Gardner Minshew - 2020 Fantasy Football Sleeper

Entering the 2019 season, the Jacksonville Jaguars were receiving warranted hype after the pickup of former Super Bowl-winning quarterback Nick Foles. By the end of the season, the Jaguars had stumbled to a 6-10 record while finding a pleasant surprise in young rookie quarterback Gardner Minshew II. The mustached Minshew threw for 3,271 yards and sported a shiny 21-to-6 touchdown-to-interception ratio in his first campaign as a professional.

To build off of his first-year success, Minshew decided to take a 17-day cross-country trip in an RV, where he made stops to visit the Grand Canyon, flew an F-16 jet with the Air Force Thunderbirds and made plenty of time to partake in one of his favorite offseason activities - duck hunting. While his off-the-field personality has quickly endeared him to Jaguars fans, it was his on-the-field performance as a graduate transfer in the Mike Leach "Air Raid" offense at Washington State that put him on the map for NFL scouts.

As a sixth-round draft pick last season, Minshew was expected to compete for a backup role behind the team's notable 2019 offseason free-agent acquisition Nick Foles. The rookie was thrust into a starring role early on though after Foles was injured in the season-opening game. Minshew would go on to start 12 games last year and far exceeded industry expectations for his rookie season.

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Opportunity Knocks

The Jaguars showed their faith in Minshew when trading 2019 notable free-agent acquisition Nick Foles to the Chicago Bears, and leaving their quarterback room relatively untouched. As a sixth-round draft pick in 2019, the expectations for Minshew were low, but after a promising rookie campaign, the starting job is his to lose. The depth behind Minshew consists of astrophysicist and career backup Josh Dobbs, journeyman Mike Glennon, and 2020 sixth-round draft pick Jake Luton.

New offensive coordinator Jay Gruden, who previously served as the head coach of Washington's football team, heaped praise on Minshew already, citing his "competitive spirit." Gruden's teams have historically run West Coast-style offenses, and he has had success with Andy Dalton and Kirk Cousins in the past, two quarterbacks whose success could provide a blueprint for his new project with the Jaguars.

An overlooked talent of Minshew's is his ability to improvise and take advantage of his athleticism. Minshew averaged 5.1 yards-per-carry last year as a runner, trailing only Lamar Jackson and Kyler Murray among quarterbacks with at least 30 rushing attempts. Minshew's rushing ability should provide a solid floor to his fantasy outlook, similar to Josh Allen of the Bills last season.

The stable of weapons at the young quarterback's disposal has improved in 2020, with draft picks Laviska Shenault and Collin Johnson providing high-upside wide receivers, and the addition of long-time Bengal Tyler Eifert at the tight end gives Minshew another quality red-zone target to augment his statistics. The improved receivers, combined with an unstable rushing game and a defense that seemingly will regress based on the transactions on paper, should create a perfect storm to increase the Jaguars' passing game.

Minshew, who is ranked as the 26th best fantasy football quarterback by our resident experts at Rotoballer, will have every opportunity to throw the ball in the Jaguars offense this season for a team that is not expected by many experts to compete in 2020. In deep leagues, Minshew provides more upside and opportunity than some of the other quarterbacks in his draft tier, such as Tyrod Taylor, Jimmy Garoppolo, and Jared Goff. Expecting a season approaching 4,000 yards through the air, 500 yards rushing, and 25+ touchdowns would place Minshew in the higher tier of QB-2 candidates and a solid candidate to stash as your backup fantasy football quarterback this fall.