The Arizona Cardinals have been in a whirlwind with the quarterback situation. Is it finally settled? Or just another chapter?
At season’s end, the QB room consisted of Kyler Murray, Jacoby Brissett, and Kedon Slovis. All of the rumors pointed to the franchise cutting ties with Murray, who had been with the club for seven years. After the newly minted head coach, Mike LaFleur, was hired, apparently, he wasn’t that enamored with Murray, and the team released him.
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This meant going into the free agency period, Arizona needed a backup quarterback since they felt that Slovis remains a developmental prospect.
The Cardinals wanted veteran Jimmy Garoppolo. And, as soon as free agency began, they went after him, according to the Boston Globe. LaFleur came from the Los Angeles Rams, and Jimmy G was their backup QB. LaFleur felt comfortable with Garoppolo and wanted him. Because Arizona already had its starting QB in place, they were looking for a backup with experience at a backup price.
Then, a snap occurred. The money was worked out, but Jimmy G wanted a guarantee that when he arrived in Tempe, he would become the starting quarterback. LaFleur’s staff had more in mind a competition in training camp, and were completely satisfied with Brissett being their starter.
Garoppolo balked, and the Cardinal pivoted towards another QB instead: Gardner Minshew, aka “The ‘Stache.” What does Minshew offer the franchise? What’s the story behind that mustache?
Minshew, age 29, was born in Flowood, Mississippi, but grew up in Brandon, Mississippi, located less than 15 minutes east of Jackson. It’s a small town of just over 25,000 whose major employer is the Mississippi Department of Corrections, who operate their parole and probation department out of Brandon.
He went to Brandon High School and played soccer and football. He also played church league basketball and participated in tennis at the competitive level until after middle school.
The Minshew family is full of athletes.
His mom, Kim, was a college basketball standout at Mississippi State and is now a middle school math teacher. His dad, Flint, was a football standout, played defensive tackle, and was inducted into the Millsaps College Hall of Fame. He later coached Gardner’s Pee Wee football squad and taught the Air Raid offense run by college coach Mike Leach. He now owns Minshew General Construction.
Minshew’s younger sister, Callie, was a star volleyball athlete and was named “Gatorade State Volleyball Player of the Year” while in high school, won two state titles back-to-back, and was voted two-time Mississippi Volleyball Player of the Year. She then played at Mississippi State, her mother’s alma mater. She was named to the 2019 StarkVegas Classic All-Tournament Team and ranked among the SEC’s Top-10 in service aces.
Minshew’s official name is Gardner Flint Minshew II. However, there isn’t a Gardner Flint Minshew I or Senior. The grandfather is named William. The reason Minshew isn’t Gardner Flint Minshew, Jr.? His mother didn’t want him to be called “Junior” or Bubba,” so she insisted on naming him with the “II” suffix instead.
When Kim was pregnant with Gardner, William, who goes by Billy, wanted his son to name the baby Beowulf, after the classic English poem. Obviously, the idea never took off. Maybe if it was 13th Century England.
Kim Minshew had an interview with KREM CBS Channel 2 about her son while growing up and playing football:
“He has always been crazy about football and learning the details of the game. When he comes home, there’s going to be a piece of paper somewhere with X’s and O’s left around the house. If you go up to his room, there are plays everywhere. It’s always been that way.”
Minshew threw for 3,541 yards and 31 touchdowns during his senior year at Brandon High School. They reached the Class 6A South State championship and lost 31-23. He won the 2012 Jackson Touchdown Club Player of the Year award and was a three-time All-State and All-Metro selection. He had partial offers from UAB, East Carolina, and Akron, and had unofficial visits with Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, and Ole Miss.
In four years at Brandon High, Minshew threw for 9,705 passing yards with 88 touchdowns, 24 picks, a 58.8% completion ratio, and ran for 1,417 yards with an additional 17 scores. According to rivals.com, Minshew was a three-star recruit.
Several odd happenings occurred along the recruiting trail. His recruiter at Akron was killed in an automobile accident. With UAB, the entire coaching staff was fired and left, so his recruiting was reset to zero. However, his best scholarship offer was an academic deal from Troy, which would allow him to walk on with the football team. Minshew accepted and came to the school in early spring to hopefully gain a head start on his competition.
Troy wasn’t a good fit for Minshew, plus they had a very good quarterback already installed, so he enrolled at Northwest Mississippi Community College (NMCC) for the 2015 season, playing in the National Junior College Athletic Association.
Gardner Minshew Northwest Mississippi Community College (NMCC Archives)
Minshew was told by NMCC’s head coach that they also had a good QB on the roster, and most likely he wouldn’t start. After one week of practice, Minshew was named the starter. In his very first game, he tossed for 332 yards and was named MACJC Offensive Player of the Week. That year, NMCC captured the conference, then played in the national title game, which they won 66-13 to be named National Champions.
Minshew was named First Team MACJC All-State, as well as an NJCAA All-American honorable mention. Despite the recognition and success, he had few offers to advance to the next level. He was close to playing another year with NMCC.
Minshew explained to Trevor Ritchie of the Clarion Ledger:
“I feel like I’ve always been overlooked. Everybody has their own sob story or whatever adversity they have, but it’s something that I carry with me. More than proving everybody wrong, it’s about proving the people who believe in me right.”
QB Gardner Minshew East Carolina (Getty Images)
From there, he signed a grant-in-aid with East Carolina University, which had been one of the few partial offers he had after high school. The school was a D-1 school in the American Athletic Conference. Again, Minshew had an established starting QB ahead of him, but he was injured in Week 1 and also the following game. Minshew was good in relief in both contests. He would start seven games during that sophomore season.
