Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence left Monday night’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals with an ankle injury. That injury came after Lawrence was stepped on by his own offensive lineman Walker Little following a sack and then had his leg bent awkwardly. But while there were some initial fears on how severe that injury might be, Jaguars’ head coach Doug Pederson revealed Tuesday that this is a high-ankle sprain. And Pederson said Lawrence should be able to return later this season, and perhaps even this week.
#Jaguars coach Doug Pederson says QB Trevor Lawrence has “just” a high-ankle sprain, with all other tests coming back clean. Pederson wouldn’t put a timetable on Lawrence’s recovery, but didn’t rule him out for this week. And not season-ending.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 5, 2023
That’s certainly good news for the Jaguars. They lost Monday’s game 34-31 on an Evan McPherson field goal, but Lawrence’s injury was by far the bigger story. The team is 8-4 this year and leading the AFC South ahead of the Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans (both 7-5). But they would have faced some seemingly-steeper challenges if they’d had to rely on backup C.J. Beathard or practice-squad member Nathan Rourke for the long run, which even led to some talk Monday about potential outside replacements (even including CBS analyst Matt Ryan, mentioned for a whole lot of teams this year).
On the year, Lawrence has completed 271 of 399 passes for 3,004 yards with a 67.9 percent completion rate, 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions. And the Jaguars will be eagerly awaiting his return. We’ll see when he’s able to come back, whether that’s Sunday against the Cleveland Browns or later.
[Ian Rapoport on Twitter]
