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Michael DiRocco, ESPN writer
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Trevor Lawrence isn’t ruling out surgery on his sprained left shoulder before the season ends, but the Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback is also convinced he wants to return to the field as soon as possible.
It looks like the latter could happen Sunday against the Houston Texans at EverBank Stadium if the rest of the week goes well in Lawrence’s return to practice.
“Believe [the sprained AC joint] Honestly, it’s been pretty difficult to evaluate what the best path forward is,” Lawrence said Wednesday. “[Surgery is] It’s definitely something I’m considering and it’s not out of the question at all. It’s something that we’re just going to have to [approach] Truly day by day, week by week.
“Hopefully I can get back out there this week or as soon as possible and then it will be every week to evaluate him and see where he is. Obviously up to this point I’ve been doing everything I can. “Avoid that and I want to get back to playing with my guys. and finish the season. “That’s my goal.”
Lawrence suffered the injury in the first half of the Jaguars’ loss at Philadelphia on Nov. 3, but he didn’t miss a play and nearly led Jacksonville to a comeback victory until he threw an interception in the end zone with 1:38 left. .
Lawrence missed the Jaguars’ last two games. Behind backup quarterback Mac Jones, the Jaguars managed just 313 combined yards and scored a combined 13 points in losses to Minnesota and Detroit.
Lawrence returned to practice Monday for the first time since Nov. 8, and coach Doug Pederson said Wednesday that Lawrence’s shoulder responded well.
Lawrence was going to take the majority of the first-team reps during Wednesday afternoon’s practice, and Pederson said that was an encouraging sign for Lawrence to play against the Texans.
“Obviously I’m not going to commit, but it was a good start to the week,” Pederson said.
Lawrence, who has completed 61.3% of his passes for 2,004 yards and 11 touchdowns with six interceptions, said his shoulder feels better since the injury, but he wants to see how it feels later in the week before making his case to play. . .
“I’m getting ready to play and I’m getting ready like I normally would to play a full game and to go, if that happens, or when that happens, I’m ready to play,” Lawrence said. “But also, if that’s not going to happen, you have to make sure that if Mac is going to play, he gets some reps and he’s prepared as well.
“I think there’s a lot of things to consider, but I’m definitely going to take each day and see how I feel and obviously talk to our staff and see how they’re progressing. But I feel better than I have in the past few weeks.”
