’s funny though, when he sent it to me, I wouldn’t say your heart drops, but you’re kind of like, ‘What?’ Then I’m thinking like, I have a no-trade clause in my contract, so I would know about it if I was getting traded,” Lawrence said.
“Or if it was something that was going to happen, I’d have to be on board with it, which I’m not. I’m happy here in Jacksonville. … We want to win a Super Bowl here, and I think I think we can do that. And I don’t want to leave Jacksonville. I’m happy here, obviously. Not going to Pittsburgh.”
A Jaguars team source told News4JAX that it was “laughable” that the team would entertain trading Lawrence. Several other national reporters said that the report was “fake,” and the Steelers never made a call to the Jaguars.
Lawrence has had an uneven start to his Jaguars career. He played like one of the league’s best quarterbacks across the second half of 2022 and the start of 2023 (14-4 record). But his rookie season and everything from the midway point of 2023 and on has been disappointing. The Jaguars signed Lawrence to a $275 million contract extension in 2024, and he delivered a 2-8 record while struggling with injuries. Lawrence missed seven games and ended the season on injured reserve after shoulder surgery. Jacksonville went 4-13 and has the No. 5 pick in the draft.
“I think that kind of relights that fire in you when you have some adversity and when you struggle and everyone starts to kind of count you out and kind of look past you,” he said. “I think that kind of reignites a little bit of that drive to get back to the player you know you can be.”
Lawrence covered quite a bit of ground during the interview, including what it’s like as a new father to daughter, Shae Lynn (he’s on “full diaper duty now”), the healing on his shoulder (the sling came off three weeks ago) and if he’s had any input on the general manager (“not involved in any of that”). Lawrence also said he thought that his former college teammate, receiver Tee Higgins, would fit in well with the Jaguars. But Higgins has a strong rapport with MVP candidate Joe Burrow in Cincinnati, a relationship Lawrence said is tough to argue with.
“If that wasn’t the case, I think I would definitely be up next as far as Tee in our relationship and what we’ve done in the past and we played together for two years, had a lot of success in college,” he said. “And we could definitely do that again in Jacksonville.”
Jacksonville has been on a torrid offseason pace that has included the dismissal of head coach Doug Pederson and general manager Trent Baalke. It hired Liam Coen as the head coach and is set to hold a second round of interviews this week for the GM role. The Jaguars also hired Tony Boselli as the executive vice president of football operations.
“I think this team just needs some juice, and I know he’s going to bring that. As players, I’m ready to lead and bring that because we all have to buy in as well,” he said. “We have to buy into what he’s doing, the culture he’s trying to set or we don’t have a shot. That’s our responsibility is to buy into what he wants us to be and the identity we want to have as a team and take it and run with it.”