The Raiders were among the teams most frequently linked to a move up the first-round draft order aimed at securing one of the class’ top quarterbacks. Jayden Daniels in particular was a key target, and head coach Antonio Pierce was reportedly more willing than general manager Tom Telesco to put together a trade-up move on Day. 
In the end, though, Vegas retained the No. 13 pick. Somewhat surprisingly, that allowed the team to add tight end Brock Bowers, one of the prospects deemed a lock to hear his name called in the top 10. Bowers – who has inked his rookie deal – will no doubt play a notable role during his rookie season, but it remains to be seen who he will be catching passes from in 2024.
The Raiders turned to Aidan O’Connell to close out the 2023 season. As a rookie, the former fourth-rounder posted a passer rating of 83.9 while registering a 12:7 touchdown-to-interception ratio. He drew praise from Pierce ahead of the draft, with the latter suggesting O’Connell would be in pole position for any summer QB competition. His rival for the QB1 spot, of course, is veteran Gardner Minshew.
After serving as the Colts’ starter for much of the 2023 campaign, Minshew inked a two-year, $25MM deal in free agency. The 27-year-old is far more experienced than O’Connell, and he could provide the Raiders with a higher floor during the transition to a new coaching staff this year. Both passers will have an avenue to the starting gig this summer, though.
“That’s the plan is to have both those guys really compete through the offseason program, but more so in training camp, and we’ll see how it plays out,” Telesco said of O’Connell and Minshew during an appearance on NFL Total Access. “I thought Aidan did an excellent job last year in a really difficult situation where the head coach changed, the coordinator changed, and he played really good football down the stretch.
“And then with Gardner, you know, Gardner played well last year with the Colts. I mean, he was in the Pro Bowl, so obviously had a pretty good year. He’s always performed at a high level when he’s given that opportunity, so to have both those guys here competing for the job, we’ll see how it goes.”
Six signal-callers were drafted in the first round, and at least three of them (Caleb Williams, Daniels and Bo Nix) will likely begin the season atop the depth chart. The other Day 1 selections – Drake Maye, Michael Penix Jr. and J.J. McCarthy – are positioned to take over as QB1 in the relatively near future on their respective teams. That will likely lead to few genuine training camp competitions under center in 2024, but the Raiders will be a team to watch closely on that front.
The Raiders botched their opportunity. They should have traded back in both the 1st and 2nd rounds, and got high picks for next year. In fact, they should have traded back out of the 1st this year. I say that because Rookie HC’s w/ 2 journeymen QB’s tend to be under .500 teams. Should have expected a top 10 pick next year and use the extra draft picks to move up for next year’s class of QB’s.
Next years qb class is weak!
Although I wasn’t thrilled with the bowers pick it could’ve been worse. Take a look at the last 5 years of Raiders first rounders. A couple are in jail and a couple others aren’t even in the league anymore.
And every year, less the Pickett draft, multiple QB’s go high in the 1st. Burrow had a 6th round grade prior to his Heisman year. Similar for J Daniels as well.
A couple are in jail and a couple others aren’t even in the league anymore.
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I’m going to blame that on Gruden. It feels like he wanted to show everyone how smart he was by drafting players well ahead of where they were ranked.
How could they have gotten a high pick next year if all the QBs were off the board?
Plenty of high end players were sitting there at 13. Linemen, WR’s, top 3 CB’s….
I don’t claim to know the Jimmy Johnson point system for draft positions, but they could have gone from 13-18/19 then mid 20’s and 30 as an example and loaded up on picks this year and next.
Raiders need a true reboot. And yet they chose to stay stuck in mediocrity.
I wouldn’t call AOC a journeyman. He barely finished his rookie year. Jon Gruden finished ,500 both of hiss first two seasons with Jeff George and the ultimate “journeyman” Rich Gannon. I think Gardner willl surprise you and I think in 2-3 years you’ll be regretting saying the raiders should have traded out because Bowers is a generational talent. Cant remember the last time the raiders drafted a generational talent. It’s been many decades. Woodson was the last one I remember and I think he ended up with a gold jacket
Trading for next year is tricky. If you trade your #1 & #2 for say NE’s #1, what happens if/when NE goes 8-9?
And let’s say NE is picking #6, there is probably a pretty good chance that any good QB prospect will be long gone..
I don’t get why everyone is bashing the Raiders for there QB situation. O’Connell settled in and played well the last 4 games – 8 TDs & 0 INTs.
The D will be a legit top 5 in the league.
O’Connell just doesn’t have much realistic chance of ever being a top 15 QB and his most likely outcome is solid backup. That’s fine for a cheap year, but people like to see a plan and a path to contention in the QB room, and it’s hard to see that with this current duo.
And top 5 defense? That strikes me as wildly optimistic.
Can’t speak for @Bluemarlin but they did finish 9th in points allowed at 19.5/game. It was even better under Pierce at 16 points per game. I don’t think it’s that far out to think they could be top 5.
