Raiders To Start Aidan O’Connell In Week 6

Unlike the Las Vegas development earlier this season, Gardner Minshew‘s benching will last into the next week. Antonio Pierce announced Wednesday afternoon it will be Aidan O’Connell in Week 6.

The Raiders had been reportedly set to relaunch their Minshew-O’Connell competition from this offseason, going through practices to determine the starter. That would have been somewhat unusual given all the intel the team already has on the two passers. After sitting Minshew twice during games this season, Pierce will give O’Connell another shot.

Pierce said (via ESPN.com’s Paul Gutierrez) he wants O’Connell to start for the rest of the season, though the second-year Raiders HC couched that stance by noting Minshew would return to the lineup if needed. This back-and-forth has lasted for months, with an O’Connell offseason lead eventually turning into Minshew winning the job. Pierce then benched Minshew in Weeks 3 and 5. Pierce is now going back to the player who started throughout his interim HC run.

This brings O’Connell’s second in-season promotion. Although the 2023 fourth-round pick started in place of Jimmy Garoppolo in a game early last season (featuring a Khalil Mack sack explosion), Josh McDaniels went with Brian Hoyer over him when Garoppolo sustained a second injury. Shortly after the Raiders canned McDaniels, Pierce gave O’Connell the job for good. Garoppolo did not start another game with the team and was released, via a post-June 1 cut, this offseason.

O’Connell, who is already 26 despite entering the NFL last year, completed 62.1% of his passes as a rookie (at 6.5 per attempt). That came largely under interim OC Bo Hardegree, who is not on this year’s Raiders staff. O’Connell is at 59.4% and 5.5 per pass under OC Luke Getsy, though 32 passes is obviously not a sufficient sample size. The Raiders will expand that number beginning against the Steelers, but this ongoing drama should be expected to produce ties to future QB options soon.

The Raiders gave Minshew a two-year, $25MM deal ($15MM guaranteed at signing) as insurance in case the draft board did not fall their way. After Pierce pushed for a trade-up — with an unrealistic climb for former Arizona State charge Jayden Daniels the ultimate goal — GM Tom Telesco stood down. The Raiders had hosted Bo Nix on a pre-draft visit and were linked to Michael Penix Jr., but they did not view either as trade-up targets. Denver chose Nix at No. 12, and Las Vegas went with a best-player-available pick in Brock Bowers at 13. Bowers has shown immediate promise, and while he will currently be tasked with helping O’Connell, the Raiders will be looking for a way out of this long-running QB chapter soon.

Minshew, who is being benched despite at 70.7% completion rate (7.2 yards per attempt, albeit with a 4-to-5 TD-INT ratio) secured $3.16MM of his 2025 base salary ($11.84MM) guaranteed at signing. It will cost the Raiders $7.66MM in dead money to drop him in 2025. The Raiders are already on the hook for more than $17MM in dead cap due to the Garoppolo release; $12.8MM of that sum will hit the team’s cap sheet in 2025.

Minshew, 27, led the Colts to the playoff precipice; like Joe Flacco, he proved a more accurate solution than project Anthony Richardson. QBR slotted Minshew 13th last season. This led to the Raiders making him the second-highest-paid QB free agent of this year’s class. But he is now following Garoppolo — last year’s highest-paid QB free agent — in being benched for O’Connell, who joined Minshew in throwing INTs to Patrick Surtain on Sunday. Minshew threw a second pick in his Denver outing as well.

The Raiders enjoyed QB stability for nine seasons, with Derek Carr a dependable (if unremarkable) starter. The team has since started five QBs since Carr’s late-season benching two years ago. It will be O’Connell’s turn again, and with the Raiders having him under contract through 2026, this Minshew demotion gives the (slightly) younger passer a chance to audition for a 2025 stopgap gig.