Philadelphia Eagles: To trade or not to trade Gardner Minshew

The Philadelphia Eagles have an interesting set of backup quarterback options.

Alright, so if Gardner Minshew is out, who could the Philadelphia Eagles go after? I guess that depends on the team’s goals.

If Howie Roseman wants to invest big money into a free agent quarterback, Teddy Bridgewater is probably the best player on the market. While Bridgewater had an up-and-down year in Denver, he has 63 career starts on his resume and is a clear upgrade over Minshew. What else would be a clear upgrade over Minshew, however, is his cap hit, as Bridgewater played on a one-year, $4.4 million contract in Denver this season and would likely ask for something similar in 2022, with incentives that could elevate his cap hit even higher should he take the field as a starter for an agreed-upon number of games.

Still, at 29, Bridgewater has plenty of good football left on his ticker, and after almost losing his leg to a freak injury a half-decade ago, the former first-round pick out of Louisville is an incredibly easy quarterback to root for.

If instead, the Eagles want to look for a bit more of a cost-controlled option with less of a chance of stirring up a quarterbacks controversy, there are a few intriguing options on the open market that fit the bill, too. From Geno Smith to Kyle Allen, Colt McCoy, or even our old pal Chase Daniel, there are a number of backup quarterbacks who would surely accept a sub-$3 million deal and could hold down the fort for a game or two if need be. Of those four, Allen has the most upside, McCoy has the most experience in the NFC East, and Daniel has the most experience with the Philadelphia Eagles, so all fall into a similarly vanilla category.

But do you know who will all but surely be connected to the Eagles more than any other player? That would be Jacoby Brissett, the 29-year-old journeyman out of NC State who played under Nick Sirianni in Indianapolis from 2017-20. While Brissett has less on-field experience than Bridgewater, his familiarity in Sirianni’s scheme may help to make up that difference. With Brissett at the helm, the entire playbook would be at Sirianni’s fingertips should Jalen Hurts go down, and thus, the team would be able to operate as usual without having to radically redesign their playbook from one style of quarterback to another.

Factor in his rocket arm and Super Bowl-winning pedigree, and there’s a lot to like about Brissett, as he checks every box a team could want in a backup quarterback.

So, should the Philadelphia Eagles trade Gardner Minshew? If the right deal comes around, the answer is a resounding yes, but only if they can sign a better option first. That way, the team doesn’t go into the draft with a hole on their depth chart and can instead secure a developmental arm behind Jalen Hurts and a veteran backup. Personally, I would target a player like Jack Coan with a good bit of big-game experience and a live arm, but hey, that’s just me.