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Reports recently surfaced that the Cincinnati Bengals turned down a second-round pick for backup quarterback A.J. McCarron, but the teams who were interested were not disclosed. According to at least one report by Benjamin Albright of Yahoo.com, the Jacksonville Jaguars were one of those teams interested:
One of the teams leaked to me that inquired about AJ McCarron: #Jaguars
— Benjamin Allbright (@AllbrightNFL) August 10, 2017
According to the original report of the McCarron trade interested and the pick the Bengals turned down, the attempted trade occurred during the offseason. That means it wasn’t likely anytime soon, so it’s not like the Jaguars saw Blake Bortles in training camp and thought they better do something quickly.
More than likely teams were interested prior to and during the 2017 NFL Draft.
Were the Jaguars one of those teams? We’ll never know for sure, but I do find it hard to believe the team would offer up a second round pick for someone like McCarron and end up picking up Bortles fifth-year option.
That doesn’t mean the Jaguars weren’t sniffing around quarterback options at some point this offseason, which would be natural for them to do given their circumstances.