If there is one thing the Jacksonville Jaguars are, it’s bold. Bold enough to believe in Urban Meyer as an NFL Head Coach who lasted 13 games before getting the boot. Bold enough to build a pool in their stadium that sits in one of the less-desirable parts of the Jacksonville area. And now, bold enough to rename said stadium after their starting QB Trevor Lawerence who has a career 21-31 record with the team.
EverBank Stadium will be now known as TrEverBank Stadium for kickoff Sunday against the Cleveland Browns. EverBank and Lawerence teamed up for the collaboration as he has been a sponsor for the financial institution for the past month or so. The only problem is, Trevor Lawerence has been mediocre at best, and only has one playoff appearance to his name. In Lawerence’s only career playoff game for Jacksonville, they lost to the Chiefs 27-20 in the divisional round in the 2022-23 season.
Other than the fact that you can add a ‘Tr’ to the front of EverBank and it meshes with Lawerence’s name, I am not really sure what the angle is here. It reminds me of UCF hanging a 2017 National Championship banner for a Championship they didn’t win (and also didn’t play in). Trevor isn’t a bad quarterback, but he certainly has not lived up to his #1 overall draft pick expectations. Now, I am not blind to the fact that a lot of Lawerence’s shortcomings can be attributed to Urban Meyer having his stinky little fingers all over the young quarterback, but that was years ago. That stink should have long been gone by now. I can understand Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson having their names fit into a clever spin on a stadium name. But what is EverBank trying to market here? Mediocrity? That’s exactly what I look for when trusting a bank with my money.
The Jags opened their season last week with a 20-17 loss to the Dolphins, a game that was flipped on a fumble by Travis Etienne as he was walking into the end zone. But Lawerence shoulders a lot of the blame after the team posted zero points in the second half of a game they easily should have won. Jacksonville fans are patiently waiting for him to break through and be the quarterback we all saw at Clemson when he won the Tigers a National Championship.
Now, I must give the team and EverBank credit for deciding to do this the week the Browns come to town, because if you ever want to feel somewhat good about your franchise, you can just say “at least we’re not paying Deshaun Watson $230 million.” However, on the other side of the coin if you lose to the Browns Sunday and Deshaun outplays Lawerence, then this will not be a great look for EverBank. A risky gamble by the bank, who would’ve thought.
The Jaguars vs. Browns kick off Sunday at 12:00 CT in the newly minted TrEverBank Stadium.
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