Las Vegas Raiders' recent move to release Gardner Minshew confirms suspicion regarding the new regime's plans
The writing was on the wall for Gardner Minshew. It's hard to find great things that Tom Telesco did when signing Minshew, but one thing he did well was ensure his terrible contract would be easy for the Las Vegas Raiders to get out of. On Wednesday, news broke that the Raiders are going to […]
The writing was on the wall for Gardner Minshew. It's hard to find great things that Tom Telesco did when signing Minshew, but one thing he did well was ensure his terrible contract would be easy for the Las Vegas Raiders to get out of.
On Wednesday, news broke that the Raiders are going to be moving on from Minshew, the quarterback that the Raiders brought in last offseason to serve as a bridge quarterback. Unfortunately, he wasn't even better than Aidan O'Connell, who is not the future of the Raiders, but did show some promising things in 2024, all things considered.
Releasing Minshew will save the Raiders $6 million if they do it before June 1. Cutting Minshew post June 1 would save the Raiders $9 million. But, the Raiders are likely doing it before June 1, just to get the move out of the way. The $100 million in cap space they already have is enough, and saving $3 million more isn't really enough to move the needle on a different type of move.
But, making this move also confirms a suspicion that has been held about the Raiders since the new regime came on. With Minshew on the roster, the Raiders still had three quarterbacks on the roster with him, O'Connell, and Carter Bradley. The idea of the Raiders taking a QB in the draft or signing one in free agency, or doing both, was all speculation and rumors up to this point.
Raiders will get one more QB in 2025 offseason
No team goes into their season with just two quarterbacks on the roster, and the Raiders surely won't. We can sit here and say the Raiders were going to bring in a new QB, but we didn't really know that. I mean, this is the Raiders we are talking about here.
But having only two QBs on the current roster means the Raiders will have to do one or the other — get one in free agency or draft one in the 2025 NFL Draft. Or, they could do both, for all we know. This just confirms every suspicion we had about this new regime — if they would really do what we have been hearing, and what fans have been wanting for a very long time now.
The Raiders will definitely have a new face in their QB room when the 2025 season starts. Who it is, we still don't know. It could be former New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold, or Sheduer Sanders.
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