After the Las Vegas Raiders fired former coach Josh McDaniels, Antonio Pierce stepped into the interim coach position. One of his first moves was benching Jimmy Garoppolo in favor of fourth-round rookie Aidan O'Connell.
O'Connell has started each of the past four games and played in six overall this season. He has completed 63.5% of his passes for 1,194 yards with four touchdowns and six interceptions. Half of his interceptions came when he threw three in a 20-13 loss to the Miami Dolphins.
Through his time on the field, O'Connell has shown some promise. With the rookie out of Purdue under center, the Raiders have stayed competitive during most of their games and he's led them to a 2-2 record over their last four games. Of course, the two wins came over the New York Jets and New York Giants which doesn't exactly inspire a ton of confidence, but it's a nice start.
Coach Pierce has liked seeing the development of O'Connell so far, but revealed the key to growing his confidence to the next level.
“You can see his confidence growing,” Pierce said. “But more confidence comes from wins,” via The Athletic's Vic Tafur.
Aidan O'Connell showed some nice playmaking when he got the Raiders off to a 14-0 lead over the Kansas City Chiefs in this first half. However, a lot of that came from a huge Josh Jacobs touchdown run, and the Chiefs caught up and won. Though O'Connell looks like he has some potential, he'll need to get some more wins to be in consideration for the Raiders' future at quarterback.
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