Examining the QB options: What about adding the 'Stache -- a.k.a. Gardner Minshew -- to the Broncos' stash of passers?

Tenth in a series

PREVIOUS ENTRIES: Nick Foles | Marcus Mariota | Andy Dalton | Tyrod Taylor | Alex Smith | Ryan Fitzpatrick | Mitchell Trubisky | Sam Darnold | Jacoby Brissett

GARDNER MINSHEW II, JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS

• AGE AT START OF 2021 SEASON: 25
• EXPERIENCE: 3rd year

THE HIGHS: There is a flair to Minshew. The haircut. The mustache. The fact that he literally tried to break his own hand with a hammer — after downing Jack Daniel’s — to gain another year of college eligibility.

He looks like he could have strutted into the NFL out of the 1979 football flick “North Dallas Forty.” Yet the truth of Minshew is stranger and wilder than any fictional quarterback you could concoct.

But there are some real chops to his game — at least when it comes to individual success.

He has a better-than 3-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio in two of his last three regular seasons. The Broncos haven’t had a season in which their quarterbacks have collectively thrown at least twice as many touchdowns as interceptions since 2014.

There is also his above-average feel for the pass rush, which he displayed during one memorable third-quarter touchdown pass during the Jaguars’ Week 4 win at Empower Field at Mile High in 2019. He can keep plays alive to buy time for his receivers, a skill that could come in handy with a deeper, more talented set of pass-catchers than he had in north Florida.

THE LOWS: Two benchings in two years could sound alarm bells.

That said, it is fair to view Minshew’s temporary demotions through the prism of the struggling Jaguars making a desperate attempt to mash random buttons to reverse the downward spiral in which they have spent nearly all of the past three seasons.

The offense was struggling, so the quarterback became the scapegoat. When he got yanked after seven games last season, Minshew had endured a stretch in which he had five interceptions and four fumbles — three of which were lost — in the previous six games.

And yet …

In the last two seasons, Jacksonville’s offense averaged 4.1 more points per 60 minutes with Minshew at quarterback than with their other passers: Nick Foles, Mike Glennon and Jake Luton.

Minshew is far from perfect; his overall form is league-average for starters. But that made him one of the better components of an otherwise inept Jaguars attack the last two seasons.

TWO-YEAR FORM (2019-20)

(Rankings are among 62 quarterbacks with at least 250 total plays — attempts, rushes and times sacked — over the 2017-20 seasons.)

• PASSER RATING: 93.1, 20th
• YARDS PER ATTEMPT: 6.94, 33rd
• COMPLETION PERCENTAGE: 62.86, 36rd
• TOUCHDOWN-PASS RATE: One every 21.54 attempts, 21st
• SACK RATE: One every 14.28 pass plays, 38th
• INTERCEPTION RATE: One every 72.46 attempts, 5th
• FUMBLE RATE: One every 52.94 plays, 53rd
• BALL-LOSS RATE (INTERCEPTIONS + FUMBLES): One every 32.86 plays, 24th

WHAT STANDS OUT: He protects the ball well in one way, but not so much in another. One of the league’s best interception rates is a notable item. This ensures that the games in which the bottom falls out from a statistical perspective are infrequent; he has just two games in 20 starts with passer ratings below 70.0 — a.k.a. what Pro Football Talk calls the “Kordoza Line.”

(Drew Lock, meanwhile, has endured six such games in the 17 contests he has started and finished, including two in the Broncos’ final four 2020 contests.)

Fumbles are a concern for Minshew, as evidenced by his bottom-10 fumble rate in the afore-mentioned 2017-20 comparison. During an Oct. 6, 2019 loss at Carolina, Minshew put the ball on the ground three times, which proved to be a primary cause of the Jaguars’ 34-27 defeat.

But his fumble rate was much better in 2020, improving from one every 43.8 plays (attempts, rushes and times sacked) as a rookie to one every 95.8 plays last season.

WHY HE COULD BE A FIT: The same argument that is made about Sam Darnold can also apply to Minshew: What success he had came in spite of the situation around him.

Jacksonville’s offense didn’t tear it up with Minshew at the helm the last two years. It averaged 19.1 points per 60 minutes when he played. But without him, their offense was the league’s worst, mustering just 15.0 points per 60 minutes.

Think of it this way: It can be argued that Minshew alone was worth 4.1 points per game, which would pro-rate to 66 points per season. And what he did came with an offense that lacked the depth and breadth of skill-position weaponry that the Broncos have built in the last two years.

WHY HE WOULDN’T BE: Both Minshew and Lock have lively personalities. But what would happen to the one that loses a camp competition? If the camp and/or offseason duel between them is close, then fans will likely call for the loser of the competition at the first sign of trouble for the regular-season-opening starter.

If avoiding this sort of scenario is a priority, Minshew will not fit.

HOW THE BRONCOS MIGHT GET HIM: Via trade. If the Broncos can get him for a fourth-round pick, that would be a bargain. A third-rounder — or perhaps two fourth-round picks, including one in next year’s draft — would be a logical deal for a quarterback with as much quality starting experience at such an early stage of his career.