Can NFL journeyman Gardner Minshew be the Raiders’ answer at QB?

LAS VEGAS – Gardner Minshew II packed up the van in March and headed out west, looking for another opportunity in a colorful NFL career that has already spanned four teams in six years.

He became a college star on his fourth try – after trying to break his hand with a hammer to get an extra redshirt year at his third stop. The quarterback’s cool mustache, laidback swagger, better-than-you-think arm and flair for the dramatic created a “Minshew Mania” that followed him from Washington State to his first NFL stop in Jacksonville.

Or was it the other way around?

As Minshew says, it seemed like the mustache “was calling the shots for a bit.”

Minshew is 28 now, and the Las Vegas Raiders made him a really good offer to sign and compete with Aidan O’Connell for the starting quarterback job. It felt like a natural fit for Minshew, who had met Raiders Hall of Famers Kenny Stabler, Ray Guy and Fred Biletnikoff over the years – guys who valued having fun and enjoying people almost as much as winning.

“I couldn’t be prouder to be part of the Raiders tradition,” Minshew said Wednesday. “It’s real, you feel it when you step in the building. We’re here to win, but personalities are welcome. It’s important to have balance in life, and you can do your best at football but not let it take over. I am excited to be part of a new era of Raiders football.”

Coach Antonio Pierce said he hopes to pick a starting quarterback after Saturday night’s preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys.

Minshew feels no sense of urgency.

“No, man,” Minshew said. “If I knew a better way of doing things, I would have been doing it, you know? So you just keep going, trust the process, continue learning and get better. And, you know, support whatever decision he makes.”

Minshew feels the Raiders will need both quarterbacks and is confident he will play this season no matter what decision Pierce makes. A year ago, Minshew came off the bench in Indianapolis for an injured Anthony Richardson and had the Colts one dropped pass away from the playoffs. He made the Pro Bowl as an alternate.

“He is just a gamer,” said Raiders safety Marcus Epps, who played with Minshew for two seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. “(He’s a) very smart player who cares a lot and works really hard, and he is going to give you everything he’s got every play. Definitely a guy you want in your corner.”

Former teammates and coaches mention Minshew’s IQ before they talk about anything else. Colts offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter said that talking to him is like talking to another coach.

Which begs the question – did Minshew really try to break his own hand? And why?

Minshew had transferred from Troy University to be closer to home at Northwest Mississippi Community College – where he won a national championship – and then transferred to East Carolina. There were two seniors ahead of Minshew on the depth chart, and he was planning on redshirting and starting the next three seasons there.

But it turned out the backup quarterback was the Pirates’ best running back. Minshew was now No. 2, and just like that, he was on the field in a game when the starter got knocked out with a concussion. He played a half, but Philip Nelson, it turned out, was a fast healer and was set to return as the starter the following week. So Minshew had a week to figure out a plan to save his year of eligibility, and a medical redshirt was the only way.

Now all he needed was an injury.

“There were two or three days of thought that went into it,” Minshew said. “Enough time to do the research and figure out that I was effed. I didn’t have any options other than that.”

Minshew’s best friend growing up, Houston Smith, realized he couldn’t talk Minshew out of hurting himself.

“We talked a lot about slamming the car door on his hand,” Smith said over the phone. “But he went with Plan B.”

Minshew grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniels and a hammer and sat down at his table. He took a swig, and then a swing, and then two more.

His hand hurt, but it didn’t feel broken. So Minshew took another drink and three more hits. Nope. Not broken.

Rinse and repeat.

After nine swings at his hand, Minshew was shaking in pain and quit.

“It’s not as easy as you might think to break your hand,” he said. “It was really swollen for a couple of weeks, and when the coaches asked what the hell happened, I told them I slammed it in a door by mistake.”

Minshew, who went on to play in seven games that season and 10 more the following year for East Carolina, never told the story until just before his senior year at Washington State. Coach Mike Leach had all the seniors come up each night at training camp and talk to the team.

“I told them what I did,” Minshew said. “And I was like, ‘That is what I would do for more football. What would you do? How much does this mean to you? Because it means everything to me.’ ”

Jack Wright, Minshew’s coach at Northwest Mississippi, was not surprised when he heard the story.

“He would do anything to play and to win,” said Wright, now the coach at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. “We lost one game in 2015, and I will never forget how he came in the next morning to my office, looking at me and saying, ‘What can I do to make sure that never happens again?’ ”

One thing that might surprise you, however, is that Minshew was a pocket passer back in junior college. He was not getting away from pass rushers and completing passes on the move like he is primarily known for now.

“That was seen as a negative for him back then, and that’s why I say the thing that sets him apart is his determination to be good,” Wright said.

Minshew takes pride in the work he’s put in on his flexibility, lower-body strength and speed.

“My junior year of high school, I went up to Ole Miss and they told me, ‘If you can run under a 5-flat 40, we’ll offer you (a scholarship),’ ” Minshew said. “I go up there and run a 5.1, and that just crushed me. So ever since, that’s been a consistent commitment and to have made scrambling a positive to my game now is really cool to me.”