In his junior year, Eastern Carolina brought in a senior transfer, but he was injury-prone. Minshew started 10 games. He then graduated with a degree in communications.
After he graduated from Eastern Carolina, Minshew had a year of eligibility left. He committed to Nick Saban at Alabama as a graduate student who needed a backup QB and promised him a graduate assistant coaching position once he hung up his cleats. The problem was that the roster already had Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts in the QB room.
Minshew then transferred to Washington State, where he would play for Mike Leach’s strong offensive scheme, which was pass-happy. Remember, Minshew ran Leach’s Air Raid offense at the seventh-grade level, so he was quite familiar with the scheme.
Through the first six games, Minshew was leading the FBS in passing yards, passing attempts, and completions to go with their 5-1-0 record. After 11 games, the team was 11-1-0 and ranked #8. Washington State ended up in the Alamo Bowl and was the game’s offensive MVP. Minshew finished his graduate season with 468 completions on 662 attempts for 4,776 passing yards with 38 touchdowns against just nine interceptions. He also rushed for 119 yards on 58 carries and an additional four TDs.
Washington State quarterback Gardner Minshew (16) Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Minshew was named First Team All-Pac 12, won the Unitas Golden Arm Award, was voted Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year, and finished fifth in the Heisman voting.
Not bad for a guy who had to start his college career as a walk-on.
And the mustache? It is his persona. It’s his calling card. It’s his signature.
While still in high school, while Minshew was tearing up the nation in passing at Washington State and was mentioned as a Heisman candidate, his former high school had a “Dress Up Like Gardner Minshew Day” where everyone wore a mustache. Everyone included teachers, FYI.
His mom, Kim, noted that Minshew’s mustache is part of the spotlight:
“He’s eating it up. All the videos that he’s doing all of this, he is touching his mustache. I’m like, ‘You’re loving it, don’t lie.’ He’s chasing dreams, and we’re just having a great time watching. That is what he is doing, he is chasing his dreams.”
Minshew got an invitation to the Combine and also the Senior Bowl, where he competed for a full week against quarterbacks Daniel Jones, Drew Lock, and Will Grier. All of the interviews with scouts and NFL coaches, plus a great practice week, and being named game captain, elevated his draft stock.
San Francisco 49ers GM John Lynch was interviewed in Mobile, Alabama, while at the Senior Bowl, and told the following to the Clarion Ledger:
“That kid has some legitimate swag. He’s calling our coaches last week, telling them the mistakes in the playbooks. He was on it, too. He’s a guy who just has something to him. You know, there’s certain guys — and I’m doing everybody else’s work for them so I’ve got to shut up — but he’s one of those guys that’s been awful fun to be around.”
The Senior Bowl is the only college All-Star contest where the coaches on both squads are current NFL coaches. During Minshew’s time with the South roster, the head coach was Kyle Shanahan, head coach of the San Francisco 49ers.
Minshew’s projection in the NFL draft was rounds 4-6.
The Jacksonville Jaguars, coached by Doug Marrone, selected Minshew in the sixth round of the 2019 NFL draft. In the QB room was Nick Foles, the starter, and then Minshew had to compete with Alex McGough and Tanner Lee for the backup position. Later, both of these quarterbacks were cut, and the team brought in veteran Josh Dobbs.
In Week 1, Foles broke his clavicle in the first quarter. It wasn’t Dobbs who entered the game, but Minshew who threw for an 88.0% completion ratio, which was the highest for any debut for a QB in NFL history. Minshew was the starter until Week 11 when Foles returned, but played poorly. In Week 13, Foles was benched at halftime, and Minshew carried the team for the remainder of the year with 3,271 yards, 21 TDs, and just six picks.
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Before the following training camp, Foles was traded. It was now in Minshew’s hands. Jaguar fans went all out with the mustache theme. He started until he suffered multiple fractures and a strained ligament in his right thumb.
In 2021, Minshew was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles to back up Hurts. In his two seasons with Philly, he played in nine games with four starts. From there, he entered free agency and signed with the Indianapolis Colts, where he had his only Pro Bowl nod after he threw for a career-high 3,305 yards, with 15 touchdowns against just nine interceptions amidst 13 starts.
Minshew then played for the Las Vegas Raiders and the Kansas City Chiefs for a single season each before signing with the Cardinals on a one-year deal.
In his NFL career, Minshew has played in 63 NFL games with 47 starts, tossed 1,742 passes with 1,100 completions for 11,987 yards with 68 touchdowns, 35 interceptions, 576 first down conversions, a 63.1% completion ratio, a 6.2 yards per completion average, an 88.0 QB rating, has been sacked 134 times, suffered 75 drops, rushed 171 times for 681 yards with an additional five touchdowns.
It should be noted that Minshew is pretty damn smart. At the Combine, he scored a 42 on his Wonderlic exam, second best among draft-eligible quarterbacks. The test measures cognitive ability and problem-solving, and Minshew has a lot of both.
And Minshew and Brissett have some history together. After his final college season, Minshew worked with Ken Mastrole, who was a QB-specific trainer at the Mastrole Passing Academy in Boca Raton, Florida. Mastrole was also Brissett’s tutor.
Minshew’s religion is Methodist. He just got married to his new wife, Madi. His X account is @gardnerminshew5, while his Instagram is the same tagline.