Jacksonville Jaguars add C.J. Beathard to interesting QB room

The Jacksonville Jaguars announced that they have signed former San Francisco 49ers quarterback C.J. Beathard to an undisclosed deal.

This addition is a bit interesting as the Jaguars arguably had a better option in Alex Smith, who could have helped mentor the young quarterback room, and was coached by Urban Meyer at Utah. Whatever the decision behind Beathard’s signing, this move is simply to add depth and the Jaguars are still expected to draft Trevor Lawrence number one overall in the draft.

Beathard has spent the last four seasons with the 49ers. The 49ers drafted Beathard in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft out of the University of Iowa. At Iowa, Beathard played in 40 games and completed 58.1% of his passes for 5,562 yards and 40 touchdowns.

In San Francisco, Beathard started 12 out of 19 games and threw for 3,469 yards, 18 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions. In 2020, he passed for six touchdowns and zero interceptions in six games (two starts).

Beathard now joins Gardner Minshew and Jake Luton as the only quarterbacks on the Jaguars roster. Ian Rapaport of NFL Network speculates that Beathard’s signing could indicate the Jaguars are getting close to trading away Minshew. However, just last week, head coach Urban Meyer said “at this point, no” in response to reports that teams were calling about trading for Minshew.

Meyer continued, “But there is a lot of anticipation about the first pick, and I understand there is a lot of conversation out there. But there has been no decisions made. Gardner has done some very good things here in Jacksonville. And he’s a competitive maniac, which I really appreciate that about him. So there have been no decisions made.”

Minshew was once an exciting project for the Jaguars and many thought he could very well turn into their franchise quarterback. That dream was seemingly crushed last season but Minshew still has a lot of untapped potential. He’s still a highly valuable fill-in starter and just needs the right system to get him back on track.

The next few weeks are going to be very interesting in what the Jaguars will decide to do with Minshew, considering they signed Beathard and the 2021 NFL Draft is less than two months away.