Gardner Minshew "super excited" about "special player" Laviska Shenault
Jacksonville Jaguar quarterback Gardner Minshew has a new weapon and he loves every bit of him.
“I am super excited," Minshew responded when asked about the addition of Laviska Shenault Jr., the Jaguars' second-round draft pick.
"He is a very special player," Minshew went on to say. "I am excited for him. He is just the type of guy that you get the ball in his hands and good things tend to happen.”
The former Washington State quarterback remembers going up against Shenault during the 2018 season, Minshew's lone season with the Cougars.
"I remember playing against him in 2018 and he kind of banged up our game," Minshew said. At the time, Shenault had both a turf toe injury and a lingering shoulder issue. "Which I was not upset about because he was the type of guy that every time he touched the ball you just got nervous because you knew he could break it, we had seen it on tape and at that point he was going to be in the talks for the Heisman until he got injured that year."
Shenault still caught 10 passes for 102 yards in a 37-7 loss.
Shenault is not your average receiver. His specialty is yards after catch. Get the ball in his hands, give him space and he's going to do the rest. Minshew knows, as a quarterback that loves short-medium passing, that it greatly benefits him and fits him perfectly.
"It is awesome, I know it is something that the defense has to really prepare for," Minshew said on Shenault's versatility. "It is nice throwing a 5-yard ball and him taking it 50, it definitely makes the quarterback's job a lot easier so I am definitely excited to have, to add a guy like that into the room.”
The Jaguars know they will have to get creative with Shenault. Their head coach, Doug Marrone, has already said they have plans to utilize him differently than a normal wide receiver.
"Obviously, we feel he has the size and the speed to play outside. After we had drafted him and I got on the phone with him, both [Offensive Coordinator] Jay [Gruden] and I had a plan. We talked about how we’re going to do it and how we’re going to use him," head coach Doug Marrone said following the draft.
"I told him, I said, ‘Look, we have some plans,’ and you can put him in the backfield, he can play Wildcat, you can put him as the F-tight end, you can do a lot of things with him. You see it on his tape in 2018 and 2019. That’s one of the things that we looked at; we went back there, and I said, ‘Look, we can do all those things, but the whole key is going to be how well you grasp it, how well you pick it up.’ Because if he can, make no mistake about it, we want to be able to do those things.”
The Jaguars have special plans for a special player.
