Raiders’ Maxx Crosby proves Aidan O’Connell has picked up a part of Patrick Mahomes’ game
It's no secret that the Las Vegas Raiders starting quarterback, Aidan O'Connell, is a little quiet and maybe even shy. That's just how he is, though, and there is nothing wrong with that because he is also one of the nicest dudes you will ever meet. However, when you play football, especially in the position […]
It's no secret that the Las Vegas Raiders starting quarterback, Aidan O'Connell, is a little quiet and maybe even shy. That's just how he is, though, and there is nothing wrong with that because he is also one of the nicest dudes you will ever meet. However, when you play football, especially in the position he plays, you can't always be nice.
Sometimes you have to be mean like Maxx Crosby is and like many others around the league. Sometimes you just have to yap a bit at the other team to give yourself a bit of confidence, fire your team up, but also strike fear into the other team.
As we all saw last year, O'Connell did not do that. If he wants to win the starting job and make people on the other team respect him a bit more, he is going to have to have a little bit of an edge to him. Mandatory minicamp started on Tuesday, and it appears he is improving in that area significantly.
"Aidan has come a long way," Maxx Crosby said during the first day of mandatory minicamp. "Like I said, it's the offseason, so you take everything with a grain of salt, but just seeing his maturity and seeing how he's starting to talk back, talking some stuff back and I encourage it, you know what I mean? That's what I want him to do; the best of the best, they're ultimate competitors.
"The [Patrick] Mahomes, the back in the day, the [Tom] Bradys, the Peyton Mannings, the guys like that there were always drawing back and forth and standing up. At the end of the day, you show a little bit of weakness, people are going to hop all over that so, for him seeing him kind of come back at us it's, it's awesome to see. So, I'm excited to see what happens."
We have seen Mahomes and Crosby jaw back and forth at one another, and even head but each other before during a game. That's what the ultimate competitors do. Even guys like Phillip Rivers, who is known for being the nicest quarterback possible, talked trash to his opponents. Now, that may have to be the route that O'Connell takes, because we all know he doesn't curse, and neither did Rivers.
O'Connell doesn't have to talk trash to be good. We know that. However, if he did, he could really dictate how the defense plays a bit more. Believe it or not, what Crosby said is true – if the other team feels weakness, they will pounce on it. Now, if only we could hear some of the things O'Connell is saying back to Crosby – I'm sure our offseasons would be made.
Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Aidan O’Connell not phased with potential position competition
The Raiders will likely take one in the draft.
