Minshew Mania and the Rise of the Rookies: “At least it’s something” - NFL

Words by Dominic CauselyTodd

Welcome to the halfway point of the NFL season, which I am so sure that all of you have been paying so much attention to and not the start of the NBA season, MBL play offs, Rugby World Cup or NRL/AFL finals. This has been a fascinating year for the gridiron with plenty of story lines. But I want to take a look at Minshew Mania and the ascension of the back-up quarterback. Two years ago Nick Foles and the Philadelphia Eagles showcased exactly why a team is only as good as their backup quarterback when they took down the greatest coach and/or quarterback of all time in Superbowl 52 against the New England Patriots. Howie Roseman (Eagles General Manager) has long put trade and draft focus on quarterback capital and his organisation won a Superbowl because of it. That historic upset put the league on notice. When both teams in the NFC championship game feature a second string, journeyman quarterback throwing bombs, losing your franchise signal caller was no longer an excuse. Fast forward to this season and we’re seeing a new look league that the NFL wasn’t ready for which lead to Minshew Mania; a panic response from the NFL to retain viewers and relevance.

Last season was a great year for quarterback/receiver duos. All you would hear was Rodgers to Adams, Roethlesburger to Brown/Smith-Schuster, Manning to Beckham, Luck to Hilton, Watson to Hopkins, Brees to Thomas and Darnold towards the vicinity of Montgomery. This season saw something that had never happened before, XX% of the starting, franchise quarterbacks weren’t playing and the league was thrown onto the backs of rookies and backups. For the first time ever there were almost 30 starting quarterbacks under the age of 27. Roethlesburger, Brees, Darnold, Newton, Dalton and Foles were all injured. Manning, Mariota and Rosen got benched and Luck Retired. Suddenly players that are only three or four years into their careers are being seen as the ‘established quarterbacks of the league’. Whilst Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson are freaks and perennial MVP candidates for many years to come, the league isn’t ready for the elderestatesment of the NFL to be Goff, Prescott, Mahomes, Jackson, Watson and Wentz. The NFL media and sales teams went into a freefall. For years they have made money off fans coming to see Big Ben throw rainbows to Antonio Brown, for Drew Brees to take massive hits whilst delivering a dime to Michael Thomas and Eli Manning hoping Odell Beckham Jnr. can make something of the garbage pass coming his way. Suddenly we’re looking at Gardner Minshew, Jacoby Brisset, Mason Rudolph, Daniel Jones, Kyler Murray, Kyle Allen and Matt Moore lining up under centre and everyone is asking the same questions; who the hell are these blokes?

The problem with young and backup quarterbacks is that they suck. There is a reason they weren’t starting for round one. This makes for real ordinary football. I don’t remember seeing a season that has featured this many hot reads, screens and check downs to the tight end. Mahomes, Watson, Rodgers and Wilson were the only quarterbacks actually making plays down the field (that was until Mahomes got injured last week). Every game featuring one of the other 28 teams was just defensive porn and five yard option routes. 

Not the most entertaining football to watch in all honesty. So to keep people engaged the NFL turned to our Lord and Saviour, the moustached magician, Gardner Minshew. After taking over the starting role in Jacksonville from an injured Nick Foles the 6th round pick from Washington State has taken the 0-2 Jaguars to 4-5. Social media loves him, the fans love him, fuck it, I love him. The man is a walking legend. Potentially the coolest person to ever step on a football field. But then, when I went to write an article arguing why everyone should tattoo his face on some part of their body, I watched his game tape; and holy hell the man is mediocre.

Minshew Mania is ironically built around Uncle Rico, the best character from Napoleon Dynamite. They both have an impressive moustache and terrible dress sense, play quarterback and talk a lot of smack. A cult was quickly whipped up around the Jaguar’s quarterback by the NFL even doing promos with the actor who played Rico in the movie. We were inundated with footage of Minshew in denim shorts, downing cold ones at a College game and stepping off planes looking like he came off the set of Miami Vice. Also, the fact that his completion percentage after week 4 was 69.420% aided the hype. Rumours from his collegiate career (some perpetuated by the Mississippi Moustache himself) border on urban legend. He allegedly tried to break his own hand with a hammer, whilst drinking Jack Daniels straight from the bottle to become a medical redshirt at East Carolina. Oh and he also does his workouts wearing nothing but a headband. Sure, the highlight package of his 3 passes over 20 yards to Chark (again, who?) look great but the rest of his 161 completions were dink-and-dunk short yardage plays against horrendous defences in Denver, New York, Tennessee, Carolina and Cincinnati. There’s a reason he fell to the 6th round, there’s a reason he was a back up to the most famous backup of all time; he’s (at least right now) not good enough to be a franchise quarterback.

Whilst I think that it is great that teams are prepared for when their starters go down it does make for real poor-quality football. Backups like Brissett, Minshew, Jones and Bridgewater can and did win games for their teams, they played largely faultless football. The game plans were changed to suit these incoming players. But that game change just meant a lot of inside runs to make the quick 5-8 yard play action passes to the tight end easier for these inexperienced quarterbacks. I’ve been watching games this year and the only big plays are being pulled out by running backs like Dalvin Cook, Saquon Barkley, Joe Mixon, Leonard Fournette and Marlon Mack. And don’t get me wrong, nothing compares to Ezekiel Elliot running through all eleven defenders on his way to the end zone but like everyone else I watch football for great entertaining throws, for quarterbacks taking huge hits or just avoiding a sack to ensure they can launch a game winning touchdown pass 40 yards down the field. I want to see receivers going up and making a catch despite being absolutely covered by the defensive back. I don’t want to see Minshew and his mates bore me to death with speed outs and hitches.

Despite my disdain for Minshew his play still put Jacksonville in an interesting position heading into last week’s match up against the Texans. The uncle Rico lookalike played well against whatever the Jets are calling a defense and no matter how dull it is to watch, short yardage-high percentage throws have been winning them games. Minshew has obvious chemistry with DJ Chark and did manage to beat a decent Tennessee defense. Nick Foles was set to return last week and Jacksonville need to seriously consider their options. I wasn’t surprised that the Jaguars started the worse of the two quarterbacks. They had  little to no hope of taking down the Texans even if Nick Foles is fully healthy, so why bring in your starter to get embarrassed? Give the crowd what they want, commit to Minshew Mania and reap the financial reward from increased ticket and jersey sales, then let him lose to a superior team and allow Foles to come back against the Colts the week after.

Whatever Jacksonville do next week and going forward through the season it will be worth keeping an eye on the passers of the NFL. They’re young, inexperienced and have all been thrown into the deep end. Let’s see who floats to the top.