Jacksonville Jaguars: QB Gardner Minshew among ‘kings garbage time’
There’s a 99 percent chance the Jacksonville Jaguars will use the first overall pick in 2021’s draft to take Trevor Lawrence and a recent breakdown of Gardner Minshew II‘s performance in the last two seasons might explain why the team’s brass is so eager to upgrade the quarterback position.
Mike Tanier of Pro Football Network recently wrote about quarterbacks that pad their stats with games out of reach, the proverbial ‘garbage time’, and Minshew was among those that made the list. Tanier describes ‘garbage time’ as when a team is trailing by 16 points or more in the second half of the game’. He acknowledges this may be a broad definition, but he believes this criterion keeps things rather simple.
Tanier writes that Minshew had 102 garbage-time passes in 2019 and 78 last season or the same as 22.5 percent of his total attempts in his two-year career. He also mentions that his completion rate went from 66.1 percent to 61.8 in garbage time last year. Looking back, this could be a reason why the coaching staff didn’t hesitate to bench the Washington State product even though he insisted on playing last season.
Moreover, Tanier’s analysis could explain why Minshew’s stats in his rookie campaign look solid on paper but the Jaguars managed to muster just six wins in 2019. He started 12 games and went 285-of-470 for 3,271 yards with 21 touchdowns and just six interceptions.
What will the Jacksonville Jaguars do with Gardner Minshew this offseason?
There are currently no news regarding the Jaguars’ plans for Minshew in 2021. WIth Lawrence (or another rookie) starting, the third-year quarterback could be the primary backup. He’s still locked up for two more years on a rookie deal so it makes sense to keep him. On the other hand, he may hold some trade value and Jacksonville could move him.
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Regardless of what the ‘Jags’ do at quarterback, Minshew’s days as a starter in Jacksonville seem to be over. Nobody will forget he was the team’s best option in 2019, but it’s time to move on.