What are the Jaguars’ quarterback alternatives if Trevor Lawrence is seriously hurt?

The worst case situation might have unfolded for the Jacksonville Jaguars Monday night. The 8-3 AFC South leaders were a win over the Cincinnati Bengals away from moving into the conference’s top seed and managing their own fate on the roadway to a prospective veryfirst round bye. Then franchise quarterback Trevor Lawrence dropped back to pass on 3rd down, had his left ankle stepped on by left dealwith Walker Little and was bent backwards awkwardly over his right leg by Bengals pass rush Trey Hendrickson.

Lawrence tried to peel himself from the grass before ripping off his helmet and slapping the grass in aggravation. He was assisted to the locker space for additional examination, stated doubtful to return thanks to an ankle injury and changed by C.J. Beathard in the beginning lineup.

Fortunately, the injury might be just a severe sprain for the franchise quarterback.

The preliminary medicaldiagnosis for #Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence is an ankle sprain, per sources. He’ll have an MRI on Tuesday.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) December 5, 2023

Losing Lawrence for any extended stretch at this point of the season would be definitely harsh for one of the NFL’s least fortunate franchises. Jacksonville is locked in a three-way fight for the South thanks to better-than-expected seasons from the Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts. Fortunately they’ve got some beneficial, if unexciting, choices to turn to if Lawrence is required out of action for an extended stretch.

Let’s start with the guy who changed the previous No. 1 total choice in Week 13

Morgan Tencza-USA TODAY Sports

Beathard was assoonas extremely relatedto sufficient as a college quarterback to be a 3rd round choice. This is great. He likewise couldn’t discover a method to dependably run a Kyle Shanahan offense. This is bad.

Beathard was the San Francisco 49ers’ backup and periodic starter from 2017 to 2020, filling in for an hurt Jimmy Garoppolo in extends however just going 2-10 as a starter. That’s worrying, as the Niners’ run an easy-bake offense that permits flawed quarterbacks to prosper without having to rely on difficult tosses downfield. It’s what enabled Garoppolo to make it to 2 NFC title videogames (sort of) in his last 3 seasons in the Bay Area and what’s made 2022’s last draft choice (Brock Purdy) 2023’s co-favorite for routine season MVP honors.

We wear’t have much information to go on with Beathard in black and teal. He’s been favored sufficient for the Jaguars to keep him around giventhat2021 He’s likewise just tossed 17 passes in that stretch, averaging a weak 4.8 backyards per effort in that small sample size.

On Monday night he finished 9 of 10 passes however for just 63 lawns thanks to an ineffective and unexciting 7 air backyards per pass — almost 6 complete lawns lower than Lawrence’s 12.7 vs. the Bengals. While he led a game-tying field objective drive at the end of policy and had a deep ball that might haveactually ended the videogame in overtime to Calvin Ridley called back due to a holding charge, it’s clear he’s a downgrade from the group’s incumbent.

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The Canadian signal-caller was terrific at Ohio University. Under Frank Solich’s management he went 25-14 as a starter, led the Bobcats to 3 straight bowl videogames, throwing for 60 goals and running for 49 more in his NCAA profession.

Of course, that run came inbetween 2017 and2019 The year is now 2023 and Rourke has yet to make even a cameo look in a routine season NFL videogame. He invested 2021 and 2022 as the starter for the BC Lions, winning the Canadian Football League’s award for Most Outstanding Canadian inspiteof an injury reduced league. That was his springboard to Jacksonville’s practice team, where he’ll mostlikely make a call-up for Week 14.

Rourke is a wild card, however plainly Doug Pederson saw adequate possible to designate him emergencysituation QB. He’s capable of running an RPO-heavy offense, which bodes well for a head coach who utilized that extremely system to take a backup quarterback to the Super Bowl and make Nick Foles a Philadelphia legend. Of course, even scratching the surfacearea of that success with an undrafted CFL veteran would be a extremely various achievement however, hi, Frank Reich’s not hectic best now. Maybe he’d be interested in getting the band back together.