Philadelphia Eagles steal Gardner Minshew from hapless Jaguars

The Philadelphia Eagles absolutely swindled the Jacksonville Jaguars in a trade for ex-starting quarterback Gardner Minshew. Minshew is off to Philly.

The Philadelphia Eagles just made a trade that almost every other NFL team probably should have made. The Eagles acquired quarterback Gardner Minshew from the Jacksonville Jaguars for a conditional sixth-round draft pick, according to multiple league reports.

The Eagles were a team that I had put down as a possibility for Denver Broncos quarterback Drew Lock if George Paton would make him available, but this trade obviously makes that a moot point.

For the price of a sixth-round pick, the Philadelphia Eagles have some pretty awesome insurance. Gardner Minshew didn’t do well enough for the Jacksonville Jaguars’ new brain trust to buy into his long-term potential at the position, but everything we’ve seen from Minshew at this point seems to indicate he will, at the very least, have a long NFL career as a backup and spot starter.

Ryan Fitzpatrick is a player that comes to mind when projecting Minshew’s NFL career, at least in some ways.

Minshew posted some rather impressive numbers in his time with the Jacksonville Jaguars. In 23 career games (20 starts), Minshew has thrown nearly 800 passes and he’s completed 62.9 percent of those throws including a solid 66.1 percent in 2020.

He has 37 career touchdown passes compared to 11 interceptions and he has four game-winning drives already.

The Eagles are understandably approaching 2021 as an evaluation year for former second-round pick Jalen Hurts, who is being given a very fair shot by the new coaching staff in Philly. The Eagles passed on the opportunity to draft Justin Fields or Mac Jones in favor of Hurts and first-round pick DeVonta Smith.

The Eagles could be interested in the 2022 NFL Draft class if things don’t work out with Hurts, and Minshew gives them a very solid option as a bridge in 2022 if that’s the case.

For the price of a sixth-round pick, even just a fifth-round pick if Minshew ends up playing a bunch of snaps in 2021, the Philadelphia Eagles have bought much-needed insurance, and frankly, Minshew is a far-better option than Joe Flacco is for the Eagles even right now.

If you’re the Jacksonville Jaguars, you’ve got to make sure you’re not getting completely swindled by other NFL teams. Howie Roseman certainly drives a hard bargain but dumping Minshew — who could be a quality starter for some teams — for basically nothing is going to have general managers calling all day every day to poach other talented players from your roster.

Although Trent Baalke is in the general manager seat, Urban Meyer is calling the shots in Jacksonville and building the team his way. He preferred former Iowa QB CJ Beathard as the backup to Trevor Lawrence and there’s nothing wrong with that, but Jacksonville shouldn’t have messed around with this fake QB competition and traded Minshew before the 2021 NFL Draft.