On Friday afternoon, Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce announced Aidan O’Connell will be getting the first snaps at quarterback over Gardner Minshew.
This is stunning news as the Raiders gave Gardner Minshew a sizeable two-year contract in the offseason. The team is still expected to have an open competition for the starting quarterback position. But second-year quarterback Aidan O’Connell will be the favorite to get the job.
Aidan O’Connell is a former fourth-round pick out of Purdue. O’Connell took the starting quarterback job last season from prized 2023 offseason acquisition Jimmy Garoppolo. Compared to all of the other rookie quarterbacks, only C.J. Stroud from the Houston Texans was better last season.
So far, Aidan O’Connell is the only starting quarterback in the brief tenure of Antonio Pierce. He did go into Arrowhead Stadium and defeat the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas Day. But he also lost the next week to Gardner Minshew and the Indianapolis Colts, a loss that ended the Raiders postseason hopes.
Raiders Gave Minshew a Sizeable Contract To Sit?
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In the offseason, Las Vegas decided to bring in the quarterback that has twice ended their playoff hopes in 2019 and 2023. Gardner Minshew was given a 2-year deal worth $25 million. It’s not the biggest contract in the league, but it’s a deal that a team could give a starting quarterback looking to play up to a bigger deal in a couple of seasons.
The Raiders just got out of a terrible deal with Jimmy Garoppolo and could potentially be paying Gardner Minshew $12.5 million a season to hold a clipboard in the event that Aidan O’Connell holds onto the starting job. While having an impressive backup quarterback is important, investing a significant salary for multiple seasons doesn’t sound like a great use of cap space.
Gardner Minshew is no stranger to this sort of predicament. He’s been a career journeyman quarterback with a career that somewhat seems to mirror that of former Oakland Raiders legend Rich Gannon. Gannon, like Minshew, was a late-round quarterback with savvy and a similar skill set that bounced around the league as a backup and fill-in starter before coming to the Raiders.
Las Vegas is expected to hold an open competition between the two quarterbacks. Minshew has a more impressive resume at the moment, especially from his time in Jacksonville, but he could be poised to sit behind the young Aidan O’Connell this season. It should be noted that Head Coach Antonio Pierce turned to O’Connell from the first day he got the interim job from former coach Josh McDaniels.
Aidan O’Connell Might Be AP’s Guy
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Antonio Pierce clearly has a belief that Aidan O’Connell is the next quarterback of the future for Las Vegas. While he did shine at times, one thing that O’Connell heavily struggled with was having any sort of mobility either in the pocket or on the move. He resembled a statue which got him into trouble when nobody was open down the field.
The escalation of Antonio Pierce’s comments has been rapid. He went from stating that Aidan O’Connell has the “right to compete for the job” to saying at his press conference on Friday that O’Connell “has earned the right to go out there and get the first snap” which is a massive escalation.
Aidan O’Connell did show a lot of flashes at times of having potential as a low-level to quality NFL starting quarterback which is more than a lot of other rookie quarterbacks could say. Statistically, he had 12 touchdowns to seven interceptions and went 5-5 as the starting quarterback. Highlights include beating the Chiefs without completing a pass after the first quarter, beating the Chargers 63-21, and beating the Broncos in week 18.
There were also the lows that included a miserable 3-0 loss against the Vikings, and game-losing interceptions against the Chargers and Dolphins. He did go 3-1 with eight touchdowns and no interceptions in his last four starts to end the season. The Raiders will have a tough decision to make to start the season.
