Unless Gardner Minshew or Aidan O’Connell show big improvement between now and the end of the season, the Raiders are going to be one of the most aggressive teams in the upcoming quarterback market.
One quarterback they will certainly do their due diligence on will be 2023 first-overall pick Bryce Young.
Young is still only 23 years-old and has the top-tier potential to be the player many thought he would be prior to last year’s draft.
It wasn’t a great sign that Andy Dalton did everything against the Raiders that Young wasn’t able to do in two previous starts, but for the sake of curiosity, it would be interesting to know the cost it would require to get Young from the Panthers.
“The consensus in league circles is that the Panthers would be hard pressed to get more than a Day-3 draft pick from Young, along the lines of what the San Francisco 49ers received in shipping Trey Lance to the Dallas Cowboys,” The Athletic’s Joseph Person reported this week.
In the same report, Raiders beat writer Tashan Reed was asked what he believed would be a reasonable trade for the Raiders to acquire Young.
“While the Raiders’ process leading up to the 2023 draft was carried out by former general manager Dave Ziegler and coach Josh McDaniels, that doesn’t mean they’re no longer interested in Young. Among the current regime led by GM Tom Telesco and coach Antonio Pierce, there are some who believe that Young’s 18-game sample size with the Panthers isn’t enough to fully evaluate him as a quarterback,” Reed said.
“Young may be worth a flier,” he continued. “The Raiders making a move for his services before the trade deadline in November, however, would likely require Minshew’s performance to lag significantly and for O’Connell to fail to provide an upgrade. In that scenario, the Raiders’ 2025 fourth-round pick feels like a fair offer in return for Young. He’s had a rough start to his career, but the 23-year-old quarterback could be another reclamation project for a franchise known for helping players change their fortunes for the better.”
For now, the Panthers have indicated that they are not interested in trading Young, but everyone knows he’s going to be available sooner than later.
He might not be a fit for the Raiders, but somebody is going to take a flier on Young and it sounds like the cost is expected to be relatively cheap.
