June Jones on Gardner Minshew, the Future of the Jaguars' QB Position, and More
When it comes to the 1-8 Jacksonville Jaguars, there aren't many storylines that draw more eyes and attention than the team's quarterback position.
Whether it is the present debate of second-year quarterback Gardner Minshew or sixth-round rookie passer Jake Luton, or the question of how the Jaguars will address the long-term future of the position, there is a discussion to be had.
There are few people better to have that discussion with than former NFL and college head coach June Jones, one of the men responsible for bringing high-profile passing attacks to football.
Jones, who spent three seasons as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons beginning in 1996 and was also interim head coach of the San Diego Chargers during the 1998 season, has recently spent time as a head coach in the CFL and most recently the XFL. Today, he currently hosts a class with CoachTube.com, helping teach the run & shoot offense that he masterminded over his football coaching career.
The former head coach spoke with JaguarReport this week to break down Jacksonville's quarterback position, what he likes about Minshew's game, and more.
On Gardner Minshew II
Gardner Minshew opened the 2020 season as Jacksonville's starting quarterback after having an impressive rookie season the year before. The 2019 sixth-round pick went 6-6 as a starter in 2019 and broke several franchise rookie records, leading to Minshew being selected as the team's short-term option at quarterback ... with the possibility, and perhaps even the hope, of him securing the long-term future of the position as well.
Through seven games this year, Minshew has completed 65.9% of his passes for 1,855 yards (6.9 yards per attempt) with 13 touchdowns and five interceptions. He has a 1-6 record as a starter this year and has missed the last two games with a thumb injury, the first time he has ever been inactive since the Jaguars drafted him.
"Well, I'm a Minshew fan. Mike Leach and I talk quite a bit" Jones told JaguarReport.
"I have followed him since his Washington State days and then, of course, through the, what was called the preseason, but the early games in the season. I liked what I saw. I thought he was very competitive. I thought he was accurate with the ball, and he's just young. And the combination of experience and his ability, I think, as a competitor will eventually prove that he is an NFL quarterback."
Minshew started out hot, throwing six touchdowns over the first two weeks of the season. His production slipped a bit following that, but Minshew's youth (24-years-old) and relative lack of extensive experience (19 NFL starts) are evident. There is still a lot of room for growth for the young passer, a fact that sometimes gets overlooked.
But, Jones explained, the NFL is a different league than it used to be. Several decades ago, a young quarterback like Minshew likely would have ridden the bench and watched from the sidelines as more experienced quarterbacks take the snaps.
Today's league is different, however. Younger quarterbacks start sooner, much as Minshew has. While it was due to an unforeseen injury to Nick Foles that Minshew was forced into action sooner than anyone thought he would be, he still made an impact as a young passer.
"Well, a guy like Minshew probably wouldn't have played, you know, if you're talking about the mid-70s or 80s, he probably wouldn't have even played until he was a four- or five-year veteran," Jones said. "I think nowadays the quarterbacks, because of the money and because of the way the game has kind of changed, that quarterbacks get kind of forced in there a little bit sooner than when maybe they should be."
On the future of the Jaguars QB position
As things stand today, the Jaguars are projected to hold the No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. The team owns 11 draft picks next April, including two in the first round and four in the first two rounds. If the losing continues, the Jaguars will likely be in the market for a quarterback, even with Minshew and Luton so far proving that they at least belong in the NFL.
Should the Jaguars be willing to pull a trigger on a quarterback in the draft (Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields) or even potentially free agency? That is a question only the Jaguars will be able to answer, but Jones thinks it is at least a worthwhile option to pursue.
"I think you can never have too many quarterbacks, you know, and too many good ones. So I think they should proceed as to how their scouting system goes," Jones told JaguarReport. "If it comes up that they have an opportunity to get potentially a top quarterback, they should take it. "
If the Jaguars were to find another quarterback to join Minshew and Luton at the position this offseason, then what would Jacksonville do with the crowded room? As Jones explained, this is a good problem to have and not a problem that even needs to be addressed immediately.
"And you can deal with that problem later if you have two quarterbacks who you think are players. I don't think you deal with it before the draft. You deal with it after the draft when you make that choice," Jones said.
As the Jaguars have learned in each of the past two seasons, it is important to have depth at the quarterback position. They have seen their starting quarterbacks miss multiple games with injuries in each of the last two seasons, leading to Jacksonville starting rookie backups in 14 of the last 25 games.
"If you have two quarterbacks that you think are NFL guys, at some point, somebody is going to want one of those guys. And I think you're a better football team if you have two," Jones said. "Because you are one play away anyway, just like Minshew went down. You're one play away from that other guy having to be there. So you got to have two guys that can play. "
On Jacksonville's success with sixth-round QBs
For the Jaguars to get production out of two sixth-round rookie quarterbacks in back-to-back years is rare. Most times, quarterbacks who are starting on Sundays were selected within the first 50 picks of the draft. 25 of the league's current starting quarterbacks were drafted in the first two rounds of the draft, with Luton (sixth), Kirk Cousins (fourth), Russell Wilson (third), Tom Brady (sixth), Nick Mullens (undrafted), Garrett Gilbert (sixth) and Nick Foles (third) as the only exceptions.
With Mullens and Gilbert both backups, this goes to show that very few sixth-round passers go on to be long-term starting quarterbacks. Brady is an obvious exception, but teams otherwise find their productive quarterbacks early in drafts.
The Jaguars, however, spent the No. 178 pick on Minshew and the No. 189 pick on Luton in back-to-back drafts. Neither quarterback is an established full-time starter, of course, but both have shown they belong in the NFL at the very least. This kind of late-round success at quarterback isn't common, Jones explained.
"Well, it is highly unusual, I can tell you that. So they've done their homework on those guys, obviously," Jones said.
"I think if you're in the draft room, I think pretty much you can probably roll the dice on any of the top, you know, 32 picks are gonna be good football players. But where you earn your money is the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh rounds. That is where you find guys that can play that nobody else realizes. That's where you really earn it.
"That's how you build your team now because so much of the money in the salary cap part of it, you have to have players that you're not paying a lot of money to that are productive players and that is more important now than it was 20 years ago."
