Fans of the Jacksonville Jaguars have heard the stories of how Gardner Minshew II impressed the front office during his NFL Combine interview, which ultimately led to them drafting him. However, Doug Marrone, Tom Coughlin and Dave Caldwell weren’t the only one’s blown away by his moxie as owner Shad Khan revealed that he, too, was impressed with Minshew in the pre-draft process.
“They won’t say anything, they’ve been programmed,” Khan said about the process of interviewing quarterback. “They’ll answer, ‘Yes, sir … no, sir … blah, blah, blah. Gardner was the opposite of that. He was just as loose and relaxed, but a million times more prepared. The consensus was he was not going to get drafted. He came in and said, ‘OK, I know the book on me. I’m too short. I don’t have the arm strength. I’m too slow. But I won 11 [expletive] games last year.’ OK, wow. This is pretty cool. For Tom Coughlin to immediately get up and say, ‘This is interesting…’”
Talk about an endorsement.
As for Minshew, he was absolutely right, there was a lot of skepticism surrounding him for the reasons mentioned above. There also was a lot of skepticism surrounding him due to the fact he came from Mike Leach’s air raid system, which hasn’t produced a lot of successful players in the NFL. However, Minshew, Patrick Mahomes and a few others are starting to change the perception against air raid signal-callers, and the front offices who are taking a chance on them certainly deserve some credit.
Minshew has been nothing but money for the Jags, acquiring a 4-3 record as a starter in the absence of Nick Foles. He’ll look to at least add one more win to his name Sunday against the Houston Texans, which would be a huge win for his short career.
