Adding literal injury to the insult of losing to an electrifying backup QB in Jake Browning on Monday night at home, the Jacksonville Jaguars saw the face of their franchise, Trevor Lawrence, get rolled up on by his own left tackle and knocked out of the Jags’ overtime loss to the Bengals.
Trevor Lawrence is hurt bad and he knows it. pic.twitter.com/aKjRL0oajh
— Tanner Phifer (@TannerPhiferNFL) December 5, 2023
It was really hard to watch this in real time. When Lawrence slammed his hand into the turf, projectile launched his helmet off and immediately appeared to be suppressing tears, I felt a pit in my stomach. As I’m sure all of EverBank Stadium did.
At least the initial diagnosis offers some encouragement, as Lawrence may have only escaped with an ankle sprain:
The initial diagnosis for #Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence is an ankle sprain, per sources. He'll have an MRI on Tuesday.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) December 5, 2023
Trevor Lawrence is now using his crutches and trainers just gave him a walking boot to put on his right ankle & exit the locker room. He was crutching around to talk with other teammates. He can stand on his ankle but clearly not trying to put a lot of pressure to walk on it.
— Cameron Wolfe (@CameronWolfe) December 5, 2023
Trevor Lawrence in the locker room with teammates telling them about his ankle injury. A couple left him smiling after update and he seems in good spirits. Nothing wrapped on his right ankle and he’s standing on his own on that ankle. He does have crutches on ground for support.
— Cameron Wolfe (@CameronWolfe) December 5, 2023
…But of course, it depends how severe the sprain is and how much time the superstar signal-caller might miss. The Jaguars are suddenly only one game clear in the AFC South of the 7-5 Colts and Texans. Raise your hand if you saw that coming before the season, considering Indy drafted Anthony Richardson fourth and Houston got CJ Stroud with the second pick. Two rookie-led teams with winning records at this stage of the year? No way! Richardson has been out for a long time, too!
Anyway, back to Lawrence and some of the discourse surrounding him: I’m no doctor, but I’m certain Jacksonville’s inability to fetch Lawrence a cart as he left the field and went down the tunnel to the locker room didn’t help put the minds of aggrieved spectators at ease.
No cart for Trevor Lawrence wild a bold move by the Jags… pic.twitter.com/8KHe7gRF2E
— Bussin' With The Boys (@BussinWTB) December 5, 2023
…And it turns out, the reaction was fairly extreme from some corners of the X football community.
Trevor Lawrence is still gingerly walking to the hospital without a cart, league sources tell me.
— Hayden Winks (@HaydenWinks) December 5, 2023
Why is there no cart for Trevor Lawrence…?
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 5, 2023
Only acceptable explanation why the #Jaguars didn't have a cart for Trevor Lawrence: pic.twitter.com/l9b88BEgGN
— Cody Manning (@CodyTalksNFL) December 5, 2023
Tony Khan used all his money to sign Edge and had none left to buy a cart for Trevor Lawrence https://t.co/i9nCRwJdIa
— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) December 5, 2023
Live look at the Jaguars medical cart as Trevor Lawrence walks 7/10ths of a mile to get an X-Ray. 🤦🏻♂️🥴 pic.twitter.com/PQHfVqzyiK
— Lawrence Tynes (@lt4kicks) December 5, 2023
No cart for Trevor Lawrence and his painfully long walk to the locker room. That just made the Jaguars look small-time. I get maybe he didn't want a cart but the guy is the freaking franchise – you tell him he has to wait for a cart. Like, where was everyone?
— Jason Smith (@howaboutafresca) December 5, 2023
Can we get a cart for Trevor Lawrence damn!
— Darius Butler (@DariusJButler) December 5, 2023
The Jaguars have a pool in their stadium but can’t get a cart for Trevor Lawrence, the face of the franchise? pic.twitter.com/raQFXEOuG9
— Will Whitson (@will_whitson2) December 5, 2023
No cause this is ridiculous. They needed to get Trevor Lawrence a cart instead of making him walk all the way. pic.twitter.com/Q4ubvy9sfR
— Grace (@gracesporttakes) December 5, 2023
I guess I was kind of on board with that train of thought, considering how much it looked like Lawrence was struggling. Dude is pretty tough and nimble of foot. To see him hobbling and moving that slowly was unpleasant.
An actual doctor had a different take on the situation, though. Probably a more sensible assessment, but what does he really know? He only has the handle @ProFootballDoc!
Easy to second guess this but
1) sometimes players refuse the cart
2) medical may have already known no fracture
3) ankle sprains are often walked offhttps://t.co/oaA7brfgGt https://t.co/SL39F2ArIg— David J. Chao – ProFootballDoc (@ProFootballDoc) December 5, 2023
Then of course, there’s also this, shout out ESPN’s Bengals reporter Ben Baby for the info:
For the record, it looked as if Jacksonville had a cart ready to go on the sideline for Trevor Lawrence before he walked to the locker room.
— Ben Baby (@Ben_Baby) December 5, 2023
Might be as simple as Lawrence shrugging off the cart. Whatever the case, everyone is rightly concerned about what happened to him. As happy as Bengals fans are about this improbable win, it sucks to see a QB go down. Cincinnati lost Joe Burrow for the rest of the season. Not everyone has a stone-cold killer like Jake Browning as a QB2.
The reality is, the NFL is better with as many healthy, high-quality QBs as possible. Lawrence has managed to stay on the field for his entire NFL career to date, not missing a single start in nearly three seasons. He’s played through injuries before. Let’s hope he can get his body right enough to only be out a week or two at most.
You’d hate to see such a fun AFC South race and the fight for the No. 1 seed largely determined on an injury.
