At what point do we start taking Gardner Minshew more seriously? He doesn’t turn the ball over, and he’s accurate. He’s got Jacksonville’s passing game looking kind of plucky.
He certainly shows up on opening day ready to play. Last year, recall, he came off the bench and completed 22 of 25 against Kansas City. On Sunday, he went 19 of 20 against the Colts.
In the Super Bowl era, only seven quarterbacks have attempted at least 85 percent of their passes in season openers. (That’s with at least 20 attempts). Minshew is the only guy who’s done it twice.
HIGHEST COMPLETION PERCENTAGE IN OPENERS | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Player | Opp | Result | Cmp | Att | Pct | TD | Int |
2020 | Gardner Minshew, JAX | IND | W 27-20 | 19 | 20 | 95.0% | 3 | 0 |
2020 | Russell Wilson, SEA | @ATL | W 38-25 | 31 | 35 | 88.6% | 4 | 0 |
2019 | Gardner Minshew, JAX | KAN | L 26-40 | 22 | 25 | 88.0% | 2 | 1 |
1983 | Lynn Dickey, GNB | @HOU | W 41-38 | 27 | 31 | 87.1% | 5 | 1 |
2003 | Mark Brunell, JAX | @CAR | L 23-24 | 23 | 27 | 85.2% | 2 | 0 |
1993 | Jeff Hostetler, RAI | MIN | W 24-7 | 23 | 27 | 85.2% | 1 | 1 |
2019 | Lamar Jackson, BAL | @MIA | W 59-10 | 17 | 20 | 85.0% | 5 | 0 |
2019 | Derek Carr, OAK | DEN | W 24-16 | 22 | 26 | 84.6% | 1 | 0 |
2017 | Sam Bradford, MIN | NOR | W 29-19 | 27 | 32 | 84.4% | 3 | 0 |
1997 | Rob Johnson, JAX | @BAL | W 28-27 | 20 | 24 | 83.3% | 2 | 0 |
2006 | Matt Hasselbeck, SEA | @DET | W 9-6 | 25 | 30 | 83.3% | 0 | 0 |
2015 | Philip Rivers, SDG | DET | W 33-28 | 34 | 41 | 82.9% | 2 | 2 |
2018 | Drew Brees, NOR | TAM | L 40-48 | 37 | 45 | 82.2% | 3 | 0 |
2014 | Geno Smith, NYJ | OAK | W 19-14 | 23 | 28 | 82.1% | 1 | 1 |
2008 | Aaron Rodgers, GNB | MIN | W 24-19 | 18 | 22 | 81.8% | 1 | 0 |
1989 | Vinny Testaverde, TAM | @GNB | W 23-21 | 22 | 27 | 81.5% | 1 | 0 |
1970 | John Brodie, SFO | WAS | W 26-17 | 17 | 21 | 81.0% | 1 | 0 |
2002 | Vinny Testaverde, NYJ | @BUF | W 37-31 | 24 | 30 | 80.0% | 2 | 0 |
2015 | Tony Romo, DAL | NYG | W 27-26 | 36 | 45 | 80.0% | 3 | 2 |
2020 | Lamar Jackson, BAL | CLE | W 38-6 | 20 | 25 | 80.0% | 3 | 0 |
1968 | Joe Kapp, MIN | ATL | W 47-7 | 16 | 20 | 80.0% | 3 | 0 |
2001 | Elvis Grbac, BAL | CHI | W 17-6 | 24 | 30 | 80.0% | 1 | 0 |
2017 | Alex Smith, KAN | @NWE | W 42-27 | 28 | 35 | 80.0% | 4 | 0 |
(The Pro-Football-Reference.com website used to pull these numbers).
—Ian Allan