Just in time for the loss of Gardner Minshew, the Raiders get back their former starter, Aidan O’Connell from injured reserve and he is set to start Friday when the Raiders face off against the Chiefs in Kansas City.
“Feel good about Aidan,” said head coach Antonio Pierce. “He’s been dialed in obviously throughout this time that he’s been on IR, he’s been in all the meetings, he’s been very encouraging on the sideline, he’s got that laser eye focus right now. Great opportunity for him.”
O’Connell had been named the team’s starter over Minshew in week six and in his second start, he suffered a broken thumb that landed him on IR. This is the first week he was eligible to return, but it was a matter of whether Pierce thought he was ready to go right away or not.
For that, he needed to see him throw the ball and his command of the offense. It was a short week, so he had just two days to get an idea of O’Connell’s readiness. He’s seen enough to make the call to give him the nod.
“He carried himself like a starter.,” Pierce continued.
“You can just look in his eyes, look at his demeanor, it wasn’t a guy like ‘I’m out for the season’, no, it was ‘I’ll be back, I’m ready to be back,’ and he worked his tail off to get back.”
O’Connell won his start at Arrowhead last season on Christmas Day and gets back in time to try and do it again.
Had O’Connell not been ready, Desmond Ridder would have started instead. Ridder will be his backup for the game.