Tag: Gardner Minshew

Broncos’ division rival names starting quarterback ahead of 2024 season

The Broncos will host the Raiders in Week 5 and visit Las Vegas in Week 12. Gardner Minshew enters the season as the Raiders’ QB1.

While Denver Broncos fans wait for the team to name a starting quarterback, a division rival has announced a decision on their own QB competition.

The Las Vegas Raiders have named Gardner Minshew their starting quarterback ahead of the 2024 NFL season. Minshew won the job after competing with second-year incumbent Aidan O’Connell this summer.

O’Connell went 5-5 as a starter with the Raiders last season after taking over for Jimmy Garoppolo. O’Connell completed 62.1% of his passes with 12 touchdowns against seven interceptions last year. He threw two touchdowns in the Raiders’ 27-14 win over the Broncos in Week 17 last season.

Minshew has a 15-22 record in the NFL, including a 26-24 victory over Denver while playing for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2019. Minshew threw two touchdown passes in that contest.

The Broncos are set to host the Raiders in Week 5 (Oct. 6) this season. They will later go on the road to play in Las Vegas in Week 12 (Nov. 24).

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Raiders naming Gardner Minshew starting quarterback

Antonio Pierce has decided on the Raiders’ starting QB

Antonio Pierce has decided on his starting quarterback for the Las Vegas Raiders. It is the veteran Gardner Minshew

Minshew beat out second-year pro Aidan O’Connell.

Minshew played for the Indianapolis Colts in 2023, taking over the starting role after Anthony Richardson was lost for the season due to injury. He was 7-6 as a starter, throwing for more than 3,300 yards and 15 touchdowns.

The Raiders are Minshew’s fourth NFL team as he enters his sixth pro season.

Gardner Minshew named Raiders starting quarterback

Gardner Minshew named Raiders starting quarterback

Following the Raiders preseason home opener Saturday night, Antonio Pierce said he’d seen enough to make a decision on who the team’s starting quarterback would be between incumbent Aidan O’Connell and veteran Gardner Minshew, but would take a couple days to make the final decision. He took a few hours.

Pierce announced Sunday morning that Gardner Minshew will be the Raiders’ starting quarterback to begin the season.

“Based on where we want to go in the first quarter of the season, we feel like Gardner gives us the best opportunity.”

Minshew had a better training camp overall and looked solid in the team’s first preseason game in Minnesota. He would’ve made he decision easier had he kept up that level of play in the game Saturday night, but in the end, he had shown enough prior to that to earn the job.

“His personality is infectious, his energy is infectious, his leadership is infectious,” Pierce said of Minshew. “Things of improvement; footwork in the pocket, staying on script. There is such magic about him when he does break the pocket and does his thing, but there’s a lot of times where the first or second read is there and he’s got to let it rip. And more importantly, taking care of the football.”

Antonio Pierce sounded so deflated talking about the Raiders’ uninspiring starting QB competition

Antonio Pierce seems to know the Raiders are facing a bleak season.

Entering his first full season as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, Antonio Pierce has already given his team a delightfully chaotic identity. That’s all well and good, but a team knowing what it does and doesn’t do well usually doesn’t make up for poor quarterback play.

And Pierce seems to know it.

After the Raiders’ 27-12 preseason loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday, Pierce discussed where Las Vegas’ unexciting quarterback competition between Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell stands. Even after apparently making a concerted effort to get both players an equal amount of discernible reps that the Raiders could properly evaluate, Pierce said there just wasn’t much inspiring to work off of.

In fact, Pierce couldn’t really give either Minshew or O’Connell a healthy ringing endorsement. Oof. That’s the last thing anyone wants to hear about a starting quarterback competition in mid-August:

To Pierce’s credit, he seems to be learning the intricacies of being a quality NFL coach on the fly rather well. It’s a difficult job where one is almost always under scrutiny, always under some kind of microscope.

This is another good lesson for him. If you don’t have a quarterback you can rely on, your team probably isn’t going anywhere, no matter how feisty your players are and no matter how many other star players you have at other positions, like explosive pass-rusher Maxx Crosby and dynamic receiver Davante Adams.

I have no doubt the Raiders will compete well in every game in 2024. They will put their best foot forward because Pierce appears to understand how to motivate them. But at a certain point, unless Minshew or O’Connell pick their play up, being competitive everywhere except at quarterback only takes you so far in the NFL.

Raiders Pierce to sleep on decision for QB1 after Cowboys Match

#Raiders QBs Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell both went out last night against the Cowboys to make their bids for the starting spot, Antonio Pierce must decide between the two and says decision is on the way.

The Las Vegas Raiders have completed two exhibitions this preseason and head coach Antonio Pierce has more snaps to review in his choice of who will start under center this season after the recent 27-12 loss versus the Dallas Cowboys.

Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell both went out last night to make their bids for the spot. Minshew is notable for having taken over for an injured Nick Foles playing for the Jacksonville Jaguars his rookie year and carrying the team while their starting QB was out. O’Connell is returning to the Raiders for his second year, after being pushed up to the starting slot midseason as a rookie, and Minshew was likely added this season to provide Las Vegas an alternative to the young but talented QB.

