The Jaguars will retain two players from the 2021 NFL Draft class.
The Jacksonville Jaguars have a couple of simple decisions to make: pick up fifth-year options for two of their youngest stars.
Trent Baalke, the Jaguars’ general manager, confirmed on Saturday that the team will exercise each option. Both Baalke and Lawrence confirmed earlier this offseason that they had discussed an extension for the former No. 1 pick.
Lawrence finished the season with 65.6% completion rate, 4,016 yards, 21 touchdowns, 14 interceptions, and seven lost fumbles. Lawrence also missed his first career start due to four different injuries, and he appeared to limp to the season’s end.
Lawrence was legitimately walking wounded for much of 2023, despite having made it through his first two seasons with few injuries. Lawrence suffered four different injuries this fall, forcing him to miss valuable practice time and play in several games while injured: a knee injury in Week 6, an ankle injury in Week 13, a concussion in Week 15, and finally a shoulder injury in Week 16 that forced him to miss his first career start.
The injuries piled up during the Jaguars’ six-game losing streak that left them 1-5 and out of the playoffs. Lawrence missed his first career start due to injuries, and the Jaguars’ only win of the season came as a result. And, of Lawrence’s 16 starts, his four after each injury resulted in his second, fifth, seventh, and eighth worst games of the season by total EPA.
Etienne, the No. 25 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, received votes for Offensive Player of the Year for the first time in his career after establishing himself as a key component of the Jaguars’ offence in 2023. The offence did not meet most expectations, but Etienne had a more impactful season than in 2022, leading the league in missed tackles and improving as a receiving threat out of the backfield.
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Etienne finished the year with his second consecutive 1,000-yard season, rushing for 1,008 yards (3.8 yards per carry) and 11 touchdowns while catching 58 passes for 476 yards and one touchdown.
Etienne scored at least two rushing touchdowns in three consecutive games from Weeks 5 to 7. He became the first player in franchise history to score multiple rushing touchdowns in three consecutive games in the same season.
Etienne had 1,484 scrimmage yards in 2023, joining Maurice Jones-Drew as the only Jaguars to reach 1,000 yards in their first two active NFL seasons. Etienne is the third Jaguars player in history to have 1,300 scrimmage yards in consecutive seasons.
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