The Las Vegas Raiders will not completely escape rebuild mode until they locate a starter quarterback, and the remainder of a losing season has given the team an opportunity to hold tryouts. There aren’t many signal callers on the market right now who fit the bill as a potential starter for the Raiders in 2025, but former New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones comes closest.
The Athletic’s Dianna Russini linked Jones and the Giants on her “Scoop City” podcast on Tuesday, November 26. “I was told there are several teams that are interested in bringing Daniel Jones on,” according to Russini. “Perhaps the Raiders make sense, given their quarterback injury situation. But we’ll see where he ends up—if he wants to be a little more patient, wait it out, and join a playoff team.”
Raiders supporters may moan at this news after suffering through the final remnants of the Derek Carr era before Jimmy Garoppolo’s broken promise. Since then, they’ve watched the team alternate between the subpar choices of Gardner Minshew, who is now gone for the season after breaking his collarbone on Sunday, and Aidan O’Connell, who has been out for several weeks with a broken thumb but will start against the Kansas City Chiefs on Friday.
However, Las Vegas’ only other viable choices are to choose a quarterback in next year’s NFL draft and/or chase a QB in free agency. The 2025 class is rather weak, and the strongest free-agent possibilities in March will most likely be Sam Darnold of the Minnesota Vikings and Justin Fields of the Pittsburgh Steelers. If the league held the draft today, the Raiders would pick third overall, most likely a quarterback such as Shedeur Sanders of Colorado or Cam Ward of Miami.
Even yet, bringing Jones in now would allow the team to try him out and maybe infuse the locker room with some much-needed excitement. Jones, who signed a $160 million deal less than two years ago, should be relatively inexpensive to sign for the rest of 2024, and Las Vegas would not be required to make any long-term commitments at this time. Jones, on the other hand, wants to play for a playoff team if he can find one, which may be a stumbling barrier for the Oakland Raiders. In any case, Russini stated on Tuesday that the former Giants quarterback is expected to sign by the end of the week.
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