Gene Frenette: Colts quarterback Gardner Minshew deserves warm welcome back by Jaguars fans

While the last thing Jacksonville Jaguars fans want Sunday is for Indianapolis Colts quarterback and former employee Gardner Minshew to beat them, it’s impossible to not be happy for the opportunity he’s getting to fill in for the injured Anthony Richardson.

In or out of a Jaguars uniform, Minshew remains one of the NFL’s best and entertaining QB insurance policies.

He earned that reputation as a rookie in 2019 when as a Jaguar he went 6-6 as a starter, replacing Nick Foles after he sustained a collarbone injury when the Kansas City Chiefs’ Chris Jones awkwardly landed on him in Week 1.

All Minshew ever wanted was a legitimate chance to compete for a starting job. It’s fun to watch a cool guy battle for his place at the QB table.

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Without a big-time arm and being a sixth-round draft pick, it’s clear his impressive numbers (63.3 completion percentage, 46-15 TD-interception ratio, 93.1 career QB rating) have yet to be regarded by the NFL as being starter quality.

He sat as a backup for two years behind Philadelphia Eagles first-round pick Jalen Hurts, then took the best option in March by signing a one-year deal at $3.5 million with the Colts before they drafted Richardson.

It turned out to be a wise decision because Richardson was considered a raw prospect, one who had accuracy issues at Florida and was also a high risk on the injury front. With Richardson out 4-8 weeks with a shoulder injury, Minshew is the Colts’ starter until further notice.

Richardson’s physical setbacks have already forced Minshew to play significant time in three Colts games (all wins), which means he’s also auditioning for NFL teams to possibly compete for a starting job somewhere else in 2024.

While it’s terrible to see Richardson sidelined, it’s still fun to watch Minshew trying to prove he can go from a no-name QB to a starter just like Brock Purdy with the San Francisco 49ers.

Jaguars fans should greet Minshew warmly in his first game back Sunday at EverBank Stadium. If nothing else, he should be appreciated for breathing life into a franchise that had little else to root for in 2019 and ‘20.

The NFL is more interesting when the Mississippi Mustache is on the field. Now, if that translates into Minshew beating his ex-employer to put the Colts in first place in the AFC South, the Jaguars can’t say they didn’t know enough about him to think he could come back to haunt them.

Bowers has NFL stardom look

While he may not be quite the physical, athletic specimen of a Kyle Pitts, the production of tight end Brock Bowers the past two-plus seasons for national champion Georgia will make for an intriguing evaluation ahead of the 2024 NFL Draft.

Only 15 tight ends have been selected in the top-10 since the first AFL-NFL common draft in 1967, with Pitts being the highest pick at No. 4 to the Atlanta Falcons in 2021. If Bowers stays healthy and puts up anything close to his numbers of the last two years, he will likely join that elite group.

In 34 career games, Bowers has 156 catches for 2,369 yards (15.2-yard average) and 24 touchdowns. Over the same time frame since 2021, the only NFL tight ends who have exceeded or approached that level are the Kansas City Chiefs’ Travis Kelce (238 catches, 2,809 yards, 24 TDs), the Baltimore Ravens’ Mark Andrews (196 catches, 2,398 yards, 17 TDs) and the San Francisco 49ers’ George Kittle (148 catches, 1,890 yards, 20 TDs).

It’s not a stretch to think Bowers could join Pitts and Riley Odoms (No. 5, Denver Broncos, 1972) as the only tight ends to ever be taken in the top 5 of the draft. In his early 2024 mock draft, Dane Brugler of The Athletic projects Bowers as a No. 6 pick.

Dunning gets best of Hays

During the American League Division Series, the rare occurrence of two players with Jacksonville connections facing each other happened in Game 1. In a critical situation, Clay High product and Texas Rangers pitcher Dane Dunning went up against former Jacksonville University and Baltimore Orioles outfielder Austin Hays.

With the Rangers clinging to a 2-1 lead and one out in the bottom of the fifth inning, Dunning induced Hays to hit into a 5-4-3 double play. He pitched two innings of relief, allowed a solo home run in the sixth to Anthony Santander and got credit for the win in the Rangers’ eventual 3-2 victory, which jump-started a series sweep of the 101-win Orioles.

