Jaguars’ Brass Remains Committed to Not Naming a Starting QB, Opting for a Competition
Until the Jacksonville Jaguars kick off in September to start the 2020 season, the team is going to continue to hear the same questions about quarterback. Will it be Nick Foles or Gardner Minshew II who leads the offense?
So far, the answer is far from clear.
Head coach Doug Marrone, general manager Dave Caldwell, and even owner Shad Khan have all remained steadfast in speaking in noncommittal tones when addressing the quarterback position, noting that they all feel comfortable with both passers. This continued Tuesday at the NFL Scouting Combine, and likely will for the next few months.
"I think both of those guys are in a situation where they both have proven in their own way that they can be a good quarterback in the NFL," Caldwell said during his combine press conference on Tuesday.
The questions the Jaguars are facing at the position are clear. Foles, a former Super Bowl MVP with the Philadelphia Eagles, signed a monster four-year, $88 million contract with the Jaguars as an unrestricted free agent last March, but went 0-4 as a starter in an injury riddled first year in Jacksonville. He ultimately was 77/117 passing (65.8%) for 736 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions.
While Foles was on the mend for eight games from a clavicle injury he sustained in Week 1, 2019 sixth-round draft pick Gardner Minshew II took the reins of the offense and dazzled with his exiting, albeit inconsistent, play.
Minshew would be replaced in the starting lineup by Foles in Week 11, but returned at halftime of Week 13 and never looked back. He ended his season going 6-6 as a starter and recording 285/470 passing (60.6%) for 3,271 yards, 21 touchdowns, and nine interceptions.
"Nick has a much larger body of work than Gardner does. For what Gardner did last year as a rookie, I think was very impressive," Caldwell said. "He won six games and was .500 in the games he started – 20-plus touchdowns, low interception rate. It felt like he had probably the best stats of any rookie quarterback last year. It is something we have to take note to, but like Shad [Khan] said a couple weeks ago, we have two quarterbacks that we feel really good about. We’ll see what Coach [Jay] Gruden devises with our offense, Coach [Ben] McAdoo and kind of go from there.”
While Minshew's performance in 2019 was encouraging for a rookie and the Jaguars won more games with him at quarterback, the Jaguars' brass has denied publicly that either quarterback has an advantage other heading into the offseason.
"I would not say it gives him a leg up," Caldwell said about Minshew ending 2019 as the starter. "I think every year is a new year. You hope that every player takes a jump up and that’s not just Gardner, that is Nick too. Another year being in Jacksonville and we will see how that plays out.”
At least publicly, the Jaguars appear to be set on having Foles and Minshew compete for the starting position in training camp before the season begins. The Jaguars have not had a bonafide quarterback competition heading into a season in a few years. Jacksonville held a short-lived competition between Blake Bortles and Chad Henne in 2017, but Bortles won the job he entered training camp with.
"The best thing to do is have those guys go out there and have them compete," Marrone said via Jaguars.com. "When one of them separates themselves, and there's been enough body of work for it, then that person's going to be the starting quarterback."
It like would have likely been a large surprise to the Jaguars' brass last April if they were told Foles and Minshew would be heading into the 2020 offseason in competition with each other to start at quarterback. It wasn't even until after the preseason that the Jaguars began to have an idea in what they had in Minshew, or the quarterback situation that they would eventually find themselves in after the 2019 season.
"No. I try not to," Caldwell said Tuesday if he ever thinks about if Foles didn't have his unfortunate injury early in the season.
"I think the one positive of Nick [Foles] [injury] and there were not many – especially for Nick and his family and what he had to endure not only in that game, but throughout the season. He was trying to come back and he did a tremendous job fighting back, but it did allow us [to find] that we do have a guy in Gardner that we feel like if we need to, we can build around and win with," Caldwell said.
