The Las Vegas Raiders are playing musical chairs at quarterback with Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell, but whoever gets in the driver’s seat finds it hot almost immediately.
Minshew won the position in the preseason before coughing it up in the third quarter of the team’s Week 5 blowout defeat to the Denver Broncos.
Meanwhile, O’Connell, who took over as quarterback at the end of last season, has sparked speculation throughout the league about how long he will remain the starter. “Don’t get your hopes up for Aidan O’Connell, who is 1-for-6 with an interception and a 2.1 passer rating on deep attempts,” Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon wrote on October 11. “We haven’t seen the last of Gardner Minshew II in Las Vegas.”
A possible long-term option as quarterback may not arrive until the 2025 NFL draft, when Cam Ward of the Miami Hurricanes or Shedeur Sanders of the Colorado Buffaloes are selected. However, a short-term solution could emerge before the league’s November 5 trade deadline.
Matthew Stafford, of the Los Angeles Rams, is one of the most likely starting quarterbacks to be traded within the next month. His club is 1-4 and plagued by injuries, and Stafford is in the middle of a lucrative $160 million contract that the Rams have little need to keep if they aren’t going to compete in 2024. “The Rams quarterback quite possibly is in his last season with the team, regardless of whether the Rams can reverse a 1-4 start,” Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk wrote Saturday. “If the Rams might parlay the remainder of his 2024 contract into draft pick(s) and he could get a fresh start elsewhere, it makes sense to at least consider it.”
Picking up Stafford may make the Raiders less likely to move star wide receiver Davante Adams, who has begged out of Las Vegas and will miss his third straight game this weekend due to a hamstring ailment.
It would undoubtedly increase the performance ceilings of wideout Jakobi Meyers and rising star tight end Brock Bowers, while also making the Raiders (2-3) more competitive in the AFC West Division and the conference as a whole. Stafford, 36, has thrown for more than 57,000 yards, 360 touchdowns, and 183 interceptions in his career.
He won a Super Bowl with the Rams after the 2021 season. Given Stafford’s contract and the Rams’ need for viable quarterbacks for the rest of the season, it makes sense for the Raiders to send Minshew to Los Angeles to join Jimmy Garoppolo in the deal.
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