THE TANNER LEE PROJECT NEEDS TO END

Roy K Miller/Icon Sportswire

End the suffering. 
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BY JORDAN DE LUGO

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The Jaguars drafted Tanner Lee with their 2018 sixth-round pick. The quarterback from Nebraska was the definition of a project QB. Size? Check. Arm strength? Check. Ability to play QB at a reasonable level? Negative.

Tanner Lee’s frame and arm strength were traits the Jaguars clearly coveted in last year’s draft. But his ability to run a functional offense was — and still is — severally lacking. During his final year in college, Lee completed just 57% of his passes and threw only 23 touchdowns to 16 interceptions. 

Okay, so you take a flyer on a QB with an NFL body and plus arm strength. I get it. But it’s time for the Tanner Lee project to end.

The kid has shown ZERO development from the time he got to Jacksonville to right now. His first training camp was abysmal, and when he got his shot in the preseason last year, he was a train wreck. His inability to progress through his reads and manipulate the pocket has led to sacks and turnovers. 

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Perhaps the best illustration of his inability to function in an offense came in Thursday night’s preseason opener against the Ravens. A series of plays when Lee entered the game saw him get sacked twice in a row and then throw a pick-six into tight coverage. Lee finished the contest with ZERO completions on three attempts, three sacks, and an interception.

Yikes!

Tanner Lee is not an NFL quarterback. It’s not just his poor preseason performance last night. Throughout training camp, while he has made some impressive throws, he has more often than not looked out of sorts. 

It’s time for the Jaguars to mark this experiment down as a failure. Tom Coughlin and Dave Caldwell’s hypothesis that Tanner Lee’s arm strength and size could lead to NFL success was unequivocally wrong.

Cut bait. ​

It would be one thing for the Jaguars to continue trying to develop Lee if they had a decent second-string quarterback, but they don't at this time. If Nick Foles sustains an injury, there's little hope that Gardner Minshew will be able to successfully lead the Jaguars' offense. The Jaguars would be wise to ditch Tanner Lee and search for a veteran with in game experience. 

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