Photo by Mike Carlson/Getty Images
Jacksonville turns to backup C.J. Beathard to keep their playoff hopes alive
The Jacksonville Jaguars are reeling.
And the team received even more bad news on Friday.
The Jaguars have lost four-straight games, and now sit tied with the Indianapolis Colts and the Houston Texans atop the AFC South. All three teams enter Week 17 with matching 8-7 records. While the Jaguars hold tiebreakers over both Indianapolis (thanks to a season sweep of the Colts) and Houston (thanks to a better record in the division) things are much tighter in the division for Jacksonville than they were just a few weeks ago.
As the team looks ahead to a critical Week 17 game against the Carolina Panthers, they will be without starting quarterback Trevor Lawrence for that game.
Lawrence is dealing with a AC joint sprain in his throwing shoulder, which he suffered during the team’s Week 16 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He suffered the injury diving for a first down on a fourth-and-one situation during the second half. Lawrence picked up the first down, and finished the drive, but was pulled from the game.
“When I landed, I knew something was off,” Lawrence said this week. “And the next play, it kind of hurts to throw. I wanted to finish the drive out, and we were able to get some points, and then on the two-point [conversion attempt] could tell by the way I threw it, I couldn’t really get my shoulder up good enough to really keep playing.
“I would’ve loved to have stayed in, but just kind of hurting everybody at that point if I do, so they made the call to just take a seat the rest of the night.”
Lawrence did not practice on Thursday, and the team officially ruled him out on Friday. C.J. Beathard will get the start in his place.
For Lawrence, this will be the first time in his playing career that he has missed a game due to injury. Lawrence never missed a game in high school, and while he missed two games during his time at Clemson, both of those were due to COVID-19.
This brings to an end a streak of 51-straight starts for Lawrence in the NFL, the second-longest active streak for a quarterback. Josh Allen currently holds the mark for the most consecutive starts for a QB, with 94 games.
