Nathan Rourke is a quarterback who plays for the National Football League NFL team, the Jacksonville Jaguars. He played college football for the Ohio Bobcats football team (Ohio State University). He earlier played in the Canadian Football League (CFL) before switching over to the Jacksonville Jaguars for the NFL.
Nathan Rourke started off his college career playing for Fort Scott Community College, where he was named to the first-team All-KJCCC. He changed to Ohio University and stayed with them for three seasons. His time with the Bobcats was highly successful, as he won three bowl games.
He was part of the Bobcats, which won the Bahamas Bowl in 2017, the Frisco Bowl in 2018, and the Idaho Potato Bowl in 2020. Rourke was named as the winner of the Jon Cornish Trophy. He recorded 525 passes out of 894 pass attempts, with a pass completion rate of 58.7% for 7,457 passing yards. Along with this, he had 60 touchdowns and 20 interceptions.
Nathan Rourke started off his career in the CFL for the BC Lions, who selected him in the second round of the 2020 CFL Draft. He was named the CFL Most Outstanding Canadian in 2022. He recorded 307 passes out of 406 pass completions for 4105 passing yards.
Before the start of the 2023–24 NFL season, Nathan Rourke announced that he would be giving trials to several NFL teams, which included the Cincinnati Bengals, Green Bay Packers, and Los Angeles Chargers. In the end, he signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars on January 16th, 2023, for a three-year contract.
Nathan Rourke’s contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars is nothing in front of Trevor Lawrence
Nathan Rourke penned down a three-year contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars. If he completes three years with the franchise, he will be earning $750,000 US, $915,000 US, and $1.030 million US, respectively, in those years. As per Spotrac, this will be his base salary in each of those years and his total guaranteed pay is $216,000.
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This is a typical NFL rookie contract that has been offered to Nathan Rourke, even though he is experienced having played earlier in the CFL. His salary is comparatively low compared to the Jacksonville Jaguars’ starting Trevor Lawrence, who has a four-year contract with them worth a staggering $36,793,488 and an average annual salary of $9,198,372. Lawrence’s salary for a year is almost three times the total earnings of Rourke!
Furthermore, the Jacksonville Jaguars’ backup quarterback, C.J. Beathard, also has a two-year deal worth $4.5 million. This includes $2 million in guaranteed pay. Hence, Nathan Rourke is earning extremely little in comparison to Beathard as well.