‘Minshew Mania’ is a Lot Like the Holiday Season
"Minshew Mania" began in Philadelphia sometime on Saturday night when veteran Eagles reporter Derek Gunn put out a tweet saying that the team was going to make Jalen Hurts inactive and Gardner Minshew would be starting the game against the Jets.
Minshew did his part in adding the mystique, completing 20-of-25 attempts for 242 yards and two touchdowns in the win over the Jets, adding the Minshew Mania.
But let's all remember we have seen this before.
Jalen Hurts was the talk of the town after his opening week performance over the Falcons, where he completed 27-of-35 passes for 264 yards and three touchdowns, adding seven carries for 62 yards in the Eagles 32-6, Week 1 win in Atlanta.
The naysayers said it was only Atlanta.
Well, let's have some perspective about Minshew Mania - his performance was very good, but it was only the jets, who fell to 3-9 after the loss on Sunday.
It seems we are quickly able to change our perspective on things when we are pulling for one guy over another.
Minshew played a pretty good game, I'm not taking anything away from him, but his touchdown pass to Dallas Goedert was severely underthrown.
You'll see in the video below, Goedert had to stop his route to catch the ball, luckily no Jet defender was in the area to bring him down, resulting in a Eagles touchdown.
If that throw was delivered short by Hurts, the naysayers would be quick to point that out.
Again, I'm not here to tear Minshew down, but just to put things into the proper perspective, that can many times be lost in this town. Minshew did a very good job of getting Goedert involved in the offense and utilizing the running backs out of the backfield.
Goedert and the two running backs combined to catch 14 balls on Sunday totaling 160 yards and two scores.
"He stepped up and made plays for a guy that was starting his first game for the year," said Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni.
But let's be real, does anyone out there really think Minshew is a franchise quarterback?
Remember he went to three different colleges, was drafted in the sixth-round, and then proceeded to get traded for a conditional sixth-round pick.
He's a character, the video with him and his father is tremendous, the players seem to love him and he is a pretty solid quarterback and with his eccentric look with his handlebar mustache, makes him a fan favorite.
Look we have all heard the term 'Minshew Mania', but let's not act like it's a weekly occurrence.
He's the epitome of the highlight era that we live in, where people don't actually watch games, they just see the highlights of games. Every once in a while, Minshew has a big game and the announcer says it's "Minshew Mania," but those moments don't happen every week - if they did, the Eagles aren't getting him for a conditional sixth-round pick.
However, there are a lot of weeks we don't hear about '"Minshew Mania," they don't show the highlights of those games, but then every four weeks, it's back - "Minshew Mania" is on your TV screen.
Kind of like "Fitzmagic."
When Ryan Fitzpatrick has a good game, we see it all over the TV and hear about it all week. However, those games don't happen weekly. It's why Fitzpatrick has been on nine different teams since entering the league in 2005.
Getting Minshew was a great and smart move, they got a top-level backup quarterback, something all good teams have and value. When your starting QB goes down, Minshew is the perfect guy that can be interested to keep you in the playoff race.
If Minshew Mania occurred every week, the Jaguars wouldn't have needed to take a quarterback with the No. 1 overall pick, they would have already had their QB1.
But alas, Minshew Mania is like a holiday, it comes out like once per month and it's fun for that day, but after it's over you're ready to move back into your regular routine.
Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas are all fun days, but you really don't want to experience them every day. Its not a bad thing to have Minshew Mania around, but if you had to dress up every day, that would get old fast. If you had Thanksgiving dinner every week, it would get old. Buying Christmas presents every week, would cause you some economic hardship.
Minshew is a serviceable guy, but he hasn't won a lot of games, going just 8-13 in two seasons.
What the Eagles have in Minshew is a really good backup quarterback, what they need to find out is, if they have a really good starting quarterback in Jalen Hurts.