Can we just let Gardner Minshew play football this season?

Will the Jacksonville Jaguars give quarterback Gardner Minshew the keys to the new offense and let him do his magic in 2020?

Could everybody stop what they are doing and let Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew do his job? For a franchise that has been wrapped up in “Minshew Mania,” where a sixth-round draft pick in 2019 took a city and the NFL by storm, there are still plenty of pundits who won’t let the 23-year-old do what he’s being paid to do.

It’s almost as if the Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback position has become the most talked-about situation in the NFL. After wrestling away the job from veteran Nick Foles due to injury, Minshew won six games, threw for more than 3,200 yards, and tossed in 21 touchdowns for a team that was miserable last season. Still, analyst doubt his ability to be even better this season.

One mentioned how he loves the quarterback, but he is still wondering if Gardner Minshew can get it done like he did last season.

"“Nearly named Beowulf, Gardner Flint Minshew II brought joy to millions as a sixth-round rookie, flinging aggressive downfield darts, scrambling from peril and essentially turning Nick Foles into a giant bowl of vanilla ice cream,” writes Marc Sessler of NFL.com. “The Jaguars thought so, too, shipping the overpaid veteran out of town in favor of Minshew’s low-cost upside. With nothing but Josh Dobbs and (uh-oh, sixth-rounder) Jake Luton behind him, Minshew sits today as the unquestioned starter.”"

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There has been talk of the team looking to add a veteran quarterback to the roster. It hasn’t happened yet. There has been discussion that veteran running back Leonard Fournette used social media to plead for the front office to sign Cam Newton. That didn’t happen either, and now Fournette has been the subject of trade discussions.

I personally don’t think the two are related.

All of the punches this kid takes, he still comes up swinging. That’s why Minshew should be left alone to run the Jaguars offense this season.

"“Here are my concerns: The O-line is suspect, the defense sits in flux, the coaching staff rests squarely on the hot seat and Jacksonville looms as a leading candidate for Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence,” Sessler adds. “Let’s also factor in the unknown future of Cam Newton, who might view the Jaguars — if interested — as a clear pathway to making starts in 2020. Unlike Drew Lock, Minshew’s surrounding talent isn’t primed to explode. He spent last season creating plays, but I don’t love the environment. If the Jags stumble hard, the quarterback — fair or unfair — will take plenty of blame.”"

The Jaguars have never had a true franchise quarterback, Minshew gives them a dynamic that hasn’t been seen since the days of Mark Brunell. A mobile quarterback who can make decisions outside the pocket and be successful.

Unlike Brunell, in the early days of the success of the franchise, Gardner Minshew doesn’t have the luxury of those kinds of weapons at his disposal. He also doesn’t have a defense that shuts teams down, giving him an opportunity to score more readily.

For the former Washington state star, this is still a product of trial and error, only this time it is with a new offensive coordinator.

Head coach Doug Marone told the local media he was excited to roll into the 2020 season with Minshew as his leader. That should have been enough to shut down any potential discussion. But he took it a step further and said that he wanted competition at every position on the roster. The local and national media took that and ran with it. Yet another unfair situation to place the neophyte in.

A friend of mine who is a diehard Jacksonville Jaguars fan told me the problem with this year unlike last, is teams have studied the mustached-one. His tendencies, his successes, and his failures. They’re waiting for him. It adds to the pressure of having to flush out the negative drama of being a quarterback in Jacksonville brings.

The front office appears committed to playing this season out what they have. It will either be a quarterback who can lead Jacksonville to a championship in the future or it’s back to redesigning the position, either through the NFL draft or in free agency in 2021.

Either way, Gardner Minshew should be given the option to play football this year without the fear of looking over his shoulder. I’d be very surprised if the front office makes a change that would alter that plan dramatically this coming season.

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