Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence has high praise for former teammate Gardner Minshew

The Jacksonville Jaguars traded Gardner Minshew to the Philadelphia Eagles a few months after drafting Trevor Lawrence first overall in 2021. Although the quarterbacks weren't teammates for long, Lawrence says the brief time he spent with Minshew was awesome.

Lawrence met with the local media Wednesday and had nothing but good things about his former teammate, who's set to start for Indy in Week 6.

"Garner was awesome. We didn't play season together, but having the offseason got to know him pretty well," Lawrence told the media. "Really, good guy, for one. He's a good player, smart player. Learned some things from him for sure, especially being a young player coming to this league. He's a guy that played a lot of football and played honestly really well in his career and even up until this point."

"So he's a guy that is really smart. I think that just the way he plays he makes a lot of plays. He's a good athlete, just kind of savvy like that. He treated me well when he was here and saw him when he was in Philly, my rookie year, and last year when we played him I saw him. Trying to loosely keep up with him. We text back and forth. We haven't in a while now but a lot of respect for him, great opportunity and he's been playing well this season," Lawrence said.

Minshew, a sixth-round pick in the 2019 draft, was given a chance to show he was the long-term answer at quarterback in his sophomore season. However, he fell short of expectations and the Jags chose to start over at the position with Lawrence in 2021.

For a brief moment though, Lawrence and Minshew competed for the QB1 job in training camp. It's hard to tell if Urban Meyer realistically thought Minshew could be the starter or maybe he just wanted to show him to potential trade partners. In the end, Jacksonville shipped him to the Eagles after one preseason game, paving the way for Lawrence to be the being the season under center.

Since Minshew was traded, he's been relegated to a backup role but has nonetheless taken advantage of his chances. Over the last three years, he's appeared in 15 games with five starts and has completed 64.8 percent of his passes for 1,655 yards with nine touchdowns and five interceptions.

This will be Gardner Minshew facing the Jaguars as the starting QB

With Anthony Richardson out with an AC joint injury, Minshew will be the Colts' starter the next few weeks. Given his vast experience under center, Indy's chances of winning won't take a significant hit. In fact, Jaguars safety Andrew Wingard, a former teammate of Minshew's, believes the Colts are better with him at the helm.

Minshew will most definitely be incentivized to beat his old team and if the Colts can get the running game going, their chances of winning will go up. That said, the Jags are no pushovers. They're coming off a two-win streak and it looks like their offense is clicking after a slow start to the 2023 season. Add the fact that Indy hasn't won at EverBank since 2014 and Minshew will have his work cut out.

This will be Gardner Minshew's homecoming. While there's no doubt he was one of the Jaguars' few bright spots in 2019 and he's still well-liked by former teammates and fans, he's now playing for a division foe. This means that Jacksonville must make sure he can't reach the end zone for 60 minutes Sunday.

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