NFL Updates: AFC West Quarterbacks and Gardner Minshew's Impact

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00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid. Jacob Kamaker is with us from Sporting News.

00:07We're going to touch on some AFC West quarterbacks as we begin here on the show.

00:12Jacob, great to see you again and happy football season to you and it's good to have you back.

00:17Yeah, thanks, Greg. Glad to be here and glad for sure that it's football season with everything kicking up.

00:23I mean, we're going to have two weeks from Thursday, season opener. Doesn't get better than this, man.

00:28Yeah, we're almost there. I was taking my son to school explaining to him.

00:31He's like, why do they call it week zero? And I don't have a good explanation for that for college football.

00:35I tried, though. It took me a while. Okay, so how would we describe the career of Gardner Minshew?

00:40Like, what is the comp for Gardner Minshew? Because wherever he goes, Jacob, they love him and he starts

00:48and he gets a chance and the teams are so happy with him and then they never keep him.

00:52I mean, how many times, how many teams would go to Jacksonville? Oh, we love Gardner Minshew.

00:56He's so good for us. He does all things the right way. We're going to make a big deal.

00:59They win some games. He's gone. Goes to Philadelphia, fills in for Jalen Hurts.

01:03Oh my gosh, Gardner Minshew. Thank goodness we had him. He's gone. Goes to Indianapolis.

01:08Same thing. Anthony Richardson gets hurt. Oh, we're so happy we have Gardner Minshew.

01:12He's gone again. And here go the Raiders. They're doing the same thing.

01:15I have nothing against Gardner Minshew. He's a fun guy and he's a serviceable quarterback, I guess.

01:21But is this going to be his lot in life, Jacob, to just keep going to different teams to hold the fort down

01:26until they get a real quarterback? That's not fair to anybody.

01:29Yeah, it doesn't seem fair to him. It almost seems like Ryan Fitzpatrick might be the best comp for him

01:35where you look at him and you say, hey, this guy's a pretty good starter. We can get by with him.

01:39We can win some games. You know, Minshew hasn't made any sort of playoff run as a starter,

01:44but you're never going to be, you're never going to feel down and out when he's the quarterback.

01:48I mean, the Colts last year almost made it to the playoffs. They had a win in the end game

01:52against the Texans late in the year. Minshew was pretty good for them.

01:55Fifteen touchdowns, nine interceptions. You know, at his best, Gardner Minshew is a guy

02:00who can distribute the ball downfield, make some plays and avoid turnovers.

02:04He was better at the turnover avoidance early in his career, but at the end of the day,

02:08you have an accurate, solid quarterback who's going to put a respectable performance on the field

02:13pretty much every week. That's how he keeps getting these jobs.

02:15And that's why I think the Raiders probably made the right choice going with him.

02:19Aiden O'Connell might have more upside because he's the younger player.

02:23But I think if you look at this Raiders team and this offense that has Devontae Adams,

02:27Jacoby Myers, Brock Bowers, there's a lot of weapons there.

02:30So if you get a guy like Minshew who can distribute the ball to them,

02:33I think they're going to be pretty competitive, stay in a lot of games.

02:36Maybe they don't make the playoffs because the AFC is loaded.

02:39But hey, the Raiders, they're going to be a tough team to beat week in and week out

02:43as long as their defense continues to play well.

02:45Yeah. My concern, Jacob, for this, before we move on from the Raiders,

02:49is like we've seen in the past with some teams, it happens in a lot of sports, by the way,

02:54that, Jacob, do you think the Raiders are that team in the next two weeks

02:58that looks internally at their team and says, you know what?

03:01We're not good enough to beat out some of the others.

03:04And like a thief in the night, they move out Devontae Adams somewhere else.

03:07Every year this happens to some teams. Some team just decides we've sold our tickets.

03:12We're ready to go, but we ain't good enough.

03:15I don't know. Like I'm sort of sniffing that here, thinking that that could happen.

03:20Maybe I'm crazy here and Minshew will have Devontae Adams,

03:22but I don't know if the Raiders are that team.

