JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Troy Aikman doesn’t try to pretend he has intimate knowledge about the makeup of Trevor Lawrence.
So the Hall of Fame quarterback, who navigated the Dallas Cowboys out of a 1-15 football abyss in 1989 and steered them to Super Bowl glory, stops short of glowing predictions about the Jaguars’ highly-regarded No. 1 draft pick having similar success.
Don’t get him wrong, Aikman likes what he sees from watching game tape on Lawrence. He’s just cautious on anointing him as the Jaguars’ savior.
“I don’t think you can have the career he had in college [at Clemson] and high school [in Cartersville, Ga.] without being fully vested,” Aikman said in a phone interview with the Florida Times-Union. “He has all the things you want in a quarterback. Hearing from people I respect who know Trevor say he possesses that part.
“Now it’s a question of things he can’t control that are in the hands of Jacksonville [Jaguars].”
What Aikman is talking about is the one thing many people giddy about the prospect of Lawrence possibly one day taking the Jaguars to the NFL mountaintop often overlook: his surrounding cast.
Though they played in far different NFL eras, there are interesting similarities to what Lawrence faces trying to resurrect the Jaguars and what Aikman encountered coming to Dallas in 1989 as the No. 1 pick out of UCLA.
One quarterback hopes to rejuvenate a franchise in Jacksonville, arriving at the same time as an ultra-successful college coach, Urban Meyer, who had never set foot in the NFL. Aikman did that with the Cowboys under coach Jimmy Johnson, a recent Hall of Fame inductee.
The former national championship coach at Miami left an indelible mark on America’s team by winning two Super Bowls in five years, acquiring all the marquee players that also won another Lombardi Trophy after he departed.
Meyer, with the help of GM Trent Baalke, would love to be an NFL reincarnation of his good friend, Johnson, as a talent evaluator. That, perhaps more so than Lawrence’s acclimation to the league, will determine whether the Jaguars can approach in the next decade what those Cowboys did for most of the 1990s.
“The quarterback is a bigger influence on the game than he’s ever been, but just one great quarterback isn’t going to win a lot of football games for you,” said Aikman. “So much for a quarterback is contingent on things he can’t control.
“You can’t go No. 1 in the draft and not have talent. Trevor’s got the ability, but you could go through a laundry list of players that were highly acclaimed and left the NFL as busts. You can find the [quarterback] talent. It’s all the rest of it.”
Get building blocks
There’s no doubt the 2021 Jaguars are in a better place than the 1989 Cowboys, who had some nice pieces with promising receiver Michael Irvin and two decent offensive linemen in Nate Newton and Mark Tuinei. But the cupboard on defense was painfully thin.
Dave Campo, one of six Miami assistants who came with Johnson to Dallas as a defensive backs coach, understands the differences between the Cowboys in their pre-Super Bowl years and current Jaguars as well as anyone. Campo went on to become the Cowboys’ head coach (2000-02) and a Jaguars’ assistant (2005-07) under Jack Del Rio. He was part of Dallas’ entire Super Bowl run and the St. John’s resident has observed the Jaguars in training camp.
“Our defense [in Dallas] wasn’t very good when we got there, it was old and slow in Tom Landry’s last years,” Campo said. “Jimmy [Johnson] brought a lot of speed to that unit and Urban is doing the same thing. The key to how this goes for the Jaguars will be how far this defense comes along.”
It goes back to what Aikman said about how one great quarterback isn’t enough. While the Jaguars are coming off a 1-15 season in the Doug Marrone regime, the Cowboys had the same record in Aikman’s first year and he was 0-11 as a starter, missing five games midway through the season with a broken index finger on his non-throwing hand.
The turnaround happened pretty quickly because Johnson, a masterful wheeler-dealer, built the Cowboys into an NFL power by upgrading through trades, most notably the Herschel Walker deal midway through the 1989 season. Johnson parlayed that into a future draft haul that netted the likes of all-time leading rusher Emmitt Smith, Russell Maryland, Kevin Smith and five-time Pro Bowler Darren Woodson.
Dallas won a Super Bowl in Aikman’s fourth season because Johnson became a whiz at picking the right players. While the most well-known Cowboys were the triplets of Aikman, Smith and Irvin, the building blocks around the quarterback and on defense that Johnson procured is what turned Dallas into a dynasty.
