After an offseason centered around a quarterback competition between signal-callers Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell, the Las Vegas Raiders ultimately decided to settle on Minshew, something the team revealed on Sunday.
It wasn’t exactly a clear-cut choice, though, at least from where we were sitting. The two quarterbacks never clearly separated themselves from one another in the battle, and there was even a point after preseason Week 2 when many had O’Connell winning the job.
That’s all history now, though, and the Raiders will have Minshew under center in Week 1. After practice on Tuesday night, Minshew reacted to his landing the gig.
“Couldn’t be more excited. Everyone in this locker room feels how special we can be,” Minshew said, according to Vic Tafur of The Athletic. “My role in this offense is to make good decisions — we have guys that are going to get open. I just have to get them the ball and play point guard.”
“We’re going to try to figure out how to win games around here,” Minshew said, per Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I think anytime you step in there as the quarterback, whatever the situation, it’s your team at that point.”
Minshew added that he has been getting in some extra throws and will be watching film with his top target, wide receiver Davante Adams, who he hasn’t had a ton of offseason reps with.
“I think we have a lot of stuff we can work on, really get dialed in now and get the reps,” Minshew said. “Getting some good conversations with these guys, just figuring out our identity and what we’re going to look like.”
The Raiders are going to give Minshew ample opportunity to keep the starting job, but he’s far from guaranteed to do so when the Raiders know they have O’Connell sitting behind him. If Minshew struggles, Las Vegas will almost certainly turn to the Purdue product.
To be quite frank, we thought the Raiders should have given O’Connell the ball first. After all, he at least presents an opportunity at upside as he enters his second season in the NFL. That is not the case with Minshew, who has already established what he is, which is a great backup but a serviceable starter, at best.
