Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Chad Henne never saw the field in Super Bowl 54. He wasn’t even active for the game, landing instead on the team’s list of pregame scratches with Matt Moore backing up Patrick Mahomes.
The Jaguars keep cranking out Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks ... for other teams
Chad Henne is the latest in Jacksonville’s tradition of excellence (?) in the Super Bowl.
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
But Henne is now a Super Bowl champion, something that’s true of several former Jacksonville Jaguars quarterbacks. There are just 11 players who have started more than three games for the franchise — five won a Super Bowl:
- Steve Beuerlein (Super Bowl 27 champion as a Cowboys backup)
- Blake Bortles
- Mark Brunell (Super Bowl 44 champion as a Saints backup)
- Nick Foles (Super Bowl 52 champion as the Eagles starter)
- Blaine Gabbert
- David Garrard
- Quinn Gray
- Chad Henne (Super Bowl 54 champion as a Chiefs backup)
- Cody Kessler
- Byron Leftwich (Super Bowl 43 champion as a Steelers backup)
- Gardner Minshew
Beuerlein and Foles both got their championship rings before joining the Jaguars. Brunell, Henne, and Leftwich all did it after leaving Jacksonville.
The list doesn’t even include Rob Johnson, a fourth-round pick in the Jaguars’ first-ever draft in 1995. He made just one start in three years with Jacksonville, before he went on to win a ring as a Buccaneers backup in 2003. Garrard and Gray are the only two former Jaguars starters who retired without a Super Bowl victory.
That’s one hell of a track record for a franchise that’s never even been to a Super Bowl.
What’s the moral of the story? Teams should go get a former Jaguars quarterback to be their backup, of course. There will likely be a few options on the market this year.
Bortles is currently a member of the Rams, who were the NFC champions a year ago and just missed the playoffs in 2019 with a 9-7 record. He’s set to hit free agency in March. Kessler is on the Patriots’ roster, but it’s anyone’s guess what that team’s quarterback room will look like in 2020. Gabbert finished the 2019 season on the Buccaneers’ injured reserve and is scheduled to become a free agent too.
There’s also Minshew, although it’d be shocking if he led the Jaguars to a Super Bowl victory any time soon. Jacksonville doesn’t exactly have a roster ready to contend for a title in 2020. And that’s not how this works, anyway. Minshew can go win a ring after he escapes Jacksonville and puts on a new uniform.
Until then, every team should consider going after Bortles, Kessler, or Gabbert in the offseason. Having a former Jaguars quarterback as a backup is a winning formula, evidently.
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