As people are finalizing their bold predictions for the Las Vegas Raiders' upcoming season, one aspect that has been intriguing to follow has been the starting quarterback competition between Aidan O'Connell and the announced starter in Gardner Minshew. As Minshew prepares to lead the Raiders into Week 1, he should not feel like he is safe from being pulled according to a conversation from ESPN's Jeremy Fowler and Dan Graziano.
In an NFL Week 1 column where they answered questions about topics around the league, they were asked “pick a position battle from one team that you still aren't ready to call after preseason.” Fowler would start the conversation by mentioning Las Vegas' quarterback battle, saying it feels “unsettled.”
“The Raiders' quarterback situation still feels unsettled,” Fowler wrote. “Neither Gardner Minshew nor Aidan O'Connell appeared to take ownership of the job in training camp and the first two preseason games. Minshew has a few things going for him. He takes care of the football (59 touchdown passes to 24 interceptions for his career), which coach Antonio Pierce prioritized in evaluating this battle. He has never played poorly when given an extended look, and the Raiders are paying him $12.5 million this season. But some in the building thought O'Connell had the slight edge coming out of minicamp and didn't do much to lose that grip in August.”
“This is an improved roster that just needs passable quarterback play,” Fowler continued. “I'm curious to see how many passers Las Vegas will use to find it.”
The Raiders quarterback situation is “fluid” with Gardner Minshew
There was some shock when Raiders head coach announced that Minshew was the starter since O'Connell had started 10 games the season prior and had the experience under his belt with the organization. However, Graziano would respond to Fowler's comments and said when asked about the situation, they “used Minshew's experience as a tiebreaker” and that it's “fluid.”
“When I asked about this last week,” Graziano wrote via ESPN. “it sounded to me that the Raiders basically used Minshew's experience as a tiebreaker in a competition between two guys they feel somewhat positive about. So, I agree with you that this is a situation that could remain fluid as the year goes along, and that we could see O'Connell starting at some point.”
Pierce would explain why Minshew became the starting quarterback, saying that they feel confident he “gives us the best opportunity to get off to a fast start” according to ESPN.
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“A lot of things went into it,” Pierce said. “It wasn't based off of [solely] last night. There's a lot of factors. So we feel like Gardner gives us the best opportunity to get off to a fast start, and that's what we're going with. We support him. Our team's behind it. Our staff's behind it. The organization's behind it.”
“The operation, the process and just everything we saw in practice,” Pierce continued. “Some of it showed up in the games. A lot of stuff we can get better at. I don't think anything here is a finished product, but based off of where we want to go in the first quarter of the season, we feel like Gardner [Minshew] gives us the best opportunity.”
The Raiders open the season Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers.
