After weeks upon weeks of speculating who Jacksonville would start at quarterback once Nick Foles returns from injury, the time has finally come. Foles is healthy and ready to play following the bye week. In a press conference, the Jacksonville Jaguars’s head coach, Doug Marrone, says “Nick Foles will be our quarterback going forward into the rest of the season.” 

Nick Foles’s career has been full of ups and downs. He was selected in the third round of the 2012 NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles. In his rookie season, he was backup to Michael Vick; when Vick went down with an injury, Foles stepped in and surprisingly played great. In his next two seasons with the Eagles, Foles did not play up to his expectations. He then spent time as a backup for the Rams and Chiefs before returning back to the Eagles. Foles played very few games his first season back with the team, spending most of his time on the bench. The next season the Eagles were off to a great start being led by a young quarterback Carson Wentz playing like the MVP. When Wentz went down with an injury many feared the Eagles season would come to an end. Shockingly, that same season Foles led the Eagles to their first Super Bowl in franchise history. Philadelphia had a hard decision to make that off-season: keep Foles or keep Wentz. The team chose to stay with Wentz as their quarterback for the future, meaning Nick Foles would become a free agent. In March, Foles signed a four-year contract worth 88 Jacksonville Jaguars. Jacksonville thought they finally solved their struggles with the quarterback position, but in the first game of the 2019 season, Foles went down with a left shoulder injury, leaving him out for ten weeks. 

Once Foles went down, rookie sixth round pick Gardner Minshew II stepped in. In his first game against the Chiefs, he threw for 275 yards and two touchdowns, completing 22 passes. He has been a league wide fan favorite with the nickname “Minshew Magic” since he started. Fans are loving him on and off the field. Sports analyst, Philip Heilman, comments about Minshew’s appearance: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I think if you have a mustache, you are one step ahead of the average dude.” He has 13 touchdowns on the season, 2,285 yards passing, with a quarterback rating (QBR) of 92.8. With all this taken into consideration, Minshew has not been playing well lately. In his last game against the Texans, he threw two interceptions and fumbled twice. This would heavily influence the Jaguars coaching staff in their decision to start Nick Foles over Gardner Minshew II.