“You think the Lord likes half-asses? I don’t think so.” — Gardner Minshew
Last time the Eagles has a consistent situation at the quarterback position, it was 2019, and Carson Wentz had not yet imploded. Wentz threw 17 touchdowns and just seven interceptions, the Eagles made it to the wild-card round, and everything seemed fine. Then, Wentz fell apart. rookie Jalen Hurts replaced him in-season, head coach Doug Pederson was eventually fired, and now, it’s up to new head coach and offensive shot-caller Nick Sirianni to right the ship.
Doing so with Hurts as the starter and Joe Flacco as the backup? We’re not sure about that. Hurts is a quarterback under development, and the last time we saw Flacco, he was airmailing DeVonta Smith to a disturbing degree.
So, this move made official on Saturday morning made a lot of sense.
Trade: Jaguars are sending QB Gardner Minshew II to the Philadelphia Eagles for a conditional 2022 sixth-round pick, per sources. The 6th-round pick could go to a 5th if Minshew plays in 50 percent of the plays in three games this season.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 28, 2021
General manager Howie Roseman has talked about how he wants the Eagles to be a “QB Factory.” and the addition of Minshew puts some extra gears in the machine. Selected in the sixth round of the 2019 draft out of Washington State, Minshew did some impressive stuff as a rookie…
New Eagles QB Gardner Minshew:
💥1st rookie in NFL history with 230+ yards pass per game, 20+ TDs + fewer than 10 INTs
💥Joined Dan Marino (1983), Robert Griffin III (2012) & Dak Prescott (2016) as only players in NFL history to throw 20+ TDs with 6 or less INTs as a rookie https://t.co/BKPSSPWNut pic.twitter.com/jtBUtqIYKH— Jeff Skversky (@JeffSkversky) August 28, 2021
…and played better than you may think for a 2020 Jaguars team that finished 1-15, giving them the right to select Trevor Lawrence with the first overall pick. With Doug Marrone as his head coach, Jay Gruden as his offensive coordinator, and Ben McAdoo as his quarterbacks coach (that’s a whole lotta yikes for any young quarterback), Minshew still completed 66.1% of his passes for 2,259 yards, 16 touchdowns, and five interceptions. He ranked 27th in the NFL in Football Outsiders’ opponent-adjusted DYAR efficiency metric, and 23rd in Pro Football Reference’s Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt metric.
We’re not saying that Minshew is ever going to be a top 10 starting quarterback in the NFL, but when you watch his tape, there’s more meat on the bone than you might think, and Minshew has the capability to at least make the Eagles’ primary backup job as interesting as it should be. Certainly, Minshew could be something more than he’s been in the right system. We don’t yet know what Sirianni’s system will be, but if you like accurate deep passes, shot plays off play-action, and functional mobility, you could do a lot worse.