Lawrence, Mahomes Both Had to Overcome This Hurdle Early in Careers

Like a forbidden couple on a kiss cam at a Coldplay concert, Trevor Lawrence and Patrick Mahomes have quickly gone in different directions since they met in the 2022 AFC playoffs.

But both players started their NFL careers from the same place. Each quarterback made monumental adjustments before taking a pro snap. Lawrence explained last weekend that his cadence at Clemson consisted primarily of hand motions, and he rarely called plays in the huddle.

“I had to work on it because I did it a lot of clapping,” Lawrence said last week on the Pardon My Take podcast. “I had to work. I never called plays in the huddle besides goal line.

“But I never went under center or called a play or did a cadence, really, until I got to the NFL. So, all that blew my mind. Like, some of the play calls that are 20 words, that was a huge adjustment.”

Mahomes had an eerily similar transition from Texas Tech, where he starred in Kliff Kingsbury’s Air Raid offense, to the Chiefs in 2017. The major difference, however, was that Mahomes sat for nearly a full season behind Alex Smith. Lawrence jumped in immediately in 2021, starting the season opener and never looking back. The Jaguars quarterback said those quarterback adjustments were more difficult than the biggest eye-opener for most rookies, the exponentially faster speed in the NFL.

“Yeah, the speed, all that stuff, the margin for error is a lot smaller,” Lawrence said. “The guys just aren't as open. Typically, you're not throwing to wide-open guys. … But I think, yeah, the mental, what you have to do as a quarterback, mentally, is a lot different than college, like what I was asked to do.

“So that was a big change. Like, even the run game, like changing and stuff … always having to adjust what's going on in the run game, like changing the point, adjusting it, getting to like your second play. We never ran two plays in college. We would do the fake cadence and then look at the sideline, like, ‘Does the coach want to change the play?’ If not, you just run it.”

Lawrence and Mahomes relied primarily on signals, sometimes looking at large posterboard signs on their sidelines featuring icons or symbols. They learned under disciples of the late Mike Leach, who created the spread offense. Some believe the reason Mahomes fell to No. 10 in the first round – where Kansas City traded up to get him – was due to doubts that he could adjust to NFL complexities.

But after he won the MVP in his first full season as Kansas City’s starter, then earned Super Bowl MVP honors the following year, teams had no doubts about Lawrence’s ability to adjust.

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