The worst case scenario may have unfolded for the Jacksonville Jaguars Monday night. The 8-3 AFC South leaders were a win over the Cincinnati Bengals away from sliding into the conference’s top seed and controlling their own destiny on the road to a potential first round bye. Then franchise quarterback Trevor Lawrence dropped back to pass on third down, had his left ankle stepped on by left tackle Walker Little and was bent backward awkwardly over his right leg by Bengals pass rusher Trey Hendrickson.
Lawrence attempted to peel himself from the turf before ripping off his helmet and slapping the turf in frustration. He was helped to the locker room for further evaluation, declared questionable to return thanks to an ankle injury and replaced by C.J. Beathard in the starting lineup.
Fortunately, the injury may be only a serious sprain for the franchise quarterback.
The initial diagnosis for #Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence is an ankle sprain, per sources. He'll have an MRI on Tuesday.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) December 5, 2023
Losing Lawrence for any extended stretch at this point of the season would be absolutely brutal for one of the NFL’s least lucky franchises. Jacksonville is locked in a three-way battle for the South thanks to better-than-expected seasons from the Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts. Fortunately they’ve got some useful, if unexciting, options to turn to if Lawrence is forced out of action for an extended stretch.
Let’s start with the guy who replaced the former No. 1 overall pick in Week 13
The incumbent backup: C.J. Beathard
Beathard was once highly regarded enough as a collegiate quarterback to be a third round pick. This is good. He also couldn’t find a way to reliably operate a Kyle Shanahan offense. This is bad.
Beathard was the San Francisco 49ers’ backup and occasional starter from 2017 to 2020, filling in for an injured Jimmy Garoppolo in stretches but only going 2-10 as a starter. That’s concerning, as the Niners’ operate an easy-bake offense that allows flawed quarterbacks to thrive without having to rely on tough throws downfield. It’s what allowed Garoppolo to make it to two NFC title games (sort of) in his final three seasons in the Bay Area and what’s made 2022’s final draft pick (Brock Purdy) 2023’s co-favorite for regular season MVP honors.
We don’t have much data to go on with Beathard in black and teal. He’s been well-liked enough for the Jaguars to keep him around since 2021. He’s also only thrown 17 passes in that stretch, averaging a meager 4.8 yards per attempt in that tiny sample size.
On Monday night he completed nine of 10 passes but for only 63 yards thanks to an inefficient and unexciting seven air yards per pass — nearly six full yards lower than Lawrence’s 12.7 vs. the Bengals. While he led a game-tying field goal drive at the end of regulation and had a deep ball that could have ended the game in overtime to Calvin Ridley called back due to a holding penalty, it’s clear he’s a downgrade from the team’s incumbent.
The practice squad scratch-off ticket: Nathan Rourke
The Canadian signal-caller was wonderful at Ohio University. Under Frank Solich’s leadership he went 25-14 as a starter, led the Bobcats to three straight bowl games, throwing for 60 touchdowns and running for 49 more in his NCAA career.
Of course, that run came between 2017 and 2019. The year is now 2023 and Rourke has yet to make even a cameo appearance in a regular season NFL game. He spent 2021 and 2022 as the starter for the BC Lions, winning the Canadian Football League’s award for Most Outstanding Canadian despite an injury shortened league. That was his springboard to Jacksonville’s practice squad, where he’ll likely earn a call-up for Week 14.
Rourke is a wild card, but clearly Doug Pederson saw enough potential to designate him emergency QB. He’s capable of running an RPO-heavy offense, which bodes well for a head coach who used that very system to take a backup quarterback to the Super Bowl and make Nick Foles a Philadelphia legend. Of course, even scratching the surface of that success with an undrafted CFL veteran would be a wildly different accomplishment but, hey, Frank Reich’s not busy right now. Maybe he’d be interested in getting the band back together.
The free agent options: Colt McCoy, Nick Foles, Matt Barkley
Look, we’ve already talked about how Pederson once wrung Super Bowl glory from a discarded Foles in the past. There’s absolutely no way it would happen again, but it’d make a nice story and Jacksonville wouldn’t have to pay him much to serve as an emergency QB if he were interested. We last saw Foles in 2022 where he made two starts and threw four interceptions without a single touchdown for the Colts.
Barkley signed with the New York Giants this fall after injuries to Daniel Jones and Tyrod Taylor. He’s brand new to the open market after being waived Monday. He was also released by a team that currently has one active quarterback on the roster and it’s Tommy DeVito, so it feels like there’s a lesson there.
McCoy was a surprise cut by the Arizona Cardinals late in the offseason. He’s resisted overtures to play in 2023 despite a rash of injuries across the league. Would a spot with a potentially playoff bound Jaguars team be enough of a siren’s song to lure him back to the field? He spent the last two seasons being entirely and forgettably … fine for the Cards.
The potential practice squad signees: Oh, brother, feast your eyes
Here’s a partial list of the players the Jaguars could acquire from rivals’ practice squads by signing them to the active roster:
- Shane Buechele
- Will Grier
- Malik Cunningham
- Jake Fromm
- Trace McSorley
- David Blough
- Kellen Mond
- Ben DiNucci
- Chris Oladokun
- Brett Rypien
- Jeff Driskel
It’s a cold world out there if you’re looking for available quarterback talent this late in the season. At least you know these guys are in something approaching game shape.
The longshot to lure out of the broadcasting booth: Matt Ryan
Ryan hasn’t played in 2023 but has remained close to the game as a member of CBS’s broadcasting team. While he wasn’t sharp in his most recent season with the Indianapolis Colts, he’d have a better lineup of receiving talent capable of carrying him through rough stretches. We know he and Calvin Ridley have a connection; Ryan was the Atlanta Falcons’ quarterback when Ridley emerged as a second-team All-Pro behind a 90-catch, 1,374-yard 2020.
The caveat, of course, is that Ryan is 38 years old and would be the league’s oldest active quarterback should he return to the field (you know, assuming Aaron Rodgers *doesn’t* heal from a torn Achilles in 100 days). He was uninspiring last season as he entered his late-stage Drew Brees era. Like the Saints’ QB, he was once an electric deep ball trebuchet reduced to a litany of low-risk, short range targets for an unexciting offense.
That might not be a terrible thing for the Jaguars! While Jacksonville has gotten middling returns when it comes to yards after catch in 2023, the Jags are loaded with reliable mid-range targets capable of keeping an offense on schedule. On the other hand, Travis Etienne’s been frustrating this fall leaving a far different level of ground support than the Colts gave Ryan in 2022, even with an injured Jonathan Taylor.
It’s a long shot, and it’s not a perfect fit. But the Jaguars have to cover all their bases. And Ryan may never get a better opportunity to pilot a team back to the playoffs than this.
