Jaguars sign QB Ryan Nassib to active 53-man roster

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Jaguars signed quarterback Ryan Nassib to their 53-man active roster, the team announced Monday. The question now is why?

Although the Jaguars won in blowout fashion over Houston in week 1 their offense didn’t exactly light up the scoreboard. On Sunday against Tennessee, the offense struggled and was shut down until a couple of meaningless touchdowns when the game was already out of reach.

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Is Nassib being brought in as competition for Blake Bortles or will he fill the role as the Jaguars No. 3 emergency quarterback? Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone cleared up any potential quarterback controversy on Monday when he made it clear that Nassib was brought in as insurance incase either Blake Bortles or Chad Henne go down with an injury.

"When you have a quarterback that’s gone on your injury list and is going to remain on the injury list, you’ve got to answer those questions," said Marrone. "Because if I came out here, let’s say, knock on wood, he [Bortles] gets injured and Chad goes in there and then we go and get someone, and then, all of a sudden, that week, God forbid, something happens to Chad. Then, the questions are going to turn to, ‘Why didn’t you have someone on the roster? Why didn’t you have someone on the practice squad?’ I understand those things, so for us, we’re just trying to make the best move to put our team in the best position in case these situations came up where we have problems. That’s the only way I’ve thought about it.”

So no Nassib won't be competing with Bortles to become the Jaguars starting quarterback. In fact he'll be the No. 3 quarterback behind Henne.

Over his five seasons in the NFL, Nassib has only attempted 10 passes and none since 2015. However the Jaguars staff is very familiar with Nassib. He was originally drafted by the New York Giants (No. 110 overall) in 2013 and played under Jaguars Executive Vice President of Football Operations Tom Coughlin for three seasons (2013-15) while Coughlin served as the head coach for the New York Giants. Nassib was released by the Giants during the 2017 offseason and signed with the New Orleans Saints on June 12, but was later released on Sept. 2. 

Prior to that he played for Marrone at Syracuse from 2009-12. While with the Orange current Jaguars offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett served as both a quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator for Nassib.

To make room on the roster, the Jaguars placed fourth-year S Calvin Pryor on the team’s reserve/injured list. The Jaguars also waived DB Doran Grant from the team’s reserve/injured list.