Most early prognostications from amorphous football seers predict a poor season for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Quarterback Gardner Minshew has seen the scribbles suggesting his squad will struggle to win games this season and believes the grim forecasts can be used as proverbial bulletin-board material.
"Yeah, I mean, I think it should put a chip on everybody's shoulder on our team, being counted out like that," Minshew said Thursday during a video conference. "I think we do have a lot to prove, prove that we're not what anybody says about us. The only people (whose) opinions matter are who's in that huddle, who's on that team, and I think we're going to set those expectations for ourselves and not worry about what anybody else has to say about us."
The suggestion that the Jags will be one of the worst teams in the league follows an offseason in which the roster went through another overhaul, trading their top corner and their most consistent defensive lineman, and made few tangible improvements. The biggest moves this offseason for Jacksonville were the trade of quarterback Nick Foles and the public spat with franchise-tagged pass-rusher Yannick Ngakoue.
It's no surprise that Minshew disagrees with prognosticators. He must. No player -- especially a starting quarterback -- can enter a season believing his squad sucks. To do so would be antithetical to the job description.
Minshew brought a spark to Jacksonville last season, but the second-year quarterback will need to do even more heavy lifting to prove those chip-layers wrong.
After the trade of Foles and Jacksonville not acquiring another big-name quarterback, the job is Minshew's.
"It didn't change anything that I do," he said. "I'm still going to work the same way, still going to lead the same way. I had conversations with Dave Caldwell. I told him you do what you think is best for this team. I believe that I'm going to give us the best chance to win no matter what, and I just got to prove that every day and I'm excited for the opportunity to be able to prove that."
