Gene Frenette: Archie Manning got on the Trevor Lawrence bandwagon a long time ago

While the Trevor Lawrence bandwagon keeps filling up after the Jaguars’ turnaround season, don’t earmark the patriarch of America’s No. 1 quarterback family as a late-arriving passenger.

Archie Manning got on board nearly three years ago, at a time when Lawrence wasn’t even throwing any meaningful passes.

The father to Peyton and Eli Manning wasn’t specifically eyeballing just Lawrence over a four-day period at the Manning Passing Academy in the summer of 2020. The Jaguars’ quarterback, prior to his final season at Clemson, was then among 40-plus college quarterbacks serving as a counselor to about 1,200 campers in attendance.

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It’s just that the elder Manning simply couldn’t help but notice Lawrence. He had a presence about him that impressed Archie, the way Trevor walked around and interacted with people.

The two barely knew each other except by quarterback reputation, though Manning was acquainted with Dabo Swinney, Lawrence’s coach at Clemson. But Lawrence’s demeanor and poise was enough to compel a then 71-year-old grandfather to choose him as the speaker to deliver a message at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes breakfast to all the campers.

“Trevor did a great job at chapel,” Archie told the Times-Union. “He got in and got out [with his message]. I wish someone like that had been the pastor in my younger days going to the Baptist church in Mississippi.”

From that first impression of Lawrence, who had already led Clemson to a national title two years before, the feeling has never left one of the most respected quarterback authorities in NFL history that the Jaguars’ leader had something special about him that went beyond anything captured on game tape.

“We just spent four days with him and I knew he was a Peyton guy and liked Tennessee, but what struck me was his maturity,” said Manning. “My observation was he was really solid and handled himself so good. I just thought he was kind of a special kid.”

There now seems to be a lot of talk like that going around. The Trevor train is filling up, both with longtime Jaguars’ fans and others more skeptical of the Lawrence hype until his second half turnaround in the 2022 season elevated his prominence.

Sold on Trevor 

When Lawrence became the No. 1 pick in the 2021 draft, being branded as a generational talent in the Andrew Luck mold, Phil Simms wasn’t completely buying it.

He liked a lot of Lawrence’s traits, but Simms had “concerns” that made him wonder if the Jaguars’ franchise QB would fulfill his potential.

“I hate that they made him a generational talent,” Simms said in a phone interview. “I saw some throws [from college] carry over into his rookie year that I didn’t like. I wanted to see the raw talent.

“My only complaint was I just wanted to see the raw physical ability and I didn’t see it as much as I thought. Then this year, Trevor made himself better in the offseason. And with coach Doug Pederson, we saw it all coming together. They turned that damn team around in months.”

A little context is necessary about Simms, the MVP of Super Bowl XXI who set a completion record (88 percent) by connecting on 22 of 25 passes in the New York Giants’ 39-20 demolition of the Denver Broncos.

Simms has no time to watch games intently on Sundays while working in studio as a CBS analyst. He watches games on Monday, then spends the rest of the week dissecting tape and has watched all of Lawrence’s game film.

He marvels at how Trevor evolved in digging his team out of a 4-8 hole to win the AFC South title, then leading the 27-point comeback in the wild-card round against the Los Angeles Chargers, and pushing the Kansas City Chiefs for 60 minutes the following week.

“I think all the praise he got was warranted,” Simms said. “It shows you what an organization, coaching and a GM [Trent Baalke] acquiring talent can do for quarterbacks. The fact Trevor threw four interceptions [against the Chargers] and then came back to throw four touchdowns, I’ve never seen anything like that in a playoff game.

“In the Chiefs’ game, I thought the ball coming out of his hand got better and better as the game went along. Trevor’s personality came out more in the second year, just his body language on the field. He just answered so many questions this season.”

The next step for Lawrence is to build on his late-season success, living up to the expectations that will ratchet up as a result.

“The story now is it’ll be a surprise if Trevor doesn’t play well,” said Simms. “Too much of us in the [media/TV] business judge too quickly, partly because we’re asked to. We judged Trevor too soon. There’s no grace hardly at all for quarterbacks.

“He’s not going to be mentioned in that one quarterback group yet [with Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, etc.], but next year, he may very well be.”

Raising his profile  

Quarterback narratives rarely stay the same. Lawrence went through a nightmarish rookie season under Urban Meyer, but had far better weapons around him in 2022 in free agent acquisitions Christian Kirk, Zay Jones and Evan Engram, along with running back Travis Etienne returning from injury.

It took time for Lawrence and the offense to find a consistent groove. Nobody viewed the Jaguars’ quarterback as anything special after five consecutive one-score losses in October, but his Q rating has surely taken an exponential jump in the past couple months.

Not just because of his production on the field and the prime-time exposure the Jaguars received in dramatic wins over the Tennessee Titans and Chargers. He also raised his profile through being a pitchman on multiple national shows (Jim Rome, Rich Eisen, ESPN First Take) during Pro Bowl and Super Bowl week for energy drinks, shampoo and other products.

For the first time in his NFL career, the Trevor brand is ascending in a big way. Not at a Peyton Manning level yet by any means, but you can see he’s plenty comfortable as the national spotlight intensifies because Lawrence has been dealing with massive attention since his freshman year of high school in Cartersville, Ga.

Simms sees a different Lawrence than he once did, one now emboldened with confidence from the Jaguars’ second-half run.

“There’s no way that I ever looked at Trevor as being too passive,” said Simms. “Doug Pederson’s offense doesn’t allow him to be. I don’t know what the [Jaguars’] down-the-field numbers are, but I think they’re pretty aggressive.

“When a quarterback believes in his throwing like Trevor, they don’t need big windows. When you have confidence, you will throw it into a lot of tight spots.”

All the skepticism from Trevor’s rookie season has gradually faded away. He’s not in the Mahomes or Burrow class, but the gap is closing.

Peyton Manning, who transformed the Indianapolis Colts’ franchise from an afterthought into a Super Bowl champion and made 11 playoff appearances in a 12-year stretch, is the one quarterback with whom Lawrence draws many comparisons.

When he was asked at the Pro Bowl about the Jaguars’ No. 16 — a number worn partly out of respect for Manning’s legacy at Tennessee — the five-time league MVP was rather effusive in his praise for Lawrence and his team’s future.

“Trevor, the sky’s the limit for this guy, known him since he came to our football camp years ago,” said Peyton. “I like the way he carries himself. He’s got a great knowledge of the system. I think Doug Pederson and he could be a tough combination for a long time, for years to come. I’m really happy for him.

“I like when a head coach is calling the plays often because that means there’s continuity in the offense. Even if Doug is not calling, it’s going to be the same system. I like the situation that Trevor is in. They had great success this year, kind of sent a message to the rest of the AFC that Jacksonville is here. I expect great things out of him in the next years.”

Peyton Manning wouldn’t say that about Lawrence or anybody if he didn’t believe it. He sees what most everybody now believes, that the Jaguars’ franchise is likely in a transformative state.

Whether Lawrence is the game-changer for Jacksonville’s franchise that Peyton was in Indianapolis, that still remains a pretty big stretch. It’s too early in the ballgame.

But one thing is clear: the Trevor bandwagon is getting crowded and the franchise might soon be in a better place than at any point in history.

Gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540   

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Archie Manning liked what he saw from Trevor Lawrence at family academy