After watching Blake Bortles get off to an ugly start in Jacksonville, the Jaguars made the decision to add a quarterback to the roster this week.
The Jaguars announced Monday that they've signed Ryan Nassib, which means you can officially add Nassib to the list of mediocre quarterbacks who have gotten a job this year before Colin Kaepernick.
On one hand, it makes sense that the Jags added Nassib. The former Giants quarterback is familiar with Jaguars coach Doug Marrone and the team's executive vice president of football operations, Tom Coughlin.
During his college career, Nassib played under Marrone at Syracuse. After leaving school, Nassib was selected by the Giants in the fourth round of the 2013 NFL Draft and then went on to play three years for a Giants team that was coached by Coughlin.
Despite Bortles' struggles this season, Marrone insisted Monday that the Jaguars didn't bring Nassib in to start a quarterback competition. Marrone also explained why the Jaguars went with Nassib over other quarterbacks, like Kaepernick.
"At the end of the day, we felt that we got the best person for the team," Marrone said at his press conference on Monday.
The Jaguars coach also mentioned that Bortles has been dealing with a wrist injury and that the team added Nassib in case things got worse with Bortles.
"Blake's been on the injury list each week. It's kind of playing Russian roulette," Marrone said. "We were trying to figure out the best way to get a quarterback on the roster. We decided, 'Hey let's do this now so this way we have it just in case something happens [to Bortles].'"
Nassib will go into practice this week as the No. 3 quarterback on the Jaguars' roster behind Bortles and Chad Henne.
The weird thing about this signing is that the Jaguars are actually one of the few teams that would arguably become a playoff contender if they got an upgrade at the quarterback position. Bortles was so bad in the Jags' 37-16 Week 2 loss to the Titans that Tennessee corner Logan Ryan said it felt like the team has no faith in him.
"I don't think they have a lot of confidence. I think it's well known," Ryan told SiriusXM NFL Radio. "They don't have a lot of confidence in their quarterback situation. They're relying on the running game, and they're relying on possession passing."
Although Bortles finished with decent numbers against the Titans (20 of 34 for 223 yards), he threw two interceptions and put up most of his yardage in the fourth quarter when the Jags were already trailing 30-3.
The upside of benching Bortles is that the Jaguars wouldn't have to worry about paying his fifth-year option in 2018. Bortles' $19 million salary for next season only becomes guaranteed if he gets injured, and it would be pretty difficult for him to get injured on the bench. If Bortles were benched and stayed healthy, the Jaguars would cut him after the season with no further money owed.
Although adding a quarterback like Kaepernick would be an instant upgrade to anything the Jaguars currently have, don't look for that to happen no matter how bad Bortles plays this season. Coughlin has already made it clear that he has no interest in signing the former 49ers quarterback, even if he were to be interested in signing with the Jaguars.
