The return of Minshew Mania

This Christmas Eve, the world got to see the return of Gardner Minshew on the national stage.

These past two seasons, Minshew Mania has been on hiatus, as Minshew has backed up rising star Jalen Hurts in Philadelphia. It’s easy to forget “The Stache” was once an exciting young gunslinger for the Jaguars prior to the drafting of Trevor Lawrence in 2021.

While Minshew’s return ended in defeat against the Cowboys, he proved that he’s more than capable as a starter. Through his efficient play and impeccable swag, he has quickly won over the hearts of NFL fans since he came on the scene in 2019.

While many have forgotten about the former sixth round pick, he is still a proven quarterback in this league who has been highly effective when given the chance to play.

Through his stellar productivity and sound decision making, he has shown he can be a reliable starter in the NFL. While yes, he lacks the intangibles of the upper-level talents in the league, Minshew’s track record should make him a compelling name for a starting job.

A proven starter in Jacksonville

While many knock Gardner for his size, it doesn’t take away from the fact he’s been an effective passer in the NFL thus far. In 29 games played, he has earned a 93.6 passer rating including an outstanding 41-12 touchdown to interception ratio. As a sixth-round rookie out of Washington State, Gardner Minshew would get his first taste of the NFL in week one of the 2019 season against the soon-to-be Super Bowl Champion, Kansas City Chiefs.

In the wake of an early Nick Foles injury, he would come in and set a Jaguars single game record with an impeccable 88% completion percentage. Furthermore, he would throw for a whopping 11 yards per attempt on 275 total passing yards and two touchdowns. Prior to the season, Nick Foles signed with the Jaguars for four years and $88 million to be their franchise guy.

Through Foles’ injury and Minshew’s impressive play, Gardner would supplant the multi-million dollar guy, and start twelve games that season. He would get all six of the Jaguars wins, earning a 6-6 record in his first year. As the last picked quarterback to start essentially a full season, Gardner would have more wins than all of the other 2019 quarterback draft picks, which included players such as Kyler Murray, Daniel Jones and the late Dwayne Haskins.

He would prove to be quite productive as well, as he threw for 3,271 yards and 21 touchdowns, with only six interceptions. Not to mention, he would lead his 2019 quarterback class in passer rating with 91.2. 

In his second season, he was named the starter right out of the gate. Unfortunately, it would be a much different story in the win column for the 2020 Jags, which had much to do with the dysfunction of the team around Minshew rather than his play.

Offensively, the Jags let go of arguably their best player in Pro Bowl running back, Leonard Fournette, before the season. Fournette ran for 1,152 rushing yards for them in 2019, and was the heart of the Jaguars’ run game.

Defensively, the Jaguars would lose all three of their starting cornerbacks to injuries throughout the year which left their secondary depleted. With these major losses, the Jaguars would go from 17th in rushing yards in 2019 to 28th in 2020, while also going from 21st in points allowed defensively to 31st.

Can Minshew become a winner?

With one of the worst run games and essentially the worst defense in the NFL, Minshew would go 1-7 as a starter in 2020.

Nonetheless, he still put up similar numbers to his rookie season. In five less games played, Minshew would throw for 2,259 yards, which was on track to beat his 2019 total as he averaged 251 yards per game. He also threw for 16 touchdowns and 5 picks, while also boosting his completion percentage up 5.5 points to 66.1%.

In addition, he would improve his passer rating by 4.7 points to 95.9. During the year, Gardner experienced a severe injury to his throwing hand thumb, which landed him on the injured reserve for a couple weeks and derailed his season.

When the offseason began, the Jags decided to clean house, and select quarterback Trevor Lawrence with their first overall pick, which led to them shipping Gardner to Philly. While short lived, Gardner played a lot of good ball in Jacksonville for a team that didn’t have much going for them. 

Gardner has started only three games since coming to Philly. In 2021, his first start came in a pivotal week 13 matchup against the Jets. The Eagles were 5-7 coming off a brutal loss to the Giants that left their playoff hopes in the balance. With starting quarterback Jalen Hurts going down with an ankle injury, the fate of the Eagles season was in the hands of Minshew.

In response, Gardner would go 20 of 25 for 242 yards and two touchdowns, earning himself an elite 133.7 passer rating, while leading the Eagles to a statement 33-18 win, keeping them in the playoff hunt. Afterwards, the Eagles would win the next three games and punch their ticket to the playoffs, riding the momentum of this win.

Why he could be a starter somewhere in 2023

Minshew came in on Christmas Eve against an elite 10-4 Cowboys squad in Dallas. He put up a valiant effort on short notice in what was one of the best Eagles Cowboys games in recent memory. With Hurts out, he came in and threw for 355 yards and put up 3 total touchdowns, while averaging 8.9 yards per pass attempt.

He was able to keep the Eagles in the lead for much of the game, but due to timely turnovers the Eagles would fall short 40-34. In his starts with the Eagles, Gardner has shown what he can do when he has the right pieces around him.

In both of his starts with the Eagles starters, he has earned a total 67.7% completion percentage, 597 yards, 5-2 touchdowns to interception ratio, 9.18 yards per pass attempt and put up an average of 33.5 points per game. While this is a small sample size, he has continued to play the position at a high level as he did in Jacksonville. 

While the season may not be over for Gardner, he’s shown in his first four years that he is a starting quarterback in the NFL. This offseason, Gardner will have another chance to prove this. Teams such as the Jets, Saints, Commanders and even Colts have talented rosters but have struggled to find stability at the quarterback position.

Minshew is a proven passer who has shown time and time again to be a stable force at the quarterback position. Having a reliable signal caller such as Minshew could make a world of difference for fringe teams such as these. With talent around him and a defense that can get stops, he will prove to be a problem for opposing teams and has the ability to make a fringe team a playoff contender.