Antonio Pierce may have just given away what the Raiders' plans are moving forward with the QB position in 2025
The Las Vegas Raiders have been in quarterback purgatory since they let Derek Carr walk to the New Orleans Saints. And, every franchise goes through this same QB situation at one time or another. In fact, most teams go through it longer than the Raiders have. Take the Denver Broncos for example, after their Super […]
The Las Vegas Raiders have been in quarterback purgatory since they let Derek Carr walk to the New Orleans Saints. And, every franchise goes through this same QB situation at one time or another. In fact, most teams go through it longer than the Raiders have. Take the Denver Broncos for example, after their Super Bowl in 2015, Peyton Manning retired, and they just now have their quarterback of the future in Bo Nix.
For the Raiders, they have had five starting quarterbacks in Las Vegas since then, and that was two years ago. That's not great by any means, but, it's something that does happen to teams from time to time. Even so, the Raiders would like to get out of that. And, they had a chance.
Before beating the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Raiders held the No. 1 pick over the New York Giants because of strength of schedule. After beating the Jags and the Saints, the Raiders are now sitting at pick No. 8. And, sure, it's possible they can still get a pretty good quarterback, but now they don't get to pick any player they want of the entire draft pool.
Raiders QB rollercoaster gets tougher
Through this process, Raiders fans have been on a roller coaster of emotions. They want the pick, but because now they don't have the top pick, they have talked themselves into either signing a guy like Sam Darnold, who has revitalized his career with the Minnesota Vikings, or keeping Aidan O'Connell as their quarterback, and just drafting the best player available.
We don't know what the team will do. But, after some really, and I do mean really good, games by O'Connell, the Raiders are starting to see him develop into a good quarterback. Not an elite one, but a good one.
"Yeah, I think he's been resilient, obviously go back to the quarterback competition in the spring and training camp," head coach Antonio Pierce said on Monday. "Thought he handled it like a pro. He was always ready to go. And then when we made a move to start him, I think the Rams week, obviously gives us a good chance there. And then he got injured and came back. I think he’s just a resilient player. I think it's kind of like what we saw last year, just the more reps he gets, the more opportunities he gets, he makes the most out of them, and like I said, whenever he protects the football, he puts us all in a better position."
O'Connell had a stellar game against the Kansas City Chiefs, where he practically won them the game, only they lost on a botched snap. He was great, and even Chiefs media and analysts were in shock. And of course, in this last game against the Saints, he was making some pretty incredible throws.
And, that makes the Raiders think even more about what he could really be for them. This really does make the decision a bit harder. And, on Monday, Antonio Pierce said something that sounds like he may have made a decision on what the plan could be going forward in 2025 at the quarterback position.
"Yeah, I think Aidan O'Connell would be a starting NFL quarterback," he said.
Now, that is totally the Raider thing that they would do. But at the same time, we have to remember that it is not totally up to Antonio Pierce on what the Raiders do moving forward. Tom Telesco and Mark Davis, along with Tom Brady all have a bigger say in things than Pierce does.
And, who knows if he will even be the head coach next season if we are keeping it real? There are so many moving pieces to everything, but it's clear how they view O'Connell.
