Doug Pederson: I’m honest with Trevor Lawrence, I don’t ‘sugarcoat’

So far, Trevor Lawrence’s second NFL season just hasn’t been good enough.

The Jacksonville Jaguars’ 23-year-old quarterback has made statistical improvements in just about every passing category, but the team is 2-6 largely because of his propensity for making major mistakes at the worst times.

On Wednesday, Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said he tries to keep things positive when he works with Lawrence, but he doesn’t avoid being straightforward about his struggles either.

“I think number one, you’ve got to be honest with the player,” Pederson said. “That’s good and bad. You’re up front with him, and you’ve got to have constructive dialogue with him and really with all your players and your team. I never want to be someone wants to try to kind of sugarcoat anything.

“Sometimes you’ve got to have tough conversations with players, whether it’s the quarterback or not. We’re going to work through everything together, and that’s what we do. We dig ourselves out of whatever we’re in and continue to improve.”

The balance is not harping on mistakes so much that it affects the confidence of a young passer. Pederson said he wants to make sure he keeps Lawrence “in the right frame of mind” so the quarterback is still aggressive on Sundays.

Lawrence threw five touchdowns with no interceptions in the Jaguars’ pair of blowout wins in September. In the team’s six losses, he’s thrown five touchdowns with six interceptions and five fumbles.