Urban Meyer didn’t coach anywhere in 2022. After being fired by the Jacksonville Jaguars following less than a year on the job — a truly gruesome statement that somehow doesn’t capture just how bad his 2021 was — Meyer returned to the broadcast booth as a college football analyst for Fox Sports.
But his lasting impact remains felt in the NFL. Not just in the Jaguars’ stark improvement with someone competent at the helm — new head coach Doug Pederson has the team 6-8 and in very real striking distance of the AFC South title — but in the Philadelphia Eagles’ quest to lock down the top seed in the NFC.
The Eagles have been the NFL’s best team in 2022, but face a crossroad. Their 13-1 record has been buoyed by the presence of quarterback Jalen Hurts. Hurts is the current MVP frontrunner and has scored 35 touchdowns against only seven turnovers this fall. But he’s also likely to miss a not-insignificant amount of time thanks to a reported shoulder sprain suffered in Week 15.
I’m told the injury is to Jalen Hurts’ right throwing shoulder. I’m told he needs some rest and some rehab. It is amazing some of the throws he made and how well he played after the sprain.
One Eagle told me “He’s a tough MF” https://t.co/W5OBg3FRrb
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) December 19, 2022
Fortunately, general manager Howie Roseman was ready for this. He understood the risks of fielding a mobile quarterback. So in the 2021 preseason, he acquired a useful young backup with starting experience. For little to no cost. From the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Jags had no impetus to trade away Gardner Minshew last year. He’d been a useful passer on a bad team, going 7-13 in two seasons where Jacksonville was 0-12 in the games he didn’t start. He was also dirt cheap; his rookie scale contract paid him only $850,000 in 2021 and $2.5 million in 2022 — the latter ranking 44th among all NFL quarterbacks in terms of cap hit.
But he was a sigil of the old era in northern Florida, so Meyer put him on the trading block. Roseman acquired him for the whopping price of a sixth round pick, and suddenly Philadelphia had a young, viable insurance policy in case Hurts got injured or regressed after a solid, but uneven, rookie 2020.
It’s obvious bettors have limited confidence in Minshew’s abilities; the Dallas Cowboys have already gone from a 1.5-point favorite to six-point favorites since the news broke. But there’s reason to believe the fourth-year QB can bring value in the passing game even if he can’t replicate the scrambling and designed-run mastery Hurts brings to the table.
Since 2019, Minshew’s 93.9 passer rating ranks 19th among 42 NFL quarterbacks with at least 20 starts — one spot above Hurts but more than 10 points below the MVP candidate’s breakthrough 2022 number (104.6). His advanced stats over the same timeframe clock him at the Jared Goff/Jacoby Brissett level: not ideal, but useful in a pinch and above average for a backup.
That’s valuable! And Meyer traded that away for the 197th pick and the option to pay CJ Beathard roughly $1.5 million more than it would have cost to keep Minshew in Jacksonville.
The Jaguars are fine without Minshew. Trevor Lawrence has stayed healthy, shaken off a depressing rookie season and is beginning to look like a franchise quarterback. Minshew, on the other hand, played for a playoff team in 2021 and now gets the opportunity to keep Philadelphia’s dream of a postseason bye and homefield advantage alive.
So the deal worked out for everyone. Except Urban Meyer, who decided he was going to forge his own path in the NFL and quickly realized what he assumed was paving-grade asphalt was instead his own fertilizer. If Minshew steps up and the Eagles topple the Cowboys in Week 16 to clinch the NFC East title, Roseman should send him a fruit basket.
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