In those last nine games, they got to face Tommy DeVito, Zach Wilson, Jarret Stidham, a combination of Josh Dobbs and Nick Mullens, and Easton Stick. Don’t get me wrong, they still played well, but I think those matchups helped a lot.
I just don’t see enough talent in the back seven for them to be a top five defense. There are too many teams with much stronger defensive rosters.
They weren’t and aren’t that good. Wilson has a legit shot at taking the next step forward, and if Koonce can duplicate his second half, they might heave the best defensive line in FB. And that will make the secondary look better. But the back 7 starts off at mediocre.
Every new HC says he wants ‘his guy’s’ line. Best place to find your style of players is in the draft. If they traded back as I suggested, it’d be another year of vet contracts either having outs or be expiring.
played well the last 4 games – 8 TDs & 0 INTs.
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I don’t get the bashing either. And it was more than the final four. It was when he was named a starter. He had an 86.1 rating, with a 6.53 AY/A. Those are decent+ stats over 9 games.
Those numbers are pretty comparable to Mac Jones’ sophomore slump year, and he put up 92.5 and 7.3 as a rookie. O’Connell played decently, but that doesn’t mean he has much realistic upside of being a QB for a contender.
FWIW, I think Jones is also better than his numbers. That’s a pretty weak NE team.
Agreed. And he certainly wasn’t put in the best offensive coaching hands.
I actually don’t have much faith in O’Connell or that resurgence, but I am positive overall on the Raiders’ direction. One thing to bear in mind for me is that the switch from McDaniels to Pierce really rejuvenated the team. I don’t know how much the offense will change, and if that may help O’Connell, but there’s a chance that it benefits him immensely. I do agree with Oof that he doesn’t project as a top end starter, but the Raiders were more than a QB away and I think that they did better than Denver in not being desperate and taking a quarterback simply to take a quarterback.
Minshew is good enough to start, and I don’t think that Vegas lost anything by getting the best TE on the board. I think that they could, and should, get him on the field with Mayer to field their best receiving group, as I’ve said earlier. If they do, any QB they start would benefit immensely.
I do agree with Oof that he doesn’t project as a top end starter,
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Of course, it depends on how log a projection you want, but AOC is projected as #28 by profootballnetwork, while Nix is not projected as this year’s starter, Young is # 31, Levis is #30, and Daniels #26. That’s almost like a popularity contest, but I just don’t know if reaching in the draft would’ve made us materially better.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I completely agree with that. If choosing between Nix or the best player available at 12, I’m taking the latter. Vegas ended up better than Denver after they selected Bowers at 13, in my opinion.
This is one of the few QB Competitions that is legitimately a QB Competition. In NFL, it’s usually just fluff
Gota like Minshew for starting QB, he’s shown flashes, has talent n is capable. Maybe this is his big break.
People were saying that last year and oh wait it didn’t happen either
No he wasn’t t. Gardner went in as the backup QB to Richardson who started the first 5 games. In game 5 he (Richardson) went down with a season ending injury and Gardner took over then. He went on to knocking on the door of a playoff berth, earned a pro bowl selection and did that with a team that wasn’t even supposed to compete. Oh and he beat AOC and my Raiders too. So yeah he wasn’t even supposed to play if Richardson never got hurt.
P.S. look up Gardners career stats vs Trevor Lawerence. I think you’ll be surprised.
P.S.S. The autumn wind is a pirate! Go Raiders!
There’s no competition. Minshewmania 2.0 baby. Grow the 70’s porn star mustache back out, drag the old panel can out to the Raiders stadium parking lot to sleep in, go whole hog in on Gardener, he’s not buff, but he’s got the stuff.
I’m with you. They have no chance to have the best player at quarterback. Might as well have the best character at quarterback.
Godna Men’s Shoe 2
Sure wish they’d take Dak Prescott off our hands.
That would make the Raiders a better team, despite your joke. I do get the knocks on Prescott, especially his recent turnover woes the last two years and the money that he demands relative to his accomplishments, but people don’t consider how good he is on the field. He’s consistently rated as one of the top or sometimes even the top passer in football by PFF. They thought as much in 2023, when they gave him a 90+ grade, which is pretty impressive.
Now, those ratings aren’t everything, but they should at least testify to the fact that Dak is a quality quarterback, despite the areas that he needs to improve. His seam routes throws, for instance, are flawless, even compared to Brady’s love of the same route concept. However, unlike Brady, Dak forces plays, particularly across the middle, and has turned the ball over doing so. I don’t think that Prescott is the best quarterback in the league myself, but I do know that he’s a quality starter and would benefit the Raiders immensely.
If you have two starting Quarterbacks you don’t have a Quarterback.
Right…..you Have TWO quarterbacks
They barely have one.
I like Minshew. He is scrappy.
But he is a bottom tier starter.
I guess we need a top tier quarterback like Josh Allen to win it all next year like the Bills…
Yep.
