Week 2 Awards from the Jaguars' loss to the Bengals

Welcome back to Weekly Awards!

As inappropriate as this article may seem after a brutal loss, there were still strong performances deserving of a hat tip.

Here are the award winners from Week 2.

Most Valuable Player of Week 2: Trevor Lawrence

At Paycor Stadium on Sunday, a quarterback completed 38.9% of passes for 3.9 yards per attempt and an 11.34 passer rating.

There was also a quarterback who completed 73.9% of passes for 8.7 yards per attempt and a 139.49 passer rating.

Both quarterbacks were Trevor Lawrence.

The first stat was him targeting Brian Thomas Jr. and Travis Hunter; the second was him targeting all other players.

The Jaguars dropped 5 passes on Sunday (including what would've been a game-winning score by Dyami Brown). There's only been nine instances of that happening across the NFL since the start of last season, per PFF.

Lawrence didn't exactly have to put the offense on his back to win the game. Excluding scrambles, Jacksonville picked up 135 yards on 25 rush attempts (5.4 yards per carry). 102 of Lawrence's 271 passing yards came off play action, and 73 more came off screens.

And like nearly every other game in his career, there were plays that made fans pull their hair out.

He made some questionable decisions: like when he tossed a red zone interception as he was getting hit, or when he threw the ball when he was three yards past the line of scrimmage, or when he audibled out of a 3rd-and-2 run play in the fourth quarter into a pass that fell incomplete.

He had some inaccurate tosses: like the interception he threw over the middle when targeting Thomas, or the near-interception down the left sideline when targeting Hunter.

It was far from a perfect game for Lawrence. However – as I'll show you, rather than just telling you, in a separate film breakdown coming out Wednesday – his positives outweighed his negatives.

There was the opening drive touchdown to Dyami Brown, a deep crosser to Parker Washington, multiple dig routes to Thomas, and well-timed touch passes to running backs, to name a few.

Lawrence gained 27.8 Expected Points Added on completed passes (fourth-most among all Week 2 quarterbacks). So his completions were essentially worth 28 points. Pretty valuable.

If Brown had caught that endzone target in the fourth quarter, the story of the week would be Lawrence's 4-touchdown performance to lead the Jaguars to a 2-0 start despite underwhelming games from Thomas and Hunter. Instead, many fingers are once again raised at the quarterback.

"I thought he competed his tail off," coach Liam Coen said postgame. "I thought he was getting us in and out of the right things and made a lot of good throws ... we can win with him playing like that."

Offensive Player of Week 2: Parker Washington

"P Dub" played 17 offensive snaps in both games to start the season, but he became more involved by catching 5 balls in Week 2 after not seeing a target in Week 1.

He made the most of his opportunities as his 76 receiving yards led the team. The Penn State product had just one game of 75+ yards in 27 career games before Sunday.

Anyone who paid attention to Jacksonville's 2025 training camp is not surprised. Washington had more highlight-reel grabs than any other player as he built a strong rapport with Lawrence.

Offensive coordinator Grant Udinksi said in August, "When you see a guy execute something consistently in practice, it gives you the confidence that he can go out there in the game situation."

The secret is out now. Washington is among the best role players not just on his team, but in the entire league. Among 85 players with 5+ targets this season, he ranks first with 4.5 yards per route run.

Hopefully we'll see some playmaking from Hunter sooner than later. In the meantime, Washington is making a strong case for Coen to call his number more often.

Defensive Player of Week 2: Travon Walker

The former No. 1 overall pick might be taking that next step.

Walker was a man on a mission. He slipped a couple of times on Cincinnati's artificial turf field, but otherwise, the guy was playing like a 6' 5", 270-pound bowling ball, knocking down opposing blockers and ballcarries like mere pins.

While he hasn't added much to his repertoire of pass rush moves, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Using smooth maneuvers to get around offensive linemen can look really cool – but there's a lot more that goes into playing the position than having a bag of moves. If your go-to is simply being bigger, faster, and stronger than your opposition, that works just fine. Jared Verse of the Rams is another example of a dominant edge rusher who can create hell without elite technique.

Walker and Josh Hines-Allen have looked phenomenal so far. With the former entering his prime and the latter still in his own, Jacksonville boasts one of the top three or four DE duos in the league.

Rookie of Week 2: Bhayshul Tuten

Ooooooeeeeee, Rick. The Jaguars found a diamond in the rough on Day 3 of this year's draft.

Six days after the team traded backup Tank Bigsby to the Eagles, Tuten immediately stepped into the role, and delivered. The 104th overall pick recorded 8 carries for 42 yards (for a team-high 5.3 yards per carry), adding 2 catches for 32 yards and a score through the air.

Tuten's biggest gain was a 24-yard screen where he slipped between defenders, bursted down the sideline, and made another man miss before being brought to the ground.

As exciting as that play and his touchdown were, my favorite rep was the one below. Tuten is fantastic at pressing up on the backs of his blockers and finding any crease available, and when a hole doesn't open, he'll just run through a guy's face.

"Yeah, I'm a fast running back," Tuten said Monday, "But I also like to run between the tackles, and I don't shy away from contact. I've always been like that since [I was] young. It's just who I am, a part of me, so I take it as a positive in my game.”

Travis Etienne remains the RB1 – he had a productive outing himself with 89 yards and a touchdown on 16 touches – but there's no doubt that Tuten has earned a sizable role.

I'm eager to see how Liam Coen deploys them on the field together as the season progresses. Here's how it looked on Sunday:

And here's what it looked like in the season opener:

“I think it brings a great dimension," Tuten said. "We’re both explosive players, so being able to have us both on the field to go line up as a wide receiver or in the backfield ... definitely helps the offense a lot.”

Between Etienne, Tuten, and seventh-round rookie LeQuint Allen Jr. – who showed why he already has the trust of coaches by suffocating a blitz and rushing for a first down on Sunday – the Jaguars have an able stable of running backs.