With a strong finish to the 2023 NFL season, the Las Vegas Raiders decided to remove the interim tag on Antonio Pierce and make him head coach. The move signaled positive things for the franchise who appeared to be on the right track.
However, the offseason may not have gone as planned for the Raiders as they still have some question marks at the most important position in all of sports — quarterback. The Raiders are going into this season with Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew, offering no long-term solution.
And with the Las Vegas Raiders offseason pretty much complete, one ESPN NFL analyst wasn’t a fan of what they did.
ESPN’s Seth Walder released his grades for each NFL team this offseason and the Las Vegas Raiders earned the second-worst grade with a ‘D’. The only team with a worse grade was the New Orleans Saints:
First, they failed to secure a long-term solution (or even a long-term hope) at quarterback, though I don’t knock them too heavily for that. Vegas entered the offseason in an unenviable position of needing a quarterback, not having the roster to support a major signing like Kirk Cousins and drafting last among a slew of QB-needy teams.
The Raiders could have traded up, but it would have been for one of the second-tier quarterbacks. In lieu of a long-term solution, they paid a non-trivial $15 million guaranteed to Gardner Minshew, though he’s coming off a solid season in Indianapolis.
Instead, the real issue was what they didn’t do within the context of not securing a quarterback. The team needed to recognize its noncontender status and should have shifted its focus into acquiring resources to set itself up nicely for when it can acquire a quarterback and become a contender again.
Walder put the biggest move for the Las Vegas Raiders as not finding a long-term solution at quarterback which really impacted their grade.
The move that Walder liked the most was re-signing center Andre James to help boost the offensive line in the run game and pass protection. But the move he disliked the most was NOT trading wide receiver Davante Adams this offseason. Instead, the Las Vegas Raiders opted to keep Adams and try to have him help the quarterback position with a big target at wide receiver.
The move of signing Christian Wilkens also wasn’t a good thing for Walder as he thought the team overpaid for the premier defensive tackle. But time will certainly tell on that one.
Were the Las Vegas Raiders smart with quarterback decisions this offseason?
The problem the Raiders faced this offseason was they weren’t really in a position to get a top quarterback in this draft. Sure, they could have moved on from Maxx Crosby or Davante Adams and acquired draft capital but it didn’t sound like Chicago, Washington or New England were moving off the top three picks.
That left the second tier of quarterbacks available with Micahel Penix, J.J. McCarthy, and Bo Nix. Were any of those players worth trading valuable draft capital for? I don’t believe so.
Las Vegas also had no chance in the Kirk Cousins sweepstakes and really weren’t going to get Russell Wilson, either. Now, Justin Fields would have been a possibility for them before the Bears traded him to Pittsburgh but how big of an offer did the Raiders make?
