QUARTERBACK TREVOR LAWRENCE
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 2025
(On where he received his “girl dad” hat) “My sister-in-law got me the hat. Yeah, got it a few
months ago, so I think I wore it once. I was like, I think I’m going to wait until Shae
[Lawrence’s daughter] is here to start wearing it more. Wore it out of the hospital and
wearing it today. Figured for the first interview I’d wear it.”
(On the recent birth of his daughter) “4 a.m. We went in Friday evening and then she got
here 4:01 a.m., so it was an all-nighter, for sure. I was pretty delirious after the whole—but
you guys won’t hear me complain. Marissa [Lawrence’s wife] did all the work. She crushed
it. It was amazing to watch. It was special.”
(On his reaction to former Head Coach Doug Pederson’s firing and if it was crushing to him
or just the nature of the business) “It’s mean, it’s both. As a player, it’s weird, especially
given the history with Coach [Pederson] and being here, and having success early. I think
it’s difficult to look at where we’re at now at the end of this season and take it for what it is.
Like, man, it was just such a rough year and tough in every regard, injuries not winning
games. That’s just tough on a team, so I think as a player, you look at it and you understand
that’s part of the business. But you’re also disappointed and you feel some responsibility
because as a player, you have impact on the game. It’s on us as well, so I think you see it
and it’s unfortunate, I guess is the best way to put it, just because you feel like you wish you
could have done more, and you wish you would have won more games. If you asked any of
us going into this season, no one would have thought Coach Pederson would have been
fired at the end of the year, and you just see the way the year went and it’s just
disappointing. So, I think it’s a weird feeling, but you do understand it’s part of the business
and you just have to continue to get better and for whatever reason this year we didn’t do
that. I think there’s a lot of a lot of things at play regarding that, and it’s not all just on one
person. I’m very grateful for Coach and what he’s done here and done for me. My rookie
year was really tough and a lot of chaos and turmoil and just a really crazy situation, and for
him to come in and provide stability and to kind of revive our team a little bit and be that
consistent piece and voice for us, he’s done a lot of great things here. So, I don’t want that
to be overshadowed by obviously a tough and disappointing finish to how it went.”
(On what he’d like to see in the new head coach and if he’d prefer an offensive-minded
coach) “Yeah, I mean, there’s a lot there’s a lot of things. Obviously, I’m biased—I’m an
offensive guy, I’m a quarterback, so I think from that standpoint, sounds great having a
young offensive coach that can bring the system in and that we can just grow together and
have that system in place for years to come. That sounds great. So, from that standpoint,
that would be great. But I think just as far as a leader, you want the right guy that’s going to
be the right leader and voice for your team and set that culture and just to be a tough team,
mentally, physically, that can withstand the ups and downs this season. I think that was
something that the last couple of years or two years ago, we did a great job of, but for
whatever reason, this year, we weren’t able to do that. It’s hard to put a finger on sometimes
why you’re not able to, but I think from a leader standpoint, whether it’s an offensive coach
or a defensive coach, just the guy that’s going to instill that culture, that toughness into our
team and just that confidence that it doesn’t matter who we’re playing, when we’re playing,
just spot the ball and we can beat anybody; and just a tough team that other teams don’t
want to play against. I think all that, we need to get back to that and whether it’s offensive
or defensive, that’s, I think, the most important piece. But yeah, of course, obviously, I’m
biased with the offensive thing, but whatever it is, just that mindset, I think is important.”
(On if he believes the offense was “predictable” this season) “At times I think you could say
that about other offenses as well, but I just think when you struggle to, for us it’s whether
it’s certain plays unfolding, not going our way or scheme or whatever, we weren’t able to run
the ball consistently, effectively, the last few years and I think that really gave us trouble, to
be honest. It’s hard to get everything else going when that’s struggling, so I think that’s
where you maybe can see the predictability is when that’s not working, and you have to
lean on pushing the ball downfield or getting the ball in the perimeter. I think that’s where
you can kind of see maybe some predictability. Obviously, this year it becomes even
tougher with a bunch of injuries, and you lose me, Evan [TE Evan Engram], Christian [WR
Christian Kirk], Gabe [WR Gabe Davis], you lose some guys up front. You start to piece all
those things together and then it is challenging to be unpredictable and efficient and
explosive when you’re missing a lot of pieces. So yeah, I think at times we were, for sure,
and I think that’s something that definitely should be evaluated in the new scheme that we
get, whoever comes in here, head coach, offensive coordinator, wherever the setup is, I
think that that run game piece of setting our guys up for success with the scheme, and then
obviously the detailed in coaching and making sure we’re all on the same page to where we
can run the ball effectively and consistently because I think that’s where, you look at the
good offenses in the NFL, they all pretty much have that, so we need to be able to do that.
