2020 NFL SEASON QB GRADES

WEEK 2

WEEK 3 TNF PREVIEW - DOLPHINS @ JAGUARS (-3)

It’s a tale of two complex QB situations on Thursday Night Football this week. The Dolphins are still riding with Ryan Fitzpatrick while their rookie-in-waiting Tua Tagovailoa observes from the sideline and things have never been murkier when it comes to Tua’s potential debut. There is increasing speculation that he will not be seen at all in 2020 and it seems severely doubtful his debut comes in the game tonight.

Which leaves Miami with another Ryan Fitzpatrick start in this one. While Fitz hasn’t quite been “tragic” so far this year, there is clearly very little “magic” left in his game. After grading out last season as my 28th-best QB in the league, he has begun 2020 as the 5th-worst QB by passer rating with 2 TDs and 3 INTs after two games. Those picks actually weren’t all his fault, and he’s been slightly better than those numbers suggest, but the reality remains that Fitzpatrick is an aging and unreliable gunslinger that is as hard to believe in, and bet on, as he’s ever been.

On the flip side something very different is going on with Jacksonville and Gardner Minshew, who refuses to accept any notion that he is anything other than the Jaguars’ future at the position. While I’m still not ready to make that statement definitively myself, one thing is for sure: a win in this game will put an end to any hopes the Jags may have had for Clemson star QB and presumed #1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence.

I’m inclined to say that Minshew is not a fluke because of the way he’s currently playing the position and his considerable strides since his impressive rookie season. His field reads have become lightning fast, his internal clock is very rarely off or slow and he is becoming one of the best ball placement QBs in the NFL.

In those ways, the player once picked #178 overall is actually the better version of a player who was a #1 pick in the Browns’ Baker Mayfield. Their sizes and skill sets are quite similar, and while Mayfield is unquestionably more naturally talented, Minshew to this point in his career plays a more advanced, more cerebral and more fundamental game.

The Jags look loose and rejuvenated this season and are led by a QB playing some scintillating ball, so I would probably lean toward them tonight in a game that looks more like a potential push than anything else. The Dolphins under Brian Flores have consistently given outstanding effort and hung in all the way to the end of their game against a vastly superior Bills team in Week 2. Ultimately, Fitzpatrick seems the more likely QB in this matchup to make the backbreaking mistake that decides a narrow game.