That is pretty obvious.
You would love to have Allen.
Yeah man if we could only have a couple of those rings he’s won for Buffalo. He’s truly the difference between winning it all and just being a playoff team. Enjoy.
Good luck with the season sir.
Its gonna be tough getting past Maholmes with Minshew.
I know you think Marino, Kelly, Lamar, and Burrow (many others) all suck – but its gonna be REAL tough when you learn what a good QB is and that you dont have one. You might need to watch football a little, but dont let that spoil your opinion.
Only 1 team can win it every year. (Spoiler – Raiders wont even win a division title or WC)
You would still love to have Allen. You know it.
The lack of superbowl isn’t quite as much as a point as you think it is.
If that is your measurement, then you are really undercutting your own point – and shows you don’t know football at all. I mean, are you trying to defend Minshew with that?
Sorry buddy. Keep trying. Ill be here.
I watch plenty of football. I watched enough football to know that the Bills ended the season without a ring just like Raiders. I’m not saying that I’d prefer to have AOC or Minshew over Allen, but I’m saying that having Allen isn’t the difference between winning it all or watching from the couch. I’m glad we didn’t trade the future to gamble on a 1st round QB and prefer rolling into this season with 2 scrappy quarterbacks and a very solid defense.
Good luck sir.
The playoffs from the couch are not as fun:
As a Bills fan living through the drought bc we didn’t get a qb, i can tell you that.
But as a Raider fan bragging about a ring from 40 yrs ago in a totally different NFL – you should already know that.
I don’t recall bragging about a ring from 40 years ago. Fun fact though the last time we won a SB we had a backup type QB that went out and got the job done. Again I’m not saying that Josh Allen isn’t a great QB, I’m just saying that we shouldn’t be written off because of our QB room and the fact that we didn’t reach or mortgage the future to draft a QB when we had other areas that needed attention as well.
Lets see which is more likely.
The super star QBs or a couple of journeyman?
I guess Im thinking that consistently being in the playoffs makes you a better bet. You obviously feel differently. And that just fine.
I would have traded out of the first round and got as many picks as I could for next year. See what you got this year.
But that’s speculation. Theres been no rumors that the RaiDERS even got trade requests at 13. Remember it takes two teams to complete a trade and from everything I have heard (Telasco interview(s) etc) once they saw that Bowers fell to them at 13 they wanted to pull the trigger on Bowers who draft experts say is the best overall player in the draft. IMO raiders got a steal that most teams dont get at #13. I think Telasco knew that and wasn’t going to trade (that’s my speculation)
@GoA actually I wasn’t speculating at all… it’s what I would have done and did in my draft simulator. However if the Raiders saw him as the #1 player in the draft then they did the right thing. Bowers never fell to 13 in any draft I did.
Had I known that Mitchell would fall to #22, then I’d have traded back a little. But if you trade back to maybe #20, and Mitchell is already gone at 17, then the choices get thin. OMHO, Mitchell, Powers, and maybe Rakestraw would be a great draft, but that’s 20/20 hinsight.
If either O’Connell or Minshew was my backup, I’d feel really good. If either of them was my starter, I’d probably be concerned.
Both of them will start games. Either the winner will have a stretch they suck and get benched or injuries.
Bowers was the best available player. Yes we could’ve stockpiled some picks or taken Fuaga like I wanted to, but at the end of the day we didn’t mess up like recent drafts. With AOC/Minshew we could really do some damage with 2 TE sets featuring Bowers and Mayer. Plus with them taking on more focus it opens things up for Davante because now they’ll get burned on double teams. It’s too early to say it wasn’t a good pick and like people are mentioning, generational talents end up doing big things for the most part.
There’s something to be said for taking “the best player available” if the guy you really wanted is off the board. As for the QB competition, neither of these two guys have the talent to get this team over .500. thus it makes no difference which one is called the ‘starter’.
They said the same thing about Dilfer when he was the quarterback for the Ravens. Not saying our defense is of that caliber, but thinking that we needed to reach and draft a quarterback in the first round just to get one is pretty flawed. I’d much rather build things up and have a gamer like AOC/Minshew under center until the right player comes our way. Imagine if we traded up for a QB and he didn’t pan out. The criticism would’ve been brutal. I’m happy with taking a generational talent that was the best available player and punting the franchise QB issue into the future for now.
Ray Lewis ha actually said he thinks they could’ve won another SB with that team if Dilfer had stayed as the QB. Not that Dilfer was crazy talented but the way he led that offense l. They did enough.
Pierce should’ve named O’Connell the QB1 from the get-go. Minshew has always done better as a supersub.
They used to say the same
Things about Rich Gannon and Jeff Hostetler
Raiders have taken several back ups/ washed up starters and gave them good careers as raider starters.
Minshew has definitely had the more productive career so far, so it makes sense to not hand O’Connell the job off the cuff. Minshew is also still young-there is still room for him to grow, and some chance for him to capitalize.