The Jaguars and Eagles made an interesting deal early Saturday when Jacksonville sent third year quarterback Gardner Minshew to Philadelphia for a conditional selection for round six.
Minshew accumulated 12 and eight starts for the Jaguars in 2019 and career, Minshew completed 62.9 percent of his passes for 5,530 yards and 37 touchdowns at 11 interceptions.
Then why would the jaguars move him? Even if the new trainer Urban Meyer relies on Lawrence as a starter, Minshew could have been a backup with valuable starting experience in an emergency. Also, why did the Eagles act for him, considering that Jalen Hurts is the alleged starter while Joe Flacco looked impressive as a backup?
Sporting News breaks down the trade and how it makes sense for both teams:
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When the Eagles announced that they had traded for Minshew, they also unofficially disclosed why they made him the third quarterback on the team: They also fired third-stringer quarterback Nick Mullens.
Mullens didn’t play particularly well for the Eagles last season, just two and a half months after signing a one-year deal with the team after joining the free agency through the 49ers. (He was supposed to be a restricted free agent, but San Francisco didn’t make him an offer so he could sign with any team). His game clearly did not instill confidence in coach Nick Sirianni.
Since Flacco would have signed a $ 3.5 million one-year deal for the 2020 season, Philadelphia would have had to re-sign him or another quarterback in 2022 due to the deep-term backup in Philadelphia.
According to John Clark of NBC Sports Philly, trading the Eagles was a profound move for Minshew, made with the knowledge that COVID-19 is still an ongoing issue for multiple teams, with an additional regular season game to be taken into account got to:
Source confirms Eagles traded for QB Gardner Minshew
I was told that Jalen Hurts is the starter, Eagles like Joe Flacco, and made that trade for depth at QB with a 17 game season and Covid times pic.twitter.com/xuVtUWAQGm
– John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) August 28, 2021
The question, then, is why did Jacksonville Minshew act? It’s possible Meyer didn’t want to create a situation where some players were still in Minshew’s camp while Lawrence got more ready to play (the Dolphins faced a similar situation in 2020 with Ryan Fitzpatrick and Tua Tagovailoa). It is clear, however, that Lawrence’s cap is significantly higher and he would have overtaken Minshew for the starting position anyway.
Since Meyer is all-in with Lawrence, he’s likely traded Minshew – who couldn’t take advantage of the preseason’s “competition” – so he could use the following tips to further build his team with players he chose. According to a report by Ian Rapoport, the conditional six-round pick could become the five-round pick if Minshew participates in 50 percent of the snaps in at least three games. While this is unlikely to happen to both Hurts and Flacco before him, it still leads to picks for Meyer and Co.
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