“He is just extremely determined to be really, really good,” Wright said. “He does have a really quick release, but Gardner is where he is because he’s extremely smart and he is extremely motivated. He is probably smarter than most coaches.”

It’s one reason then-Alabama coach Nick Saban wanted Minshew to transfer from East Carolina and be Tua Tagovailoa‘s backup for a year before becoming a graduate assistant coach. Minshew got cold feet when Jalen Hurts decided not to transfer and return to Alabama in 2018.

He still might have gone, though, if not for a phone call from Leach, then the coach at Washington State.

Minshew ran a variation of Leach’s Air Raid offense – run out of the shotgun, with four receivers and a running back, often with no huddle – in high school. Leach’s friend and Air Raid co-creator Hal Mumme happened to be in Mississippi, coaching at Jackson State, and knew all about Minshew.

Leach called Minshew and asked if he would like to come to Washington State and lead the nation in passing. Minshew said yes and committed without visiting the campus.

Minshew finished second in the nation in passing with 4,779 yards (the late Dwayne Haskins had 4,831 for Ohio State), and the mania was on. He became a cult figure on national television. On campus and at the stadium, his friends often had to form a human circle to protect him from mobs.

Minshew had great pocket presence, the late Leach once said, and his spirit could lift the whole team.

“In varying degrees, everyone in this business and in this world has some phoniness to him, and Gardner’s got far less than most,” Leach, who died in 2022, told ESPN in 2019. “All the attention in the world is not more important to him than playing well, and I get the feeling that it has always been that way.”

Leach would yell at NFL scouts, but concerns over Minshew’s size (he is listed as 6-foot-1, 225 pounds) had him drop to the sixth round. The Jacksonville Jaguars took him because they were impressed with his smarts and confidence. Former New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin was with the Jaguars then as executive vice president of football operations and is now an adviser to Pierce with the Raiders.

He remembers Minshew winning over Jaguars owner Shad Khan in the team interview at the NFL Scouting Combine. Minshew told Khan, “I am too short, I don’t have arm strength and I am too slow, but I won 11 games at Washington State.”

Then he quickly won over the Jacksonville coaches.

“He was sharp,” Coughlin said. “You could show him something on film or even just tell him something, and he could suck it all up and walk right on the practice field and do it.”

Minshew hit the field in the Jaguars’ season opener after Nick Foles went down with an injury. He started 12 games his rookie year, winning six of them for a bad Jaguars team (they were 6-10 overall) and finishing with 3,271 passing yards, 21 touchdowns and six interceptions.

There were come-from-behind victories, including one in the Raiders’ last game at Oakland. Minshew led the Jaguars back from a 16-3 deficit in the third quarter, completing 13 of 17 passes for 128 yards and running for 24 yards on three late scoring drives. After the 20-16 win, he watched the home fans boo Raiders quarterback Derek Carr and throw nachos on the field.

“It was definitely an awesome experience to be here and play in the last game,” Minshew said afterward. “Probably saw more middle fingers today than I have in my whole life. They have a good time. It was fun to ruin that for them.”

Minshew Mania, though, lasted only a year in Jacksonville, as the next season he played with an injured thumb and went 1-7 as the starter. The Jaguars lost 15 straight games, and with that came the No. 1 draft pick and the rights to Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence.

The Jaguars traded Minshew to the Eagles for a sixth-round pick, and he appeared in nine games, starting four, in two years as a backup to Hurts. Offensive coordinator Shane Steichen was impressed and brought Minshew with him when he became the Colts’ head coach in 2023. Minshew wound up starting 13 games after rookie Anthony Richardson injured his shoulder. He was good enough to win seven of them and get the Colts on the verge of the playoffs, but trying to do too much led to nine interceptions (against 15 touchdown passes) and eight fumbles.

Minshew worked this offseason on his ball security, as well as his release points and making plays off-schedule, on his annual trip to Tampa, Fla., to work with former Raiders coach Jon Gruden.

“The best is just watching film with him – it’s a blast,” Minshew said.

The Colts wanted Minshew back this season but couldn’t match the $15 million guaranteed (over two years) that Raiders general manager Tom Telesco gave him. Minshew is a skilled play-action passer who thinks Luke Getsy’s West Coast offense suits him, as he feels he processes quickly and goes through his reads and progressions to find the most open receiver.

“Not to mention all the weapons we have here,” Minshew said. “Davante (Adams), Jakobi (Meyers), our two tight ends, Tre Tucker, Zamir (White) … dude.”

And he’s made himself at home. The converted prison bus he once had is gone, but his van – Minshew’s baby – is a home on wheels. Some late nights at the Raiders facility, it can be seen in the parking lot with its owner still unwinding. It’s a primo location, he said, with free snacks, a bathroom and a gym just footsteps away.

“His personality is so unique,” Pierce said. “(He’s) so free-spirited, but more importantly, a great teammate, he loves to compete, his attitude, his purpose, each and every rep that he takes – you can see that there’s a driven player there that’s always been an underdog.

“And that’s a good thing for the Raiders because that carries over to the rest of our team, and guys feed off of it.”

They will – whether or not Minshew is named the starter for Week 1. Minshew Mania is a different animal than it used to be, more of a quiet storm, but he always seems to find a way back on the field to try to help his team win.