The Philidelphia Eagles quarterback room just added a lot more swagger. As announced early Saturday morning, the Eagles traded a conditional sixth-round pick to Jacksonville in exchange for Gardner Minshew.
Sources: The #Jaguars are trading QB Gardner Minshew to the #Eagles for a conditional 6th round draft pick. Minshew Mania gets a fresh start in Philly — as a backup behind Jalen Hurts — a few days after Trevor Lawrence was named the starter in Jax.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 28, 2021
The Eagles quarterback room was easily one of the least impressive stables in the NFL. The original trio of Jalen Hurts, Joe Flacco, and Nick Mullens doesn’t exactly instill fear in opposing defenses. Nor did it give Jalen Hurts any real competition for the starting job. In acquiring Gardner Minshew, however, Jalen Hurts officially has to fight to keep his Qb1 spot.
Assumedly, Minshew will be slated as the backup to Jalen Hurts. How long he remains the backup if Jalen Hurts struggles is the burning question. Jacksonville may have moved off of Minshew for only a sixth-round pick, but don’t underestimate Minshew’s ability. He’s plenty capable of being a starter and more than capable of beating out Hurts if he doesn’t show drastic improvement. It might not be fair to Hurts, but this is the way the NFL is now.
If you don’t show early signs of greatness, teams will already be scouting possible replacements.
Not Sold On Hurts
I wrote a piece back in June about Garnder Minshew being the “secret diamond in the rough” amongst NFL backups. As a raw rookie in 2019, he held the highest Pro Football Focus grade amongst all qualified rookie quarterbacks. Sadly for Minshew, he was the victim of circumstance, and never got a fair shot in Jacksonville. Throughout this off-season, the Jaguars acted as if there was a true quarterback battle in camp. So much so that Minshew refused to defecate for weeks.
Minshew taking the competition to the next level ?
— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) July 25, 2021
(via @ChalkNetwork) pic.twitter.com/gGynrXAJBn
Not surprisingly, Trevor Lawrence won the starting job, and the Jaguars traded Gardner Minshew.
However, if Minshew takes this same attitude into Philly and stays ready, there’s a great chance he’ll get a shot to start. Reportedly, the Eagles were involved in the Deshaun Watson sweepstakes this off-season. Meaning that even though the organization drafted Jalen Hurts just a year ago in the second round, they are far from sold on him as their long-term starter. If not for Watson’s legal trouble, more than likely, they would’ve pulled off a trade. Minshew may not be the caliber of a Deshaun Watson, but he’s still plenty good enough to beat out Jalen Hurts.
Luckily for Hurts, there’s no time for a quarterback competition. Unless the Eagles pull the rug out from under him, Hurts will enter week one as the starter. Unfortunately for Jalen Hurts, however, his leash just shrunk. It’s a lot easier to bench your quarterback for Gardner Minshew, who has upside on top of being incredibly handsome, rather than Joe Flacco, who’s just handsome.
Hurts has mobility in his favor, but Minshew is the superior passer. If Jalen Hurts can’t dramatically improve his 52% completion percentage this season, expect Minshew-Mania to build steam.
