The Las Vegas Raiders made the somewhat-controversial decision to roll with Gardner Minshew as their starting quarterback heading into this season, relegating youngster Aidan O'Connell to the bench after he started for them over the back half of last season.
The Minshew experiment has been up and down over the first month of the season, but it reached rock bottom during the first half of the Raiders' 34-18 loss to the Denver Broncos on Sunday. Minshew was benched in favor of O'Connell after throwing his second interception of the day with the Raiders trailing 20-10 in the second half.
O'Connell struggled as well, completing just 10 of his 20 passes for 94 yards and an interception of his own. On Monday, head coach Antonio Pierce still wasn't sure who the Raiders' starter would be heading into a Week 6 clash with the Pittsburgh Steelers, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.
“Raiders HC Antonio Pierce told reporters that he’s still evaluating who will be the team’s starting QB, Gardner Minshew or Aidan O'Connell,” Schefter reported on X, formerly Twitter. “For now, the team is treating it like a competition before deciding who will start vs. the Steelers.”
Why Aidan O'Connell should start for the Raiders moving forward
The Raiders should start Aidan O'Connell moving forward if they want to get an answer on the quarterback position heading into the offseason. Gardner Minshew is a known quantity, and there's a 100% chance that he is not the team's franchise quarterback of the future.
Based on what he has shown, O'Connell likely isn't the guy moving forward either, but are you 100% sure? 90% sure? He hasn't played enough football to get a chance at developing and improving yet, and the Raiders would be wise to give him that chance. There's no bad outcome in this scenario for a team that has a roster full of holes and is likely to fall out of playoff contention very soon.
If O'Connell plays very well, you can bring him into next season as the starter and see if the results continue to carry over and improve. If he doesn't, the front office and the organization can turn their attention to acquiring their next franchise quarterback through free agency, the draft or a trade.
Minshew may be the marginally better option in terms of trying to scrap out every win that they can this season, but this team is likely not a playoff contender either way. It would be short-sighted of them to go with the journeyman over a young quarterback that they can learn more about.