In the process of preparing for their season opener against the Indianapolis Colts, the Jacksonville Jaguars named their eight team captains for the 2020 season. Among them was second-year quarterback Gardner Minshew II, who will have a lot of pressure on his shoulders heading into the season.
Of course, it’s a challenge Minshew is up for as his teammates have been nothing but supportive of him. On Wednesday, Minshew called the achievement one of the highest honors a football player can have as it speaks volumes about how the team views him.
“It means everything,” Minshew said. “That’s one of the highest honors you can have is being voted on by your peers to represent them and to be their captain. Of all of the awards you can win, that’s one that really, to me, means a lot. It means the most because that’s really how you are with the guys around you and their opinion of you and I think that’s the best judge of somebody.”
Minshew certainly did his part on the field to earn such honors after having to start in most of the Jags’ 2019 games unexpectedly. After Nick Foles broke his clavicle Week 1 against the Kansas City Chiefs, the sixth-round rookie was unexpectedly inserted into the lineup and aided the team to all of their wins in the process.
As for the 2020 season, Minshew has an uphill battle to climb if the Jags are to register a better season than last year. He’ll be apart of the youngest initial roster in the NFL, which means there will definitely be a learning curve. Regardless, when looking at how infectious his personality is, the Jags’ locker room probably made the right decision to name him a captain, because if it’s anyone who can get the team to overachieve, it’s the Mustachioed wonder from Mississippi.