Raiders' Josh McDaniels gave odd reasoning on why he didn't start Aidan O'Connell
The Las Vegas Raiders just played the Chicago Bears in a battle of the backup quarterbacks, only this time, the Division Two rookie beat the 15-year NFL veteran and looked much better. In fact, it wasn't even close – Tyson Bagent outplayed Brian Hoyer.With Jimmy Garoppolo dealing with the back injury he suffered against the […]
The Las Vegas Raiders just played the Chicago Bears in a battle of the backup quarterbacks, only this time, the Division Two rookie beat the 15-year NFL veteran and looked much better. In fact, it wasn't even close – Tyson Bagent outplayed Brian Hoyer.
With Jimmy Garoppolo dealing with the back injury he suffered against the New England Patriots, the Raiders had to go to their bench. The question was, who would be the guy? Would it be the rookie who showcased some nice skills against the Los Angeles Chargers? Or would it be the veteran guy who had the biggest play of the season in the second half of the game against the Patriots?
Obviously, they ended up going with Hoyer, and in my opinion, it was the wrong decision. He wasn't great at all, and the offense scored just one touchdown on the day, and that one came in garbage time; that one touchdown was also by the rookie Aidan O'Connell.
Hoyer threw two interceptions, and his ball placement was terrible all day. So, why did Josh McDaniels go with Hoyer? Why didn't he go with O'Connell, who looked great against the Chargers despite the few plays here and there in the first half?
"Yeah, but this isn't the preseason anymore," McDaniels started. "You know what I mean? We had an entire week of practice in L.A. most of the week and an opportunity to practice them. You know, there were some good things, and there were some other things that we needed to work on and fix and get better and improve.
"So, you know, that that's such is life in that regard, you know, when your, when your starter is not available, you know, you're trying to make what you think is the best decision for the team again. I don't put this all in one person now; let's make sure we make that clear. There's a lot of people that can do a better job than what we did say."
The Chargers should have gone with O'Connell, and I think now everyone knows that. If Garoppolo isn't ready to go next week, we should see O'Connell, if we don't, McDaniels better have a better excuse ready than it isn't preseason anymore.
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