Then obviously, we’ve got to make the plays on the field too and seeing how B.T. [WR Brian
Thomas Jr.] jumped out this year, I mean, that’s exciting, and the other guys we have. I feel
like when I’m healthy obviously, pushing the ball down the field is a strength of mine, so I
think marrying all those things together will help with that, for sure.”
(On his opinion of the team’s head coaching interview list) “I think it’s great. Seems like
every—you never know what’s going to happen, how everything’s going to unfold, but it
seems like we’re doing all the right things as far as talking to all the right people and all the
big-name candidates that are out there, it seems like they’re on the list. Beyond that, I don’t
really have much else for you, honestly. But yeah, it’s exciting I think, for seeing the list and
the potential candidates. I don’t know any of those people personally, really, so it’s kind of
hard to say. I don’t really necessarily have an opinion.”
(On his own evaluation of his performance amid injuries over the past year and a half) “It’s
definitely challenging kind of looking at where I’m at and the improvements I’ve made. I do
feel like I’ve gotten better every year, but the big piece of it is being healthy, right? So, being
the franchise quarterback, I have to be out there, I have to be on the field and have to be
available, so I think that’s difficult for me to not be able to do that, and really the last two
seasons that’s been a struggle for me. Last year, I only missed one game because of it, but
still was dealing with a lot of injuries and that’s something in my career, until last year, I
didn’t with really much, so, this year was tough missing basically half the season because
of injuries and having to watch and definitely get a different perspective of everything when
you’re not in the middle of it every day. I think I’ve learned a lot, the main thing is I just got to
be healthy. Whether that’s getting stronger this offseason, limiting some of the hits when
I’m out there. You’re not going to limit everything, but just doing my part to stay out there
and not taking unnecessary risks when I need to be healthy for the season, for one play.
You’ve got to weigh that. Is it worth it getting the first down this one play on second down or
is it more important to stay healthy for the long term? I think I’ve learned a lot through
injuries and the different ways they’ve happened, and how I can try to protect myself more
because that’s the main thing I need to do. I feel like this season when I was playing and I
had a couple of rough games, I’ve got to be a little more consistent, I had had two or three
games where I didn’t feel like I played good enough for us to win. Beyond those games, I
really felt like I made a lot of improvements, consistency, throwing the ball down the field,
putting us in position to score. I think taking care of the ball was a big emphasis that I was
doing a better job of this year maybe until the very end until the last game or two that I
played. Those things, I do think I improved on, but got to stay healthy. That’s the biggest
thing.”
(On if he’s watched the hit to his head vs. Houston and his fencing response on film) “Yeah,
I’ve seen it. I mean, you see it everywhere, especially the few days after. So, I’ve seen it,
yeah.”
(On if he’s concerned that he sustained his second concussion in two seasons) “It doesn’t
necessarily worry me. I think it’s something that can be scary, I guess, seeing it after the
fact and not really knowing what was going on. In that moment, I didn’t know that was
happening, I was out, so I didn’t know. So, it’s kind of weird. It’s just weird seeing it after the
fact, but I don’t know if ‘worried’ is the right word moving forward. I think it’s something that
you definitely are aware of and just you don’t want to get a lot of concussions, obviously.
That’s an easy answer there. I don’t want to have more of them, you want to limit them, but I
think right now it’s not something I’m overly concerned about. I just want to be able to
protect myself and obviously, don’t want to continue that trend because that can definitely
affect how long you play if you keep getting those. I want to stay healthy. I want to avoid
those shots to the head when I possibly can.”
(On if Texans LB Azeez Al-Shaair ever reached out to him following the hit) “No. Never talked
to him, no.”
