The only thing Trevor Lawrence needs to prove between now and the 2021 NFL Draft is that he can still stand upright.
Which is why I’m sayin’: kid needs to bubble-wrap himself. Now.
Yes, I can feel you wanting to grab me through the Internet.
But, but, but …
But, what?
He needs to win another national championship?
If Clemson loses to LSU in a couple of weeks, Trevor Lawrence is still Trevor Lawrence.
And because of the NFL’s eligibility rules, he still has to wait another year before he can declare for the draft.
Which means: 13, 14, 15 more exposures to catastrophic injury next fall and winter.
And if you need any evidence on what can happen there, I got two words for you: Tua Tagovailoa.
The presumptive #1 pick in 2020 is now rehabbing a broken hip incurred trying to run a two-minute drill up 35-7 in the second quarter of a meaningless blowout win.
And now we await word from Tagovailoa on his status for the 2020 draft, and honestly, what he’ll be like after the injury.
We didn’t need to see him running a two-minute drill in a laugher.
Didn’t need to see him do anything, really.
The Miami Dolphins built their entire 2019 season around tanking so that they could get the #1 pick so that they could draft Tagovailoa.
You saw what happened when the kid got hurt, right?
Miami decided to try again, and ended up winning three of their last five, including a win over New England in Foxboro in the season finale.
NFL teams, then, have a vested interest in Lawrence being able to stand upright heading into April 2021, as much as he does, honestly.
This year it was the Dolphins tanking. Next year, you might see six to eight teams trying to go 0-16 to get at the top of the line for Trevor Lawrence.
Tagovailoa is a good college quarterback who projects as an NFL starter; Lawrence is Peyton Manning 2.0, the improved model who has proven already that he can win.
And run: did you see that 67-yard TD against Ohio State in the CFP semifinals?
He should have handed the ball to the ref, waved to his teammates and Dabo Swinney on the sidelines, and declared for 2021 right there.
Trevor Lawrence is a generational talent.
He has nothing left to prove, this year, next year.
What, so, he goes out and throws for 312 yards and three TDs in two and a half quarters in a win over Wake Forest next October, and it’s then that GMs realize, This Trevor Lawrence kid can get it done?
Give me a break.
Hire an agent, put a support staff in place – a recent former NFL QB coach for technique, an offensive coordinator to go over game film, a strength and conditioning coach to put him on a training plan, a nutritionist to make sure what goes in his body is what needs to go in his body.
He’ll be better off, and most importantly, you won’t see him breaking a hip, shredding an ACL, banging his thumb on a guy’s helmet on his follow-through.
Clemson will be OK, and even if it isn’t, so what?
Swinney, the AD, the school, they all make money either way.
Lawrence doesn’t get paid until he signs his name on the bottom line.
And there’s only one way to absolutely guarantee that happens.
Story by Chris Graham
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