Gardner Minshew didn’t need a long time to get rid of the rust in his first game with the Philadelphia Eagles. Minshew only needed three assists in the Eagles’ opener to throw his first touchdown pass, a 36-yard ball to Dallas Goedert in the first quarter that gave the Eagles a 7-6 lead over the Jets. from New York. And he wasn’t finished, throwing another touchdown pass on his second practice.
Minshew, who started in place of injured Jalen Hurts, posted 3 of 3 for 61 yards in the first practice, all passes going to Goedert – who had 61 yards on reception on the drive. The 36-yard touchdown was the longest of Goedert’s career.
In the Eagles’ second practice, Minshew joined Goedert again for a touchdown – a 25-yard strike on the third down to give the Eagles a 14-12 lead. Goedert has five catches for 98 yards and two scores while Minshew started the game 8 of 8 for 125 yards and two touchdowns for a perfect passer rating of 158.3.
Minshew, who hadn’t started a game since last season with the Jaguars, frequently targeted Goedert in warm-ups, so the first connection came as no surprise. He was made a starting quarterback after Hurts was ruled inactive with an ankle injury.
Of course, Minshew isn’t new to a starting quarterback role. Minshew completed 66.1% of his passes last season for 2,259 yards with 16 touchdowns from five interceptions, finishing with a quarterback rating of 95.9. He started 20 games for the Jacksonville Jaguars over his two NFL seasons, completing 62.9% of his passes with 37 touchdowns and 11 interceptions (93.1 rating). Minshew was 25th in the league in completion percentage, 20th in touchdowns and fourth in interception percentage (1.38) for all quarterbacks between the 2019 and 2020 seasons. His passer rating of 93.1 is the 12th highest for a quarterback after his first two seasons (minimum 500 attempts).
“Minshew Mania” has arrived in Philadelphia, for better or for worse.