(On if he’s disappointed that Al-Shaair never reached out to him) “I think, obviously, it’s
something that I’ve kind of wanted to move on from. I try to stay away from commenting on
the whole deal. I think it’s a tough situation. I mean, obviously part of you is like, yeah, it
would have been nice to reach out, but I know he’s got his own stuff going on and he’s trying
to—I think a lot of that is he’s trying to fight for his reputation on his end, and I don’t think
personally attacking the guy is the right answer. I know guys that know him, and everyone
says he’s a great guy. I don’t know him personally, so obviously the hit was—I don’t think the
hit was right, but I also don’t think that—I think if he knew that was going to happen, he
wouldn’t do it. I would hope no person would do that if they knew the end result. So,
obviously, he doesn’t know that, but I don’t think the hit was right, so I stand by that, but I
also don’t condone people attacking the guy personally because it is football and things
happen fast. Like I said, I don’t think he’s maliciously trying to do that to somebody, I just
think he went a little overboard with that and trying to be physical and obviously, he was
suspended for a while and paid the price for that. I want to move on from it. It’s nothing you
can do now. It’s in the past. I don’t—as far as holding grudges and stuff like that—I like to
move on and I’ve got a life to live beyond that, so I’ve moved on from it.”
(On if he’d like to have input on head coaching hiring decisions) “‘Seat of the table’ is kind of
a term—I don’t know how far that would go. My job is to prepare myself to play really well
and to win games and be on the field, so I don’t want to ever cross any boundaries and try
to do more than my job if that’s not wanted or needed. I, of course, have opinions. I’ve been
here now four years, I’ve had two coaches, I’ve seen good, bad, kind of everything in
between, so I do have an opinion, and I think that Mr. Khan [Owner Shad Khan] and Trent
[General Manager Trent Baalke] really value my opinion, honestly. So of course, we’ll have
conversations and we’ve had conversations, but as far as, obviously, I’m not making the
decision. I’m the quarterback here. I’m not the owner, I’m not the GM; I’m the quarterback. I
know what my role is, but I also think that my opinion is important and I think that they
value it. I don’t know if that answers your question, but that’s how I feel about it.”
(On if he’s bothered by being labeled as “injury-prone”) “No, it doesn’t bother me. I just
want to stay healthy. What bothers me is not being out there. I’m not really worried about
any labels or tags or anything, I just want to be out there because I feel like—I know I can
impact the game and help us win games when I’m out there, and when I’m not, it’s tough.
It’s tough even just being in here and getting treatment, guys going out to practice and
you’re just sitting there. It’s weird. It’s not fun just sitting on the sideline and not being able
to have an impact. I want to be healthy, I want to be out there, but not necessarily worried
about what people think it.”
(On if he asked to be placed on injured reserve list to have shoulder surgery) “It was really a
collective decision. It was leading up to—it was something where, when I got hurt after
Philly, it was something we talked about was, potentially this could need surgery, but it’s
just one of those injuries it’s not a clear-cut, immediately, oh, you’ve got to get surgery. It’s
kind of, you want to see how it heals. It’s not the most common to have this type of A.C.
injury. Obviously, A.C. joint injuries are common, but the severity of this one’s a little bit
different. It wasn’t a clear-cut, ‘I’ve got to get surgery.’ That was what was difficult. I didn’t
have a clear answer necessarily, so I had to wait and give it time. Bothered me for a while,
and it started to feel a little bit better, and I felt like I could go out there and compete and
give us a shot to win against Houston, so I did it. I wanted to at least try. I want to try to play
and see how it feels and then that Monday after the game I’ll reassess and see if this is
something I can continue for the rest of the season, and obviously the way the game went
got knocked out with the concussion, and that added a whole other element. After that,
and the severity of that hit to the head, it was kind of the smartest thing to do. I knew at that
point it wasn’t getting that much better. The pain was getting better, but just some of the
other issues around that area that it was causing, I knew I was probably going to have to get
surgery, so we just decided that that was the best route because I was going to be out a few
weeks with the concussion. I think just to give Mac [QB Mac Jones] the reins so he can take
it the rest of the season, have confidence that he’s going to finish the year and not be in
limbo every week—is it going to be me, is going to be Trevor—when I wasn’t probably going
to be able to come back to finish the season anyway. So, that’s kind of the whole process. It
was tough. I mean just every week, not knowing, hoping that I feel better enough to get out
there and not being able to do it was hard and we felt like we just needed to go and get this
fixed so I can start getting healthy again.”
(On how his shoulder is progressing post-surgery) “It’s good. I don’t know the exact
timeline. I know I’m in this [sling] for two and a half, three, or a little less than three weeks.
Six weeks in this and I’m a little past three right now. I can’t wait to get out of this sling, but
it’s getting better. I’m starting to do more rehab on the shoulder, starting to move it a little
bit, so it’s been good. I’ll definitely be good by the season obviously and I’m hoping for most
of OTAs too, but I don’t know. I can’t give you an exact, obviously. I’m going to be smart with
it and not rush into OTAs too quickly, but it’s not going to really affect too much of the
offseason and hopefully, I’ll start being able to train in the next couple of months. Train
hard.”