03:25But Jacob, you know as well as I do, baseball, football, basketball,

03:28like the night before the season sometimes teams do these deals.

03:32Yeah, I wouldn't be super surprised to see the Raiders eventually move on

03:36from Devontae Adams this year.

03:38I think maybe the trade deadline would be the one to watch.

03:40If they're sort of out of contention in the AFC, which again,

03:44they're looking like maybe at best a wildcard contender

03:47because of how many top-tier teams there are,

03:49they might say, hey, we should move on from him.

03:51We have Jacoby Myers. We have Trey Tucker, who has a lot of upside.

03:55Let's give these guys a chance to prove themselves.

03:57But I think going into the season, they want to give Antonio Pierce

04:00kind of a chance to take command and say, hey, you have pretty good personnel here.

04:05We're going to let you have a shot at winning with this.

04:07And then if not, we'll try to kind of rebuild on the fly

04:10and get you up to a playoff contender before.

04:13But I think if the Raiders were in the NFC,

04:15we'd be feeling a lot better about them as a team

04:17because there just aren't as many wildcard contenders there.

04:20Yeah, I agree with that.

04:22All right, so Denver, there's natural optimism here.

04:25It's been fake optimism the last several years, as you know, Jacob,

04:28just a lot of different GMs, coaches, quarterbacks this year.

04:33It's all about Bo Nix.

04:35I will say that in the video highlights that I've seen of Nix

04:38legitimately has looked good in the preseason.

04:41205 passing yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions.

04:45And certainly nobody is picking the Broncos to win.

04:47Most people feel like this is a transition slash rebuild year for them.

04:53Should Broncos fans be optimistic with preseason stats

04:57because he would be the poster boy for the preseason this year?

05:03I think you can look at his performance and say, yeah,

05:05there are certainly reasons to be encouraged.

05:08I mean, you look at how he's performed.

05:10He's been hyper-accurate.

05:11He has the second best passer rating in the preseason so far,

05:14116.7 among qualified passers.

05:18But the big thing you got to remember is it is still just the preseason.

05:21And you can just look at the quarterback ahead of him in passer rating

05:24as like a cautionary tale of how, hey, maybe performing well in the preseason

05:28doesn't mean anything.

05:29Mac Jones currently leads the league in preseason passer rating

05:33with a 120.7 rating.

05:37And look, I was a Mac Jones guy coming out of college,

05:40but it's no secret his time with the Patriots didn't exactly work out.

05:44And I'm not saying that Bo Nix is going to bust or anything here,

05:47but the competition level is going to kick up a little bit

05:51once the regular season actually starts.

05:53So I do think there will be growing pains,

05:55but I think you've seen kind of what you're going to see a little bit from

05:58Nix. He's an experienced five-year college starter.

06:01He has good mobility and he's a very accurate quarterback at his best.

06:05So maybe the Broncos floor is a little higher than we thought it was with

06:09Nix there because they still have Courtland Sutton and Tim Patrick is there

06:13and he's a rock solid weapon when healthy.

06:15So I think if he could take advantage of those guys,

06:18there'll be an okay shape, but, you know,

06:21he's still a young quarterback on a team that has some holes on it.

06:23So I wouldn't get overly excited about this season if I'm a Broncos fan.

06:27All right. So, so let's move to the Bears, Jacob.

06:29And any difference between the way Caleb Williams has played and Bo Nix?

06:32I know the Bears fans are excited about Williams, but you know,

06:36a long way to go, I guess, another tale of preseason, I suppose.

06:40Yes.

06:41I think there's reason to be optimistic and excited about Caleb Williams.

06:45He's shown off that high end arm strength and arm talents and the mobility

06:49needed to make plays for this Bears offense.

06:52So I think you're seeing the ceiling that the Bears have, but again,

06:55there's going to be some growing pains.

06:57He's only completed 50% of his passes so far.

06:59So there may not be a true playoff contender right away,

07:03but next year, look out for them.

07:05Would agree. All right, Jacob. Great to catch up with you again.

07:08We'll see you again soon. Thanks for coming on.

07:10Thanks, Craig. Take care.

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