Things are really starting to heat of in recent days in Raiders training camp. The first few days, it was the status quo, which is to say the defense dominated and the offense showed little signs of competing with them. The past couple practices we have seen the winds change a little bit.
Wednesday was the first practice where the offense was able to make some noise. Most of it was made by Gardner Minshew.
Minshew had shown he was beginning to run the offense efficiently and had earned equal time with the first team between him and O’Connell. That continued on Friday after a day off. But this time, It was O’Connell to answered the bell and started putting things together for the first time this camp.
O’Connell got the ball first in team sessions and was dealing right away. He completed a deep ball to Jakobi Meyers and followed that up with a pass over the middle to Meyers. Then he found Tre Tucker with a perfect ball on an out to the left sideline. Credit to Tucker as well for making the catch and tapping his toes inbounds. O’Connell finished off the drive with a dart to Brock Bowers at the goal line and he crossed into the end zone.
Later, O’Connell kept it going while working with the second team. He found DJ Turner on a back shoulder pass up the sideline and then Alex Bachman laid out to make a great catch for the touchdown.
It’s great not only to see the offense putting things together against this defense, but it’s also good to see him respond to the day the guy with whom he is competing for a job.
After all, Antonio Pierce said he’s waiting for one of them to step up and say “I’m the guy” and if Minshew continued to put things together and O’Connell didn’t fight back, that could have given Pierce the answer he was looking for.
As it stands now, it looks like there’s still a heated competition. The difference is that it’s not just because both are struggling.