(10-05-2020, 06:50 PM)mal234 Wrote:

(10-05-2020, 06:09 PM)Eric1 Wrote: Minshew was 23 years old (he's 24 now) when he came into the NFL lol. It's not like he was 28 years old when he came in like Weeden did. Stop with the he came in much older than everybody else stuff. The difference between 22 and 23 really isn't that big.

He went to Troy, Juco league, East Carolina and Washington State. It's not like he played for some power house team who was known for developing QBs at the NFL level. How polished could he have really been coming out of school.

(10-05-2020, 06:17 PM)flgatorsandjags Wrote: Minshew came in older?  He was younger than Mayfield, same age as Allen, and just 1 year younger than Darnold and a half year younger than Jackson lol.

I was just going to say it's not like he was Brandon Weeden, lol. The way Minshew is being painted as an "older" QB is funny, lol. Interestingly enough some critics said the same thing about Baker Mayfield who also came in at 23. 

Could there be advantages to coming in a little order with more college experience? Sure. It didn't hurt and (probably helped to a degree) Gardner and someone like Dak Prescott who also was 23 his rookie year. But is it some massive advantage over younger players. I don't think so. Especially if the younger players have been in the league longer than Gardner has. And were drafted to better organizations given/more support than he has.

Just because someone is older than someone in a situation doesn't mean they are automatically going to be ahead of the other young people. They are all young and the age gap between them is not big enough IMO, to say his age/college experience gives him a much better advantage over them. It's not like he's 43 year old seasoned veteran Tom Brady going up against the young players. Some people are going to perform better out of the gate regardless of what their age is. And Gardner strikes me as the type of person that always been more mature no matter what his age is. This is the same guy that took over as starting QB in his freshman year and didn't let that job go. Likewise some people seem "young" no matter how old they get. Which is why sometimes you will still see an older QB make mistakes that a younger QB might make. (like throwing bad interceptions).

He was a little older, but a more suitable term I could have used was a more "polished" or "mature" QB.  In other words, a player who was not as "raw" and closer to his ceiling already than a lot of others in the draft class. Could be a better player early, less projected value down the road. Its still early in the evaluation process, so we will see.

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