Gardner Minshew Favored To Be Jacksonville Jaguars Starter In Week 1

The Jacksonville Jaguars played in the AFC Championship Game in 2017 but after a tumultuous 2018 where the team imploded under quarterback Blake Bortles, they decided to make a move. Last offseason, the Jags signed Super Bowl-winning quarterback Nick Foles to a four-year, $88 million contract in the hopes that he could return the team to their playoff glory. Instead, the season went topsy-turvy and Foles isn’t even favored to be the team’s started in 2020. That’s because last year’s rookie sensation, Gardner Minshew II, is in the pole position for that spot, according to the odds.

WHO WILL BE THE JAGUARS STARTING QUARTERBACK IN WEEK 1 2020?

GARDNER MINSHEW -250
FIELD +170

NICK FOLES

Foles suffered an injury in the first game of the season and ended up missing games all the way through to the middle of November. When he got back in action, the team mostly struggled under him and he was eventually benched. It’s not that the Jags were that good last season – they finished just 6-10 – but they were particularly bad in games that Foles started. In the two games where he played from start to finish, the team lost by a combined score of 75-33. In the other two games he only partially played, the team lost by a combined score of 68-37. It wasn’t all his fault but when you consider the $88 million they invested in him and all he was able to muster up was a QBR of 33.6, it’s clear that the team feels they didn’t get what they wanted out of him.

The challenge here is that the Jags will have to eat about $34 million in dead money in 2020 if they cut him, which means they’re salary cap will shrink because of a player who isn’t even on the roster. They could keep him, which would save them $11 million but that begs the question if they’ll bench a player that’s making $22 million? That’s why Foles still has a good case for the job.

GARDNER MINSHEW II

Minshew was merely a sixth-round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft but the rookie burst onto the scene last year and made a big mark on the NFL. For whatever reason, the team played much better under Minshew and a lot of it has to do with the numbers. Minshew threw for 3271 yards along with 21 touchdowns and six interceptions. His QBR of 42.6 wasn’t great but it was still better than Foles and Minshew was just a rookie. He figures to have much more upside.

The Jags were much more competitive in games where Minshew played as they lost by 14.1 points per game in his six starts. Keep in mind that three of those were one-score games and the numbers are skewed by a 45-10 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. At the same time, the Jags actually won under Minshew – something that didn’t happen under Foles. They were 6-6 on the year in games where Minshew started. He generally took good care of the football and played pretty well with the game on the line (10 of his 21 touchdown passes were in the fourth quarter).

Many people will say that Minshew has a lower ceiling but he’s just 23 years old and looked like a player who could be a starter in this league. The Jags looked like they were going nowhere with Foles but seemingly have a future with Minshew. Maybe it makes sense for them to stick with the youngster to see how he develops.

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