Valueman

Gardner Minshew comes off the bench for the Arizona Cardinals today, the Cardinals down 24 to 10 in the 4th quarter and he goes and throws 3 TDs. Arizona win 33 to 30 in OT. In 7th grade Minshew and his dad taught themselves Mike Leach's air raid and ran it in flag football in Brandon, Mississippi. His mum Kim is a middle school maths teacher and played basketball at Mississippi State. His dad Flint is a contractor. College went completely sideways for him on four separate occasions. He committed to Troy and just didn't show up for a single game. Went to Northwest Mississippi Community College where the coach told him he probably wouldn't start and he got the job the very next week. Threw for 3,288 yards and won the JUCO national championship. He went to East Carolina, backed up, started and then had to share the job. By 2018 he had one year of eligibility remaining and had already decided how that was going to end. He was going to go to Alabama, spend a season with Nick Saban holding a clipboard and then go be a coach somewhere. Then the phone rang. It was Mike Leach at Washington State and Leach asked him if he wanted to come and lead the nation in passing. He went. Led the nation in passing at 397.6 yards per game, 4,776 yards and 38 TDs, won the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year and finished 5th in the Heisman voting. Go back a year to the night before the 2019 draft, which was a draft he wasn't in. He posted this. "365 days to prove why my name should be called." 365 days later he was drafted by Jacksonville in the 6th round (178th overall). Be absolutely clear about what's happened since, because that's the actual job. Minshew has been on the roster in Jacksonville, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Kansas City and now Arizona. He's started games for all of them bar one. He's never been the long term answer at any of them. He got absolutely brilliant at the other thing. Knowing the entire playbook without taking a single rep in it all week. Warming up in the 3rd quarter of a game where his team was losing by two scores, because someone had to be ready. Arizona released Kyler Murray in the offseason and picked up Minshew as a free agent. Brissett has been the guy taking the snaps. Minshew went in for Brissett today. 1st TD 5 yards to Allgeier at 10:52. 2nd TD 14 yards to McBride at 2:16. 3rd TD 13 yards to Wilson at 10 seconds, tied it. Chad Ryland then missed the extra point that would have won it, went out in OT and kicked a 42 yard field goal. Twenty years ago a kid in Mississippi was running Mike Leach's offense in flag football as his dad thought it looked like fun.