Who Is Trevor Lawrence?

If you venture into Social Media as a Vikings fan this is a name you may see pop up more and more: Trevor Lawrence. You may also see it accompanied by the hash tag #TankForTrevor. Why will you see this? Here’s why: with the Vikings having one of the worst seasons in recent history and players either opting out or injured the team just can’t find proper replacements or guys that can just step in and make a name for themselves. They played their 3rd starting right guard after Dru Samia was out of the game injured. Ezra Cleveland, who started did OK because they really never mentioned his name which is what you want from a lineman. That means he didn’t make any mistakes. Kirk Cousins still isn’t getting requisite time to throw the ball, and when he did today he was well off the mark. The very first play was an interception and the Vikings never really recovered. While Adam Thielen keeps doing what he always does it was nice to see Justin Jefferson continue to step up as well. Jefferson legitimately could take rookie of the year honors. Alexander Mattison was starting for the injured Dalvin Cook and he never really did much because the team was playing from behind, and frankly the play calling didn’t allow him to get any stride going. The Vikings never found any rhythm on either side of the ball and 3 interceptions, and the defense only recovering 1 of 3 fumbles sure didn’t help. They lost 40-23 and it wasn’t that close.

Back to the man at the head of this discussion. Trevor Lawrence just had the best game of his already storied career on Saturday. The Clemson Tigers won the game 73-7 over Georgia Tech. 73-7!!! Now Lawrence only threw 5 touchdowns, but he threw them all in the the first half! For his three year career he has thrown for 66 touchdowns in his first 2 years and has thrown for 15 this year after 5 games. He’s thrown 13 interceptions during that same time. Why talk about him in the middle of the season? Because with the Vikings current record of 1-5 they would have to a momentous turn around and a miracle run to make the playoffs. So fans start looking at “winning the off season” and that starts with having the number 1 pick. You either use it on what experts consider to be the best player available or trade down and acquire multiple picks to restock the roster at several positions. Now I am not a Kirk Cousins hater. He never had good receivers in Washington and here he has never had a great offensive line and he has never thrown for less than 3600 yards. So I will never fully blame him, nor any single player especially when you see him shine when given time and put talent around him. However, you need to look at the fact that Lawrence may be a once in a lifetime player and drafting him and having him sit on the bench for a year or so may work in a similar way that Aaron Rodgers benefited from sitting behind Brett Favre. Oh by the way, the Packers also drafted quarterback Jordan Love in the first round this year and didn’t give Rodgers more weapons. Not only could the Vikings draft their quarterback of the future, but also have time for other positions to be shored up and players like Justin Jefferson and Irv Smith Jr. get some seasoning that give him a veteran crew to start working with so he doesn’t get destroyed out of the gate.

The Vikings have plenty of talent right now if everyone came back healthy. If they got some significantly better play from the guard position they would be passing better. Kirk would be better. They could rebuild around him and be successful. I’m not very upset with the offensive line’s run blocking as Cook leads the league in rushing and the line has been giving him good holes to run through. Right now there is no end to the losing in sight other than maybe to Jacksonville later this season who is also in the running for Mr. Lawrence’s services. The Vikings won a meaningless game in Washington back in 2011 and that took them out of the running to draft Andrew Luck who could still be their franchise QB and maybe have a Super Bowl trophy in their case right now. There is no guarantee that Trevor Lawrence will be great or even good in the NFL. None. I always want my team to win. However, there comes a time when you have to take that chance and this might be the year to plan for the near future and not the immediate future.