Jaguars Sign Former 49ers Quarterback C.J. Beathard
The Jacksonville Jaguars have announced they have signed quarterback C.J. Beathard. The free agent last played for the San Francisco 49ers before hitting the market last week. The club brought him in for a tryout last Friday.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Network first reported the addition.
Drafted by San Francisco in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft, Beathard started 12 games for the 49ers over the last three seasons. Beathard was the third quarterback on the depth chart and started while starter Jimmy Garoppolo recovered from injury and in relief of backup Nick Mullens.
Beathard went 2-10 as a starter during that period. He ended his 49ers tenure with 18 touchdowns, 13 interceptions, 58.6% completion rate, and 7.0 yards per attempt.
Jaguars General Manager Trent Baalke was last GM with the 49ers, but was relieved of his duties before the club drafted Beathard later in the same year.
As of today, the only quarterbacks on the roster are Gardner Minshew (2019 sixth-round pick) and Jake Luton (2020 sixth-round pick). Each started several games last year before having their plugs pulled in favor of Mike Glennon. The presumption is the Jaguars will draft a quarterback with the No. 1 overall pick in next month’s 2021 NFL Draft; more so that they will draft Clemson Tigers quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
While it’s been long known the Jaguars would use their first pick on a new passer, the question has become who will fill out the room?
“With Gardner and Luton, we’re in good shape," Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke said last week.
"We have two young guys that both have played. They’ve both done a very good job. I think, right now, we’re just trying to get a feel for them going in with the new system. There’s just a lot of newness right now. That will all shake itself out once we get into the offseason program, which hopefully we have, and we’ll go from there.”
The third quarterback on the 2020 roster was veteran Mike Glennon. All three guys started games at some point during the season. But Glennon is now off to the New York Giants via free agency, leaving the Jaguars without a veteran presence in the unit.
Beathard doesn't have as many starts as Minshew, who was thrust into the role as a rookie and became the incumbent in his second year, but he has been in the NFL a bit longer. Minshew was drafted in 2019.
"At this point, no," Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer said Friday when asked if the team was fielding trade offers on Minshew.
"At this point, I know Gardner [Minshew II] a little bit. He came in yesterday; we had a good visit. That’s the second time I spent time with him. This is all kind of new to me. I’m used to spending about five, six hours a day with our quarterback. January, February, that’s the days you get your quarterback ready to go. You can’t do that in the NFL. There’s a lot of anticipation about the first pick. I understand there’s a lot of conversation out there, but there’s been no decisions made. Gardner’s done some very good things here in Jacksonville and he’s a competitive maniac, which I really appreciate that about him. So, there’s been no decisions made. Yesterday was the first lengthy meeting we had and we’re going to continue that here for the next few weeks.”