(On his confidence in the team’s ability to have a quick turnaround) “100 percent. I mean,
you look at the guys we have, and we’ve played really well together. I’m thinking just
offensively, that’s more our responsibility is offensively. I know more of the ins and outs of
that and we’ve had a couple of different defensive coordinators, and so I’m not going to get
into all the scheme on defense, but as far as offensively, I know the guys we have, the
playmakers we have, what we’ve done and we’ve added to that. We’ve added B.T. in a lot of
areas, our line’s improved over the years, obviously guys like Brenton [TE Brenton Strange]
and Parker [WR Parker Washington] coming along. Those young guys that are playing well,
Travis [RB Travis Etienne Jr.], Tank [RB Tank Bigsby], I think that we have the guys to do it, we
need to just find more consistency and I think that we need to get some juice back in this
place. It seems like we’ve lost that in the past year and a half or so for whatever reason, and
we’ve got to get that back. I think that’s something that us as leaders on the team really
have to look at and we’ve got to take our part too. This isn’t just, we fired Coach Pederson,
so now that’s all on him. It’s on us as players too. We have to get that energy back, we have
to take our part of it too because we’re the ones out there on the field playing. I think that
that’s something where we can’t just think just because some changes are made, staff and
everything around us, that it’s all going to fix. We have to be the ones to really change our
trajectory, to be honest. But I do have confidence in the type of people we have, the players
we have, but this is a big offseason, and we have to really dial in and like I said, build that
culture and become just a tough, hard-nosed, gritty team. I think we need more of that.”
(On the effect of having three head coaches in five years on his development on the field)
“It’s not ideal. Obviously, you want stability, you want some consistency but look where
we’re at and then the year we had. Like I said, it’s just it’s kind of the way it goes when you
don’t have success and you don’t win, so I’m hoping that whatever the next situation is, it’s
in place and that coach is here for a long time. I think we all hope that and that’s the best
case moving forward is to have the consistency, the stability, something to build off of,
consistent improvement and we all just want to win. It’s been four years, and we’ve had
some success, but not enough. We want consistency and I know that’s what all you guys
want. It’s a lot more fun covering us when we’re winning. I know that is probably true for you
all, and I know for the fans it’s a lot more fun to be a part of it when you’re winning. We all
want the same thing, we all have to put the work in, though. It’s not just going to happen
overnight. We have to be willing to change and to adapt, and as players take that
responsibility and go do it.”
(On if he’s talked with Owner Shad Khan about the direction of the franchise) “Yeah, I mean
we talk. We check in pretty consistently. I have a great relationship with Mr. Khan, and yeah,
a few weeks ago, we checked in and just kind of caught up on everything. I try to do that
same thing with Trent and even Coach when he was here, so I try to keep an open line of
communication and just try my best to really be on the same page.
(On his relationship with Baalke and if he was surprised that only coaching changes have
been made as of now) “Yeah, I have a good relationship with Trent. He’s always been
upfront and honest with me. We talk a decent amount, and I don’t know anything else
because I haven’t had a different GM or that relationship, but I feel like we have a pretty
honest and open relationship. It’s been good. I think that I don’t know if ‘surprised’ is the
right word. You never know how these things are going to go down as far as even Monday,
we just had our daughter, Shae, too. There’s a lot going on and I see the news on Monday
about Coach getting fired and so there’s just a lot and I don’t think I even thought of, like,
well is everybody going to get fired or what? It’s just what you see and you kind of react to it
and you go about your business, and you try to just move forward. I don’t really—I wouldn’t
say ‘surprise’ is the right word. I don’t know, but I do feel like me and Trent have a good
relationship. None of that is my job, so I think there’s no sense in worrying about things that
you can’t control. I can control the relationship I have with him and trying to build that and
continue to improve that and to stay communicating especially in the offseason. This is a
big offseason for us, so I just want to be—you talked about ‘having a seat at the table,’ more
than anything, I just want to have a great relationship with Trent, which I think we do, and
then the new head coach that comes in as well, and start that off on the right foot and just
constant communication. I think that’s the biggest thing is that relationship between
quarterback, head coach and coordinator, whoever it is. That’s important, so I just want to
build on that as early as possible.”