Now in his third season with Texas, the 28-year-old Dunning started 26 of 35 games and had a career year, compiling a 12-7 record and 3.70 Earned Run Average with a WHIP of 1.26. Dunning, who pitched at Florida, was a 2016 first-round draft pick of the Washington Nationals.

Dunning’s victory came a day before the 15th anniversary of the last time a Jacksonville high school product got an MLB postseason win. Englewood High alumnus Brett Myers was the starting pitcher in the Philadelphia Phillies’ 8-5 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2008 NLCS. Myers, a .116 lifetime career hitter at the time, had three hits and three RBI.

Cristobal asleep at wheel

It’s going to take an incredibly resilient effort by Miami the rest of this season to overcome the inexplicable end to last week’s 23-20 loss to Georgia Tech, a home defeat so baffling that it will likely stick to head coach Mario Cristobal for the rest of his career.

All the Hurricanes had to do was take a knee with 33 seconds remaining to close out a victory, but they elected to run and lost the ball on a fumble by Don Chaney Jr. The Yellow Jackets responded by driving 74 yards for a touchdown, capped by a 44-yard pass from Haynes King to Christian Leary, who got behind the UM secondary.

It’s of small consolation that Cristobal owned up to making “the wrong call” in that situation. Not only did Miami suffer its first loss, but the schedule gets considerably tougher — starting with Saturday’s game at North Carolina — as the ‘Canes must guard against this turning into a momentum-killer.

Cristobal, a UM alumnus who was part of two national championship teams, is only in his second season as head coach after signing a 10-year, $80 million contract, so he’s going to be a long-time fixture in Coral Gables. But this is the kind of debilitating loss that will test a program desperate to return to national prominence.

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Chaotic baseball playoffs makes it better

Remember in the weeks leading up to the end of the baseball season when most experts thought the AL East was far and away the best division? And a couple months before that, as the Tampa Bay Rays were still flirting with a .700 winning percentage, many had Kevin Cash’s team penciled into the World Series to face the Atlanta Braves.

Well, the AL East (Orioles, Rays and Toronto Blue Jays) went 0-7 in the playoffs and the Braves got ushered out of the NLDS by the Philadelphia Phillies in four games, needing to execute the most bizarre double play in playoff history just to avoid getting swept by a team that finished 14 games behind them in the NL East. It’s another reminder that regular season baseball isn’t necessarily an accurate preview of postseason baseball.

How amusing and sad that fans of the Atlanta Braves and Dodgers, who were swept out of the NLDS by the Arizona Diamondbacks, began complaining about the long layoff after their teams struggled at the plate. Had those favorites won, not a word about lost momentum would have been uttered.

Just shut up about too much rest. Stop whining about a playoff format that was never a problem until your team lost.

Quick-hitting nuggets

So Bryson DeChambeau thinks “it should be obvious” that the top 12 finishers in LIV golf should be eligible for the major championships. Come on, man. All the LIV members knew being denied entry into prestigious events might be among the potential consequences of joining a tour financed by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. Maybe the top four or five should qualify, but not a dozen.

That said, it’s also a bush-league move by the OWGR to not grant some world ranking points for the best LIV players, even if events are only 54 holes. It’s fair to penalize them for joining a league where the test isn’t as severe as the PGA Tour, but a total shutout on points feels inappropriate. …

Phillies’ slugger Bryce Harper staring down Braves shortstop Orlando Arcia as he rounded the bases on his home run trot Wednesday in Game 3 of the NLDS was simply part of high-stakes competition, not some unsportsmanlike gesture.

Look, Arcia had fun with Harper being victimized on the game-ending double play in Game 2, so it’s only fair that Harper gets to give it back in his own way. It sure beats the annoying bat flips.

Pigskin forecast

Jaguars over Indianapolis Colts by 7 (body clock adjustments); Baltimore Ravens over Tennessee Titans by 5 (Derrick Henry leashes); Houston Texans over New Orleans Saints by 3 (C.J. Stroud Rookie of the Year votes); Dallas Cowboys over Los Angeles Chargers by 1 (underachievement bowl); Florida over South Carolina by 1 (road antidote); Florida State over Syracuse by 20 (CFP style points); North Carolina over Mia-knee by 7 (victory formations). Last week: 4 right, 3 Bills Mafia whiners.

Gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540; Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @genefrenette

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Even wearing enemy uniform, Gardner Minshew deserves warm Jaguars welcome