The Las Vegas Raiders have a quarterback problem. It's not the biggest deal in the world right now, except for the fact that Davante Adams isn't getting any younger and they're going to waste the final years of his career on a losing team.
The Raiders quarterback room, as it currently sits, consists of Gardner Minshew and Aidan O'Connell with Minshew being the season opening week starter. Obviously, neither of these guys could lead the current team to a Super Bowl, so Las Vegas will look to upgrade in the offseason.
The first place that teams will look when trying to upgrade their quarterback is the draft. This is where you will find the quarterback of the future for relatively cheap. After that, teams can look into free agency for a short-term option. Or, if you're the Falcons, you do both in one offseason.
Las Vegas will be looking to the draft first, so let's take a look at their options. As of now, they're projected to pick in the 12 to 17 range, depending on how the season goes.
The top three quarterbacks will likely be off the board by the time pick 12 rolls around. Shedeur Sanders, Quinn Ewers and Carson Beck are all projected top ten picks, so unless the Raiders land in the top ten (which they very well could with Minshew at QB), they will miss out on these three guys.
After that, the top quarterbacks left are Penn State's Drew Allar, Notre Dame's Riley Leonard and Texas A&M's Connor Weigman. All three of these guys are a massive reach in the middle of the first round. Weigman and Leonard actually matched up against each other in Week 1 of the College Football season, so let's take a look if either of these guys look like a potential first rounder.
To make a long story short, no, neither player looked like a top draft prospect whatsoever in their first game. Leonard's Fighting Irish would get the win in the top-25 matchup, where Leonard threw for 158 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions.
Weigman looked worse, throwing for just 100 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. Yikes.
For the Raiders, these two just don't seem draftable in the top two rounds unless they can turn this play around, which they likely will. But even in Week 1 against a tough opponent, stat lines like this can deter an NFL team.
Las Vegas is going to need to hope that Minshew can play them into a top-10 pick so that they can land Sanders, Ewers, or Beck because the NFL talent after those three is scarce.
