The Jaguars waited until they were signing undrafted free agents to add a quarterback to their roster, eventually doubling down on two prospects to join Blaine Gabbert and Chad Henne on the depth chart.
It’s not an approach that signals any great urgency to find a long-term solution at quarterback and Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports found that was the case during a visit to Jaguars workouts. Cole writes that that the Jaguars brass was privately “only too happy” to see the Bills and Jets draft quarterbacks early this year, presumably taking them out of the running for the cream of next year’s crop, while publicly playing a waiting game for a quarterback to do enough to grab the job this season.
“We’re going to give everybody a fair chance to see who can win the job and whether that person is the long-term solution,” Jaguars General Manager David Caldwell said. “Whether it’s from the pocket or if we run some rollout stuff, we’re going to find ways to give the quarterback more of a chance. And then we’ll see how it goes.”
Cole reports that coach Gus Bradley was similarly unruffled about wide receiver Justin Blackmon’s four-game suspension, another sign that the new team in charge of the Jaguars is approaching this as something closer to a redshirt year than one designed to challenge for a winning record. Given the state of the roster, that’s probably the best approach as Caldwell and Bradley find the kinds of players they want to build their team around in the coming years. For this year, that meant players like tackle Luke Joeckel and safety Jonathan Cyprien while the top college quarterbacks were left for other teams.
That’s unlikely to happen again next April.