The Las Vegas Raiders shocked — and nearly disappointed — plenty of people when they didn’t go after a quarterback in the 2024 NFL Draft.
It made sense that they didn’t want to give up all their assets to trade up, but they still had an opportunity to get, say, Spencer Rattler, and they chose not to multiple times.
That left them with a QB room consisting of Aidan O’Connell and the recently signed Gardner Minshew, and that wasn’t particularly impressive.
Most people were under the impression that Minshew would be their stopgap quarterback for the 2024 season, especially considering how much money they paid to get him.
However, a report by Jeremy Fowler of ESPN says otherwise, with the insider claiming that O’Connell ‘probably had the leg up’ on Minshew to be their starter right now (via JPA Football).
𝗧𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚: Raiders QB Aidan O’Connell “probably has the leg up” on Gardner Minshew for the Raiders starting QB1 job, says @jfowlerespn
“O’Connell and Minshew in the spring went tit for tat; went after it. O’Connell probably has the slight edge right now based on coming… pic.twitter.com/PGxxsRCAao
— JPAFootball (@jasrifootball) June 23, 2024
The report states that O’Connell had a slight edge because of the fact that he’s entering his second year in the system and that he’s been more vocal.
Apparently, he also has Davante Adams’ stamp of approval and he’s ‘acting like a starting quarterback.’
O’Connell didn’t exactly impress people with his performance in his rookie campaign, but it’s not like he was all that ready to perform, either.
It’s never wise to rule out a rookie quarterback after just a handful of starts, so it makes sense that they want to get a full look at him to see what they can work with.
They’re not expected to be a playoff team this year anyway, so they might as well roll the dice with the younger player here.
The post Insider Says There Is A Favorite To Win Raiders’ QB Competition appeared first on The Cold Wire.