Senior Bowl Executive Director Jim Nagy: Gardner Minshew II ‘was fun to watch this year’

The 2020 Senior Bowl week officially kicked off today, initially hearing from the Senior Bowl’s executive director Jim Nagy at the introductory press conference. Nagy touched on several topics including Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew II, who played in the senior bowl in 2019.

Minshew II took the league by storm last season, becoming one of the most exciting quarterbacks in the league — netting a 6-6 record during the 2019 regular season as a starter — the best record among all rookie quarterbacks.

Last year, during the 2019 Senior Bowl Minshew II was not as well known participating with Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley, and West Virginia’s Will Grier.

During his introductory press conference, the Senior Bowl’s Nagy spoke very highly of the Jaguars quarterback stating he wanted Minshew II to return to the Senior Bowl this year for the Mardi Gras Parade but was unable to do to his RV road trip.

“Gardner was fun to watch this year, kinda Minshew Mania taking off, and we got all these pictures from Mobile where he’s doing his thing,” Nagy said when asked about Minshew II and the experience of having him at the Senior Bowl just last year.

Minshew II found success in Jacksonville during the 2019 season completing 285 out of 470 of his passes for 3,271 yards, 21 touchdowns, and six interceptions. Nagy spoke on Washington State quarterback Anthony Gordon, who will be participating at this year’s Senior Bowl and stated that while Gordon got beat out by Minshew II, it was clear to see why in hindsight.

“Looking at what Gardner did as a rookie — top rated quarterback, better than [Arizona Cardinal’s quarterback] Kyler Murray,” Nagy said adding that he was able to go 6-6 on a “struggling Jags team.” The former Cougar was able to surpass nearly every spectators’ expectations.

Minshew II was passed on for Pepsi’s NFL Rookie of the year honors to Murray earlier this month.

The Jaguars will hope to find a sort of diamond-in-the-rough from this year’s senior bowl, similar to how they found Minshew II in the sixth round last year.