Jacksonville Jaguars quarterbacks coach Ben McAdoo will be coming into a different situation than he’s used to in recent years. His last two starting quarterbacks before joining the Jags were players who were well established in Aaron Rodgers and Eli Manning. However, his starting quarterback for the 2020 season, Gardner Minshew II, won’t have twice the amount of experience as either of those veterans.
Still, McAdoo is very excited to work with the young gunslinger from Mississippi and it was clear in his statements Friday. While meeting with the media virtually, McAdoo spoke on his admiration for the path Minshew took to the NFL as it wasn’t an easy one.
“He’s done a great job studying the offense, not just when coaches are in the room with him or in the virtual meetings with him, but he’s taken the bull by the horns studying it and then getting the other players kind of going, doing some walk-throughs and things like that, so that’s been great,”said McAdoo.
“He’s also a guy to me that’s very gritty. When you look at his past and the things that he’s been through in the game. I like to coach a player like that, someone who’s been through some things. He’s not a guy who’s had smooth sailing, so he has a little bit of a chip on his shoulder there and I like that.”
As many fans can recall, Minshew’s college career began with Northwest Mississippi Community College in 2015 where he led his team to an NJCAA National Football Championship victory. Afterward, he transferred to East Carolina where he participated in 17 games, but the team was mostly unsuccessful overall, winning just three games from 2016-17.
After those two stops, he temporarily went to Alabama in 2018 with a career in coaching in mind after football as it was already established that Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts were the top quarterbacks. However, in the spring of that season, Minshew received a call to come start with Mike Leach and the Washington State Cougars for his senior season, and the rest is history.
Later in the presser, McAdoo stated that he believes the offensive unit’s ability to take in coaching has been great and added that Minshew has the traits to lead the way.
“I do think Gardner [Minshew II] is a guy who has that instincts on where to go with the football,” McAdoo said. “He’s an accurate player and he makes the game fun. It’s definitely not a death march with Gardner and those kinds of things make it fun for me.”
It definitely sounds like McAdoo and Minshew are off to a good start and can get along well heading into 2020. With the offense being the most experienced side of the Jags’ team this season, that’s certainly a good thing because both members of the organization are important to the Jags acquiring a better record than last season.
