Report: Jaguars Bring Veteran QB C.J. Beathard In for a Tryout
The Jacksonville Jaguars have a quarterback room in transition and without a veteran, so it appears they are leaving no stone unturned as they look for solutions.
One of those solutions will be the quarterback the Jaguars take at No. 1 overall, which is expected to be Clemson's Trevor Lawrence. But what about behind him?
Perhaps veteran quarterback C.J. Beathard could be an option to backup Lawrence? According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network on Friday, the Jaguars hosted the free agent quarterback on a tryout.
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.
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.”
But with Glennon now off to the New York Giants via free agency, the Jaguars could use a true veteran quarterback to bring to training camp to compete for a spot on the roster.
Beathard doesn't have as many starts as Minshew, but he has been in the NFL a bit longer. 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 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.
Beathard wouldn't be a better backup option than Minshew, but it still remains to be seen what the Jaguars do with Minshew. He would likely be a valuable trade piece, but the Jaguars seem to be under the belief right now that they would rather keep him in Jacksonville.
"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.”
