Philadelphia Eagles: Ryan Fitzpatrick’s injury proves you have to have two

On Sunday afternoon, Washington’s somehow still nameless football team suffered their first loss of the 2021 NFL season at the hands of Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers.

Was this outcome an expected one? Yes. The post-Phillip Rivers Chargers are one of the most exciting young teams in the NFL, and even with Austin Ekeler not quite 100 percent, many an expert expected a win by LA’s other NFL franchise.

But one roadblock that surely made the collective lives of Ron Rivera‘s squad a whole lot harder was a brutal injury to his starting quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick, who left the game with an injury later diagnosed as a hip subluxation.

What, you may ask, is a hip subluxation? Well, according to Livestrong, it’s where a person’s hip is particularly dislocated from but not completely disconnected from its socket and could require surgery if anything is broken.

In layman’s terms? Fitzpatrick isn’t going to be on the football field any time soon.

Now obviously, this isn’t good news for the eventual Redwolves (or whatever). Even at 38, Fitzpatrick is by far the team’s best quarterback, and outside of Cam Newtown, there just isn’t another QB on the open market who can come in and start for the team on limited practice anytime soon.

Could Washington look to make a trade? Sure, I hear San Francisco may be looking to unload the contract of Jimmy Garoppolo on an unsuspecting fool a quarterback-needy team, but unfortunately, there just isn’t an intriguing young signal-caller on the open market who could be had on the cheap and potentially become a season-long starter… at least not anymore.

There was a player like that on the market not too long ago, but the Philadelphia Eagles swooped in and secured his services for the low-low price of a sixth-round pick.

Better to have Gardner Minshew on the Philadelphia Eagles than the WFT.

Why did the Philadelphia Eagles trade for Gardner Minshew?

Was it to push Joe Flacco as the team’s long-term backup quarterback? As insurance in case Jalen Hurts falters? Or maybe just to permanently banish Nick Mullens from the City of Brotherly Love once and for all after a horrid preseason?

Or maybe, just maybe, Howie Roseman made a move for the Jacksonville Jaguars’ former starting quarterback because he was available, and his asking price was hilariously low.

I mean, think about it, Minshew started 20 games for the Jaguars over the past two seasons and was darn good for the majority of that time. Sure, the Jaguars didn’t win a lot of games during his tenure, but did you see how poorly the team played with Trevor Lawrence under center and Urban Meyer on the sidelines?

That team just doesn’t have good bones.

While Minshew likely couldn’t slide into Washington’s starting lineup today- I mean, he wasn’t even active for the Philadelphia Eagles after double-digit games on the roster – he certainly presents higher upside than either Kyle Allen or Taylor Heinicke, the two quarterbacks on the team’s active roster, or practice squader Steven Montez. Who knows, maybe Minshew could have turned in a few quality contests as an occasional big shot-taking game manager and would convince the team’s brass that he’s the team’s QB of the future.

I mean, probably not, but after two years of employing very old quarterbacks, I could see Ron Rivera convincing himself that the 25-year-old gunslinger could become a long-term field general yet.

Fortunately, again, this isn’t the case. Gardner Minshew is a member of the Philadelphia Eagles and surely will be until his contract expires in 2022. And as for Washington? Well, assuming Ryan Fitzpatrick will be out for an extended period of time, something tells me Jonathan Gannon will be watching a whole lot of Cam Newton tape in the leadup to their Week 15 showdown.