Jacksonville Jaguars have set Gardner Minshew up for failure

The Jaguars have not given Gardner Minshew much hope.

After a promising start to his rookie season, Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew faltered. That can be largely attributed to the coaching staff turning the team back over to incumbent starter Nick Foles when he returned from injury. They took a rookie quarterback who was playing decent out for a veteran who has never been consistently good as a starter.

In his eight games before a disastrous performance led to him being benched for Foles, Minshew had won four of his eight games and had thrown for 13 touchdowns and two interceptions. Prorating that over sixteen games lands him at 26 touchdowns, one shy of the rookie record, and just four interceptions.

Minshew had the Jaguars at 4-5 before his awful game against the Texans, on pace to surpass the win total from the year prior. Even at 4-5, the Jaguars were more competitive than they had ever been outside of the outlier 2017 season. Their five losses included one-score games with the Houston Texans, Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints. However, once Minshew was benched and Foles went 0-3, the team had quit on the season.

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However, coming into 2020, the Jaguars have set their young quarterback up to fail. Minshew didn’t light the world on fire as a rookie and he fumbled too much, but he at least warranted belief that he has potential to be a franchise quarterback. Instead, the Jaguars are going forward prioritizing draft capital with the intent to select a franchise quarterback in 2021, most likely Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence or Ohio State’s Justin Fields.

The Jaguars traded away several veterans on their defense such as Calais Campbell, A.J. Bouye and Marcell Dareus. Also, star pass rusher Yannick Ngakoue is holding out as he hopes to be traded. With all these veterans walking out the door, Jacksonville will be relying heavily on young players. Offensively, the best skill player that Minshew has at his disposal is Leonard Fournette, the talented running back who the franchise is dead set upon trading away. That leaves Minshew with D.J. Chark and rookie Leviska Shenault as his most viable weapons.

Most teams entering a rebuild clean house and hire a new head coach. Not Jacksonville. Fully aware that they would likely finish 2020 as one of the worst teams in the NFL, Jacksonville elected to keep Doug Marrone. With one of the hottest seats in the NFL, Marrone is certainly coaching his final season for the Jaguars.

With Ngakoue and Fournette both likely either sitting out or off the roster by week one, the Jaguars roster is abysmal. They had a very impactful draft with players like Shenault and C.J. Henderson, but they are still, by far, the worst roster in the NFL. To go along with a bad roster, they have a lame duck coaching staff. When this team starts poorly, they may pack it in and mentally check out.

While 2020 is being looked at as a “trial year” Gardner Minshew, he has no shot. The team has prioritized draft picks over current players, similar to the 2019 Miami Dolphins. He has talent, he was a sixth round pick for a reason. Minshew needs weapons and a committed coaching staff to further his development. With the front office having their eyes fixated on the 2021 NFL draft, 2020 will be a long year for Jacksonville fans. The Jacksonville Jaguars have failed Gardner Minshew.