Ranking Nick Foles’ best potential landing spots in 2019
By Ian Wharton
2. Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars made a costly mistake by extending Blake Bortles and not addressing the position when they had the chance to add Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, or Lamar Jackson. But at least they’re going to move on this off-season and incur the likely $11.5 million dead cap hit that’ll come with a June 1 cap hit designation. Now they must decide who will be the face of the franchise and rebuild the offense.
Foles makes a ton of sense. His age isn’t a turnoff considering this roster is built to win right now. And he’s similar to Kirk Cousins, a quarterback new offensive coordinator John DeFilippo had experience working with last year.
There’s no question Foles is a better passer than Bortles in every way. Even in his worst games, teams will respect the passing threat with Foles over Bortles.
What makes this signing a tougher match involves the financials, and the draft.
Jacksonville is in a tough cap situation, currently $3 million over the limit. They’ll easily get under and clear space by trimming dead weight, but signing Foles and signing the draft class will put them right back up against it. Do they want to be in such a tight situation when extensions are looming elsewhere?
They could opt to sign a lesser free-agent like Ryan Tannehill or Teddy Bridgewater and save money to help round out the roster.
This is where the draft comes in as well.
The Jaguars have a significant interest in Dwayne Haskins based on the conversations I’ve had recently with several sources. Not only are they in prime position to move up to secure his rights, but they’d be saving money by starting a rookie quarterback as opposed to a veteran. Moving up for Haskins also wouldn’t preclude them from signing a veteran stopgap, though they’d be dealing with the same issue Miami has with paying significantly for a quarterback no longer on the roster in the form of dead cap.