Much like this season, the Jacksonville Jaguars were quite busy last offseason at the quarterback position as they locked Blake Bortles in by signing him to a three-year extension for $54 million with $26.5 million of that being guaranteed. Afterward, they traded a sixth-round selection to find a backup behind him in Cody Kessler, but it appears the team didn’t feel that was enough.

According to Baltimore Ravens quarterback Robert Griffin III, the Jags tried to acquire him via trade before the 2018 regular season, and once again before the trade deadline in October. For that reason, the veteran says he kept his eye on the Jags during the start of free-agency last month, but they ultimately ended up signing Nick Foles instead.

“Jacksonville tried to trade for me at the end of the preseason and right before the trade deadline, so we knew that was an opportunity and there’d be a chance if things didn’t work out with Nick Foles,” Griffin said on the most recent episode of the Ravens official podcast entitled “The Lounge Podcast.”

Griffin’s statements seem to check out because the team did work him out in April of last season. That meeting ended without a contract, and soon after, he signed with the Ravens.

In hindsight, it’s very possible the Jags may have developed concerns for Bortles’ sporadic preseason play and may not have been overly impressed with Kessler, either, despite him putting together some solid practices. That said, maybe they were bracing for a potential rough start to the regular season, which featured the New York Giants (away), New England Patriots, Tennessee Titans and New York Jets (who previously beat them in 2017). But that’s purely speculation.

Clearly, if a trade had happened at the end of the preseason, Bortles would’ve still entered the season as the starter due to familiarity with the Jags’ system. However, one has to wonder how short his leash would’ve been since Cody Kessler eventually ended up the Jags’ starter for several weeks. I guess we’ll never know the answer to that, but it appears the Jags may have questioned