The State of the Jaguars Quarterback Room

The Jaguars have three young quarterbacks. Is it scary or exciting...or both?

Stop me if you’ve heard this before; the Jacksonville Jaguars drafted a gunslinging quarterback out of the Pac-12 in the sixth round of the NFL Draft. Now, with Jake Luton, they’re hoping to replicate at least a modicum of the same success. The future of the Jags quarterback room depends on it.

As the unit now sits, head coach Doug Marrone has three quarterbacks; Gardner Minshew II heading into his second year, rookie Jake Luton and backup Josh Dobbs. Between the three, only Minshew has started a game as a pro (12 last season, going 6-6).

When Minshew was drafted 178th overall in the 2019 NFL Draft, he was supposed to be a future plan. Jacksonville brought in Nick Foles from the Philadelphia Eagles, which was a good idea in theory. Foles just happened to be a victim of his own scrappy success, and therefore expectations, as well as just old-fashioned bad luck. 

When he went out with a shoulder injury in the first regular season game, the legend of the mustachioed slinger was born in Minshew. By the time Foles returned from injured reserve, he wasn’t the fans choice and everyone knew it. By the time the 2019 season had wrapped up, Foles was heading out the door and Minshew had captured Duval with the magic of a liger.

Minshew finished with 3,271 yards with a 61% completion percentage and an average of a 91.2 passer rating. His 21-6 touchdown to interception ratio helped him become only the fourth rookie in NFL history to throw for 20+ touchdowns with six or fewer interceptions in their first season. The other three are Dan Marino (1983), Robert Griffin III (2012) and Dak Prescott (2016). He was the first player in Jaguars franchise history to throw for at least 200 passing yards with a passer rating of at least 95.0 in five consecutive games.

Luton’s greatest strength coming into the quarterback room may just be that his team bio page begins much like his predecessor’s. And of course, the new in-state rival passer with the infamous draft card reading much the same helps spurn dreams of the next diamond in the rough. A sixth-rounder from the West Coast, Luton played against Minshew while the former was at Oregon State and the latter at Washington State. Luton averaged 246.7 passing yards a game in 2019, 30th in FBS. For relative reference, Minshew led the FBS in 2018, averaging 367.6 yards a game.

Injuries shortened Luton’s 2017 and 2018 campaigns. But as a senior he finished with 28 touchdowns to three interceptions and a swan song to the tune of 408 yards and five touchdowns in a shootout 53-54 loss to Washington State. Luton’s career spans several seasons across conferences and divisions meaning he’s an older rookie at 24. It’s maturity that could prove vital when coupled with the others in his unit. Without Foles there is currently no veteran presence in the meeting room.

But there is an actual rocket scientist. Josh Dobbs came to Jacksonville following Week One of the 2019 season from the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he was drafted to in 2017. Dobbs has only appeared in five games in the NFL, going 6-12 for 43 yards and an interception in the limited action. He spent his time in the Steel City backing up Ben Roethlisberger. His razor-sharp mind filled with two years worth of learning behind one of the games best could very well be one of the more valuable pieces to this Jags quarterback room.

There remains an opportunity to add an older passer in free agency. Cam Newton is still on the market, for example. Even if it’s not Newton though, an extra presence on the practice field and hat on the sideline, even a journeyman, could help anchor a unit that has just enough youthful exuberance to fly high too quickly and burn out (even with an aerospace engineer to figure out the physics).

More likely than not, this will be a young unit. It will come with bumps and learning curves that will probably be excruciatingly painful in the moment. But if they commit to this quarterback room and continue to chip away to find that diamond in the rough, it also sets up an exciting future, one of which a franchise can build upon with a pair of sixth-round gems.