So much for a midseason competition. Prior to Wednesday’s practice, Antonio Pierce took to the podium and formally announced that Aidan O’Connell will be the team’s starting QB, replacing Gardner Minshew.
“When it’s time to make a switch, I make a switch,” Pierce said.
“I just felt like it was best for our offense going forward.”
Minshew was named the starter a couple weeks prior to the start of the season after beating out O’Connell in camp and preseason. But it was never an easy decision. Certainly not as easy as Antonio Pierce had hoped it would be.
Both quarterbacks had issues throughout the offseason practices and camp, so neither truly grabbed ahold of the starting job to make it an obvious choice. Thus Minshew’s leash was always short.
Pierce said he would give it the first quarter of the season and that’s basically how it went down. Five games in, Minshew threw two devastating interceptions in last Sunday’s game against the Broncos, leading to another blowout loss and that was the final straw.
Now Aidan O’Connell will get his shot at it.