The Las Vegas Raiders have wrapped up training camp in Costa Mesa, California, and they are no closer to making a decision on who will start at quarterback between Gardner Minshew and Aidan O'Connell.
Both quarterbacks have struggled all offseason long, and neither has really taken the reins for the starting job as the team prepares for its first preseason contest on Saturday night against the Minnesota Vikings.
“Status quo,” head coach Antonio Pierce said of the competition earlier this week.
NFL analyst Gregg Rosenthal recently attended a practice and shared what he saw of both quarterbacks during an appearance on the "JT The Brick Show". His review of O'Connell was troubling.
“I thought you saw it today. Aiden O’Connell just doesn’t look confident,” Rosenthal said. “I went into this training camp thinking he was good for a rookie. I know he’s an older rookie, but I went back and watched some of those games, the Indianapolis game, the first Kansas City game. He made a lot of high level throws, didn’t make too many mistakes. I thought his arm was a little better than I saw here today. And I think that it was, he was not comfortable yet in this scheme, which makes sense. He’s going against a good defense.”
When it came to Minshew, Rosenthal offered a promising take, saying that the veteran is typically better on gamedays than he is at practice.
“Minshew is a guy who’s always been a better player than he is practice player,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many teams and camps I’ve talked to where the coaches never really like Gardner Minshew, but then he gets on the field and then they like Gardner Minshew in a game situation.”
The Raiders can only hope that is indeed the case with Minshew. We should know a lot more about both quarterbacks after preseason Week 1... maybe.
