The Las Vegas Raiders will be going back to the drawing board at quarterback in 2025 after the team failed to find its long-term solution at the position in 2024.
Before failing to draft a signal-caller, the Raiders signed Gardner Minshew to compete with Aidan O'Connell, and the veteran quarterback ended up winning the job. But, as we all expected, Minshew didn't come close to securing the job for the long haul and could even get cut in 2025.
O'Connell has taken over the starting role upon returning from injury, and after Minshew went down with a season-ending collarbone injury. The Purdue product was fantastic last week, but it's highly unlikely Las Vegas views him as the long-term answer under center.
The Raiders desperately need to land a quarterback in next year's draft, and they are in a great position to grab one of the top players at the position in the 2025 class, as Las Vegas currently owns the No. 2 pick entering Week 14, per Tankathon.
For those fans hoping the Raiders land their quarterback of the future in next year's draft, Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer has some good news. He's reporting that the front office could be under a "mandate" to draft a quarterback in 2025.
“I’ve heard the football people there could be under a mandate to draft a quarterback in April,” Breer wrote. “And if that’s the plan, whoever the head coach is will have a pretty big impact on who that quarterback is, and how he develops early in his career. This makes the question whether Mark Davis believes Pierce would be the right guy to captain the ship.”
Breer did not say who will be passing down the mandate, but it's safe to assume it will come from ownership, whether that be Mark Davis or new part-owner Tom Brady, who is expected to be given a say about the direction the team goes by Davis.
It's typically not great news for ownership to meddle in team affairs like that, but this is a different situation entirely. The Raiders simply cannot go another offseason without drafting a quarterback.
The Raiders will have a huge decision to make when it comes to their head coach and general manager. Antonio Pierce should be firmly on the hot seat, and another recent report from Breer indicated that could be the case.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty certainly that’s being felt on the part of the coaching staff,” Breer said. “They’ve been given no assurances on 2025. There’s a lot of buzz league wide that Antonio Pierce could be one-and-done as a head coach.”
As far as Tom Telesco goes, he's in a better position. Granted, he struck out badly with the Minshew signing, but he also had a strong draft, with Brock Bowers, DJ Glaze and Jackson Powers-Johnson all looking like winning picks. Bowers in particular is already looking like a superstar.
But with Brady coming in and possibly wanting to start anew, Telesco shouldn't be considered safe, although Pierce is certainly on shakier ground. You can definitely make the argument that Telesco should stay, but that is not the case with Pierce, who we firmly believe will get fired after the season.
