Following their impressive playoff run in 2022, it looked like the Jacksonville Jaguars were going to be a perennial contender. However, they're currently on pace to post their seventh losing season in 10 years. The silver lining is that the Jags have a long-term answer at quarterback with Trevor Lawrence in the fold. That hasn't been the case in previous years.
Before landing Lawrence with the first overall pick in 2021, Jacksonville made several attempts to find stability at quarterback, but none were successful. One of them landed on a dubious list.
Following the benching of Daniel Jones, Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report drew up a list of the worst quarterback contracts in NFL history. Nick Foles, who signed a four-year deal worth $88 million made the cut.
Regarding Foles' inclusion on the list, Gagnon points out that a desperate Jaguars team hoped he was going to help them bring stability at quarterback but instead flopped.
"A few months before Wentz landed his blockbuster deal with Philly, Foles got big bucks from the desperate Jags, who were hoping he'd pull it all together as an entrenched starter for once at the age of 30.
Nope.
Dude never won a game in Jacksonville, going 0-4 during a season in which he missed significant time due to injury but was also benched for a rookie sixth-round pick. He was soon traded to the Bears, and he made just 10 starts for the remainder of his pro career."
Jones is making headlines because he was recently benched in favor of Tommy DeVito. A first-round pick in 2020, the New York Giants quarterback got a four-year extension worth $160 million but has been underwhelming and is one of the big reasons his team is 2-8 this season.
Sources: The #Giants are benching QB Daniel Jones, officially moving on from their starter.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 18, 2024
Out of the bye week, with the team 2-8, Jones now heads to the bench in what the team has said would be a football decision. pic.twitter.com/NaiVruk6sq
Foles, a third-round pick in the 2012 draft by the Philadelphia Eagles, had a promissing sophomore campaign, completing 64.0 percent of his throws for 289 yards with 27 touchdowns and two interceptions. However, he wasn't able to sustain that level of success and was shipped out of town in 2015.
The former Arizona Wildcat spent time with the Los Angeles Rams and the Kansas City Chiefs before landing in Philly in 2017. There, he took over the Eagles and led them to a Super Bowl win when Carson Wentz tore his AFC and LCL. Foles became a free agent in 2019 and signed with Jacksonville.
The decision to give him a top-market deal raised eyebrows across the league because the Jaguars were the only team interested in acquiring his services. Had he turned into the player they expected, it wouldn't have been an issue. The trouble is that he was dreadful in his lone season in Jacksonville.
The Austin, Texas was underwhelming and later suffered a collarbone injury that paved the way for a then-rookie Gardner Minshew to start. Rather than keeping him around for another season, the Jags traded him to the Chicago Bears in 2020 in exchange for a fourth-round pick, effectively making him one of the worst free-agent signings in team and league history.
Earlier this year, Foles announced his retirement.
The Jaguars signed Nick Foles to correct another mistake they made
The Jacksonville Jaguars desperately wanted the Nick Foles signing to work out because they had just gotten rid of Blake Bortles.
Back in 2014, the Jags drafted Bortles third overall. Even though he hadn't shown signs of being a franchise quarterback, the team made the eye-raising decision to give him a three-year worth $54 million in 2018 because they reached the AFC Championship. What Jacksonville failed to take into account is that they did it in spite of Blake and not because of him.
Things got so bad that then-head coach Doug Marrone benched Bortles in favor of Cody Kessler, and the Jags moved on from Bortles just one year after giving him the contract extension.
The bottom line is that the Jaguars made a mistake in an effort to correct another one. And five years after inking Nick Foles, it remains one of the worst free-agent signings in team history.