Why did Jaguars trade for Quinn Ewers? His days at Texas provide clue

Sometimes a change of scenery is just what’s needed.

Especially if it means a chance to go from a team that’s projected to be near the bottom of the league to one that’s trending upward. That’s what happened for quarterback Quinn Ewers as he joins the Jacksonville Jaguars to back up Trevor Lawrence.

The team assessed their quarterback room throughout the preseason and training camp, realizing they needed to upgrade their play behind Lawrence. They made the move for Ewers just before the cut down deadline, dealing a late round draft pick for the former University of Texas gunslinger.

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"We were exploring more than a couple different options, of which Quinn came to life there Saturday

morning,” general manager James Gladstone said during his preseason press conference. “That was really the first time we had engaged in conversations with the Dolphins. It didn't take long to reach an agreement.”

In four games played with the Miami Dolphins last season, Ewers completed 55 of 83 passes for 622 yards and three touchdowns with three interceptions. He was up-and-down as a performer, winning one of his two starts.

Now, he gets the opportunity to hit the reset button with the Jaguars.

“Obviously, this organization had a really good year last year. They are trending in the right direction, so it’s fun to be a part of an organization like that.” Ewers told reporters Sept. 2. “I’m just excited to be here and trying to be a sponge and learn as much as I can in such a short amount of time.”

Why did the Jaguars trade for Quinn Ewers? Familiarity with the system helped

The Jaguars had a quarterback room of Carter Bradley, Nick Mullens, rookie undrafted free agent Joey Aguilar and Lawrence this offseason. Mullens, a 10-year veteran, had familiarity with offensive coordinator Grant Udinski and the system Coen was bringing to Jacksonville.

His experience in the league and comfortability with the system made him a good option to bring in as a free agent last season. But he struggled throughout the preseason, often stalling out on drives as Jacksonville’s offense looked disoriented.

Behind him was Bradley, who was waived with an injury designation on cut down day. Bradley suffered an injury in Jacksonville’s final preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Lastly was Aguilar, who looked good in his preseason games. Head coach Liam Coen spoke highly of the rookie quarterback, but it’d be risky to have him as the immediate backup to Lawrence. So the team turned to the trade market.

“I thought watching some of the stuff he did last year, when he got some ops to go play, I thought he showed some signs of being able to spread the ball around to different spots on the field,” Coen said of Ewers. “Has some arm talent.”

This is pretty good from Miami Dolphins rookie QB Quinn Ewers pic.twitter.com/r8DGhQGOYg

— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) October 21, 2025

Coen also noted that he likes quarterbacks that come out of the University of Texas thanks to their tutelage under Steve Sarkisian. Sarkisian was the offensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons from 2017-2018 and carried over a lot of that scheme to Texas.

It’s a loosely similar scheme to what the Jaguars implement, just a different branch from the Shanahan and McVay tree of coaches. It’ll help Ewers adjust as he tries to play catchup with the rest of the team.

“It’s just different terminology and a lot more formations than there was in college,” Ewers said. “A lot more personnel groupings, but it’s plays I’ve ran before for the most part. Obviously, there’s going to be differences here and there, but for the most part I ran a majority of these plays for the past six years.”

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Why did Jaguars trade for Quinn Ewers? His days at Texas provide clue