What It Means:

"He has shown a skillset where he can sit in a pocket, step up, make things happen outside the pocket," Gruden said of Minshew. "He’s accurate, he’s tough and obviously he’s a great leader so he’s got the intangibles you want in a quarterback." A sixth-round pick last year, Minshew was forced from clipboard duties into the starting job in the first quarter of his first professional game. He threw 21 touchdowns against only 6 interceptions in his rookie campaign, finishing with a 6-6 record as a starter. Minshew also added 344 rushing yards, fifth-most among quarterbacks. However, Minshew did benefit from an advantageous schedule, with his average drop back coming against the league's 18.7-ranked pass defense, based on numberFire's metrics. Only three quarterbacks with at least 200 dropbacks had an easier path than the rookie and just 55 of his 503 total dropbacks came against top-10 pass defenses, the second-lowest percentage in the league. Minshew turned 24 earlier this month.

Minshew is the 22nd-ranked quarterback in numberFire's preseason fantasy rankings. Our models project him for 3,981.4 passing yards, 21.9 touchdowns, and 11.7 interceptions with another 256.0 yards and 2.0 touchdowns on the ground.