Welcome to the Week 13 edition of the Midnight Mailbag! I’ll be asking for your lingering questions after each Jaguars game on 1010XL’s Facebook and X/Twitter pages, with the submission deadline set for 11:59 p.m. the same day.
There were no questions submitted following Jacksonville’s 23-20 loss to the Houston Texans, so I came up with three of my own.
Is Trevor Lawrence going on injured reserve?
I don’t expect Lawrence to land on IR (we probably would’ve gotten that news by now) but I do hope he’s played his last game of the season. Lawrence sustained his second concussion in 14 months on Sunday, and he’s had several additional injuries in that span. It is simply not worth the risk of further injury for him to re-take the field in 2024 — especially with the 2-10 Jaguars all but eliminated from postseason contention.
Why the bleep did Doug Pederson go for 2?
The Jaguars made it an 11-point game when Parker Washington scored a touchdown with eight minutes remaining. Rather than kick the extra point and make it a 10-point game, Pederson elected to go for 2. Here’s the thinking: if they got the 2-point conversion, they’d be in position to win the game outright with a touchdown (and extra point) and a field goal. And if they missed the 2-point conversion, they’d still be able to tie the game with a touchdown (and 2-point conversion) and a field goal. Fans were irate with Pederson after the team ended up missing the 2-point conversion, but as planned, the Jaguars later scored a touchdown and converted on that 2-point conversion to go down by 3 — which would have been the same result if Pederson just took the initial extra point then scored another touchdown with another extra point. So the initial 2-point attempt ended up not costing the team at all. It was an aggressive yet calculated move to give the team a better chance to win. Pederson has made several questionable decisions this season but this wasn’t one of them.
Does Walker Little’s new deal mean Trent Baalke will stay?
No. Baalke is still employed as Jacksonville’s general manager, so him conducting business is more of a sign that he’s not playing solitaire at his desk than anything. He has had a strict policy of never extended players during the season, yet he made an exception with Little, who said earlier today he was surprised by the timing of the offer. This was a Hail Mary attempt by Baalke to show ownership that he signed one of his own draft picks to a second contract — “look at how good I am!” — not an act that suggests job security.
