Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence is among ESPN's early MVP candidates.
With the NFL season at the quarter pole, Bill Barnwell went through all of the major NFL end-of-season awards and listed the top three candidates for each, based on how the first four games of the season have gone.
When it came to league MVP, Lawrence was listed in the No. 2 position, behind San Francisco's Brock Purdy and ahead of Dallas' Dak Prescott.
"I would argue that Lawrence has been more effective as a passer this season," Barnwell wrote. "His completion percentage is up from 63.0 during that six-game stretch to end 2025 to 69.2 in 2026 while keeping his yards per attempt over 8.0 per throw. Lawrence also has the lowest off-target rate of any quarterback
at 8.1%, a major leap from 15.5% during that run to the finish in 2025."
At about the halfway point of last season, Lawrence's play really began to take off as he became more comfortable operating within the Liam Coen offense. A lot of the post-snap success that came started with Lawrence's pre-snap operation and getting the Jaguars' offense into advantageous looks that he was able to exploit.
Now with a second full offseason in the system under his belt, his play has continued to elevate. Entering Week 5, Lawrence ranks 11th in completion rate, sixth in yards per attempt, and seventh in touchdowns.
He also continues to be effective with his legs and has put up this high level of production while dealing with, at times, up-and-down offensive line play around him.
"There aren't any real holes to poke in Lawrence's performance this season," Barnwell added. "The only issue is that there's one quarterback who has just been on a completely different level from the rest of the league."
This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: ESPN places Jaguars Trevor Lawrence among MVP candidates after 4 games
