At this point, it would be surprising if the Jacksonville Jaguars didn’t trade Gardner Minshew.
After a woeful 2020 campaign, the Jags own the top pick in a 2021 draft loaded with quarterback prospects — with Clemson signal-caller Trevor Lawrence being the top prize.
Since they all but certainly will take a quarterback at No. 1 overall, speculation has emerged that the Jags would move on from Minshew, who is a pretty good trade chip. The 24-year-old has starting experience, is on a cheap contract and is, at the very least, a useful starter.
While the Jags reportedly have been receiving calls on Minshew, Jacksonville head coach Urban Meyer says, for now, he’s staying put.
“At this point, no,” Meyer said on NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football,” via NFL.com, when asked if they were considering trading Minshew. “At this point, I know Gardner a little bit. He came in yesterday. We had a good visit. That’s the second time I’ve spent time with him. This is all kind of new to me. I’m used to spending about five, six hours a day with our quarterbacks — that’s January, February, to get your quarterback ready to go, and you can’t do that in the NFL.
“But there is a lot of anticipation about the first pick, and I understand there is a lot of conversation out there. But there has been no decisions made. Gardner has done some very good things here in Jacksonville. And he’s a competitive maniac, which I really appreciate that about him. So there have been no decisions made. Yesterday was the first lengthy meeting we’ve had, and we’re going to continue that here for the next few weeks.”
Of course, Meyer has to say that, and this by no means indicates that Minshew is locked in to staying with the Jaguars.
However, it might benefit Jacksonville to hold onto him for depth. It’s not like he’s eating up a ton of the team’s cap space, and he would be a high-end backup. With so many teams reportedly interested in offloading their low-to-mid-tier starting quarterback, the Jaguars might not receive as much in return for Minshew as they probably should.
