Gardner Minshew won't take the field for the Jacksonville Jaguars when their bye week ends. The 24-year-old continues to nurse multiple fractures and a strained ligament in his right thumb, an injury that cropped up unexpectedly ahead of Week 8. Minshew will apparently need more than just a couple weeks rest, and will reportedly be made inactive in Week 9 when the Jaguars take on the Houston Texans -- per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network -- marking the first game he's missed this season.
In his stead, the Jaguars are working to decide if the starter will be Mike Glennon or Jake Luton, one being QB1 while the other will be relegated to backup duties. The battle between veteran and rookie will now take center stage in practice, with head coach Doug Marrone having been impressed with Luton thus far. The timing of the injury couldn't be worse for Minshew, considering Marrone recently benched him and had considered making a change going forward at the position.
If Luton can beat out Glennon and then go on to impress as starter, things will get interesting regarding the future of Minshew.
The latter took the league by storm as a rookie in 2019, after stepping into the season opener to take over for Nick Foles, who left the game with a fractured collarbone that ultimately cost him much of the season. Minshew began to cool toward the back end of the year though, and Foles was reinserted as starter, but poor play by Foles eventually led to Minshew regaining the job and Foles being shipped to the Chicago Bears via trade. That led many to believe Minshew was/is the future of the franchise at quarterback, but there are now holes in that argument.
To Minshew's credit, however, it's likely the fractures and strained ligament in his thumb negatively impacted his accuracy -- having steadily declined since Week 3 from 71.43 percent to just 51.85 percent. The Jaguars contend they weren't aware of Minshew's injury, because he failed to notify them of his discomfort until after the Week 7 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
The onus is now as much on Minshew to get healthy and reaffirm his role at starter as it is on Luton -- a sixth-round pick himself (Minshew is a former sixth-rounder) -- to push past Glennon and prove he can be what the Jaguars need going forward.