“Herschel was one of the only good players we had, but his trade was only going to be valuable if we did something with the picks,” Aikman said. “Jimmy’s greatest strength was his ability to evaluate talent and he hit on high picks and late-round picks, too.”
Johnson also drafted the likes of tight end Jay Novacek, receiver Alvin Harper, offensive tackle Erik Williams, center Mark Stepnoski and defensive tackle Leon Lett. He traded for San Francisco 49ers’ pass-rusher Charles Haley, propelling the defense from 17th in the NFL in 1991 to first the following year.
What does all this all have to do with Lawrence’s future in Jacksonville? Plenty. The Jaguars, if they truly expect to build a sustained winning franchise, need Meyer and Baalke stacking together quality acquisitions because Aikman and other HOF quarterbacks don’t get to Canton or consistently to the playoffs without a lot of help.
“My critics would say, ‘Look at the offensive line Troy played behind, and he had Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin and Jay Novacek,’ “ said Aikman. “Well, most guys who have any success at quarterback have really good players around them.”
Aikman, who finished third in the 1988 Heisman Trophy voting behind winner Barry Sanders and USC quarterback Rodney Peete, was nowhere near as highly regarded entering the NFL draft as Lawrence.
But he benefitted in ways that can’t be seen on a scouting report. The Cowboys’ legend credits the arrival of offensive coordinator Norv Turner in his third season with transforming his career. Campo believes another part of Aikman’s rise to NFL stardom is often overlooked.
“A lot of Troy’s success was about his ability to lead,” said Campo. “He was a no-nonsense guy and he controlled those guys around him by leading them the right way.”
Jaguars well positioned
One thing Aikman is absolutely certain of is the Jaguars and Lawrence are in much better shape than the Cowboys were when he came aboard with Johnson over three decades ago.
It was too early then to know how all of Johnson’s draft picks would evolve, Aikman included. In four years, Dallas went from 1-15, to 7-9, to 11-5 (playoff wild-card team), to 13-3 and a Super Bowl champion.
The consensus with Campo and Aikman is 2021 for the Jaguars and Meyer feels more like the Cowboys’ second year under Johnson.
“Even though it wasn’t Urban’s draft picks last year [when Doug Marrone was head coach], he’s getting a jump because some of those players will be important pieces,” Campo said. “The 1-15 season has already happened. That’s not happening this year.”
Aikman is bullish on the Jaguars making a significant jump. How much of a record improvement depends on a wide assortment of factors, but he feels the opportunity for Meyer to instill rapid growth is almost unprecedented.
“It took Jimmy [Johnson] to trade Herschel Walker to be positioned the way Jacksonville was in the last draft,” said Aikman. “If you were going to come into a situation as a GM or head coach, I don’t know there was a better situation with all those draft picks, the salary cap space and a No. 1 pick — a generational quarterback — than what the Jaguars had.”
Now it’s up to Meyer and Baalke to make good use of the treasure beyond Lawrence.
Will Josh Allen hit the reset button and become a perennial Pro Bowl pass-rusher? Can running-receiving threat Travis Etienne make the Jaguars’ offense certifiably dangerous? Does the offensive line elevate and become better at pass protection?
Trevor’s intangibles matter
Of course, quarterback is the biggest piece. While the consensus from pundits is Lawrence has the tools for greatness, Aikman leans toward a wait-and-see attitude about any QB because the film doesn’t tell everything.
He has studied Lawrence by watching some of his college tape and his Pro Day, but Aikman says that’s not enough to get a true evaluation of how he will transition into the NFL.
“When I hear this guy makes all the throws, what does that mean?” Aikman said. “It shouldn’t be hard to find somebody who can make all the throws. Another fashionable term is arm talent. I don’t know what the hell that means. If you don’t have a strong arm, you can still compensate by getting the ball out sooner and making good decisions.
“What allows a quarterback to have success is all the intangibles. Is he driven to be great? Is he obsessed to be the best player like Peyton Manning was obsessed? Is he going to be put into a good offense where he can thrive?”
The Jaguars are banking on Trevor Lawrence, a much better prospect coming into the NFL than some of its star quarterbacks, taking them to multiple Super Bowls like Troy Aikman.
Looking at the Cowboys’ history, the blueprint is clear: find great pieces to put around the quarterback.
