Is Gardner Minshew the Rookie of the Year?

Gardner Minshew has been a revelation for the Jacksonville Jaguars since taking over for the injured Nick Foles. Is he the NFL Rookie of the Year?

The Jacksonville Jaguars might find themselves at 2-3 on the year, but they might have found themselves a future star at quarterback. Gardner Minshew II is becoming somewhat of a cult hero down in Duval County. The former Washington State signal-caller has filled in for the injured Nick Foles in Week 1 and has given the Jaguars a chance to win every single ball game since.

On this week’s episode of Stacking the Box, FanSided‘s Matt Verderame, Josh Hill and Mark Carman answer the question of if Minshew Mania is for real and if the Mississippi Mustache has played well enough to be the front-runner for NFL Rookie of the Year (48:50).

Hill finds himself contemplating if Minshew is the favorite for NFL Rookie of the Year. He feels that he is for now, but needs to see what happens when he plays a better team. Jacksonville will have more than its hands full when the Jaguars host the 4-1 New Orleans Saints on Sunday afternoon. New Orleans looks the part of an NFC serious contender, even with backup Teddy Bridgewater.

“I’m all the way in,” says Verderame. “I think he’s a really good quarterback…He can play, he can really play…You watch the film and he’s got a good enough arm to make all the throws, he’s accurate as hell, he can move around in the pocket extremely well. I don’t think he’s going to run for a ton of yards, but he’s very good in terms of moving around and buying some more time.”

Verderame would add that Foles may not even get his starting job back with the way that Minshew has played thus far. He might have a point, as Foles has only been a fringe starter in the league before arriving in Jacksonville. Minshew is giving the Jaguars consistent competency at the quarterback position week in and week out, something we can’t say Blake Bortles ever did.

Right now, yes, it’s safe to say that Minshew is the front-runner for NFL Rookie of the Year. He has played tremendously well in the first five weeks and that level of play is sustainable. However, he might get competition from guys like Oakland Raiders running back Josh Jacobs or New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones in the coming weeks.

Jacobs has been critical in the Raiders playing surprisingly good football to start in 2019. Jones has been an improvement over an aging Eli Manning with the G-Men. However, given that Minshew plays the position of quarterback, has an iconic look to him and is gaining a cultlike status by the nanosecond, how can you not say he’s the favorite to win NFL Rookie of the Year at this point?

Here are a few other topics discussed on this week’s episode of Stacking the Box:

• Hiring Freddie Kitchens was Plan B for the Cleveland Browns (2:10).
• The San Francisco 49ers still need to prove themselves (5:25).
• The Washington Redskins shouldn’t rush Dwayne Haskins (15:10).
• Adam Gase might be fired before the season is over (53:10).

All this and more!

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