In last night’s tilt against the Cowboys, Minshew went out first and had a tough time but managed to gain some yards. After the switch out in the second quarter, O’Connell had a fairly similar performance. Both QBs made a couple of highlight plays but found difficulty scoring on drives.

After the Cowboys match, Pierce stated in the press conference, “Yeah, we’ve seen enough reps. Two games, like we talked about. Our guys are not playing in the third preseason game, our starters, so we’ll sleep on it and make a decision in the next couple days.”

Antonio Pierce has seen enough to make decision on Raiders starting QB

Raiders have seen enough to make decision on Raiders starting QB

The second preseason game did not go as Antonio Pierce and the Raiders had hoped. The first preseason game saw the two quarterbacks — Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew — battling for the starting job both show flashes. Minshew won the day in terms of his play, however he was going against reserves while O’Connell faced starters.

That wasn’t the case for either quarterback Saturday night against Dallas. Neither QB went against a first team offense and neither QB played particularly well.

Minshew couldn’t lead the team for a touchdown despite five drives, one off of a turnover on a fumbled return. And O’Connell followed up the first touchdown drive of the game with an interception returned for a TD. Pierce said O’Connell’s one scoring drive will not outweigh his crucial mistake on the pick six.

“Everything [counts]. You can’t take the good and not take the bad,” Pierce said. “We’ll look at it and evaluate. They both had opportunities. Aidan had 20 attempts and Minshew had 21. So, that’s as balanced as you can get it and we’ll look at it. Obviously our plan was tonight to throw the ball around and let these guys showcase what they can do and we’ll talk about it.”

Pierce was hoping by this point one or the other of the two QBs would have stepped up and said “I’m the guy.” He literally said that’s what he was waiting to see. That never happened. Not Saturday or really at any point before that.

Even still, a decision has to be made, and Pierce says he’s seen enough to go into that process.

“Yeah, we’ve seen enough reps,” Antonio Pierce said of the Raiders QB competition. . . “We’ll sleep on it and make a decision in the next couple days.”

Pierce said he’s going to be factoring in everything going back as far as OTA’s all the way through camp and the preseason when making his decision. But, let’s be honest, had either guy separated himself in recent weeks, nothing that happened before that would have mattered.

These two didn’t make the decision an easy one. And had they both played great, that would be a good problem to have. In this case, it’s just a problem. But the Raiders have no choice. They need to decide now and start preparing for the season with whoever they choose running the first team in every practice.

Expect that to be the case when they reconvene for their next practice in a couple days.

Raiders winners and losers in 27-12 preseason defeat vs. Cowboys

Raiders winners and losers in 27-12 preseason defeat vs. Cowboys

After an encouraging performance last week, the Raiders starting offense bogged down against the Cowboys’ second-team defense in Las Vegas on Saturday. The defense had its own struggles and the home team lost, 27-12 in a lackluster preseason ballgame.

Quarterback Gardner Minshew got the start and missed multiple opportunities to take a commanding lead in his battle for the starting QB job. That left the door open for QB Aidan O’Connell. He threw a touchdown pass to tight end Bryant in the Raiders’ first drive of the second half, but just as it appeared he would take charge in the QB competition, he threw a pick-6 to open the fourth quarter.

As for the defense, they allowed 114 rushing yards in the first half, despite playing most of their starters. Like the offense, they faced Cowboys backups.

Here are the winners and losers for the week after the Raiders dropped to 1-1 in the preseason.

Winner: WR Tre Tucker

The Raiders didn’t score many points on Saturday, but they found moderate success in the passing game.

Wide receiver Tre Tucker built on his strong showing last week and hauled in three catches for 66 yards, including a 48-yard grab on a throw from Minshew. Tucker also had a nifty 43-yard punt return. The second-year speedster continues to improve and could see a major role with the Las Vegas offense this year.

 

Winner: WR DJ Turner

Wide receiver DJ Turner continued his strong preseason, notching five catches for 31 yards. He was a security blanket for O’Connell as O’Connell led a long drive for Las Vegas to start the second half.

The Raiders are looking for depth at wideout, and with other reserves yet to make a huge impact, Turner appears ready to take on a larger role this year as well. He’s similar in stature to Tucker but is a little more shifty in space, providing some versatility to the back-end of the Raiders WR depth.

Loser: QB Gardner Minshew

Coach Antonio Pierce said he planned to name his starting quarterback after playing the Cowboys. Minshew played first and had every opportunity to take the job, especially because the Cowboys played their reserve defense.

Minshew started slow but appeared to rebound after his bomb to Tucker. He continued missing his receivers, however, and he made some risky throws that could have been interceptions.

Pierce played Minshew into the second quarter despite planning to switch to O’Connell at that time. Minshew went 3-and-out after remaining in the ball game, and after the Raiders special teams recovered a punt-return fumble, Minshew missed badly on a 4th-and-6 throw.

Loser: QB Aidan O’Connell

O’Connell looked solid after entering the game in the third quarter but failed to capitalize on Tucker’s punt return. In his defense, a questionable penalty on offensive lineman Jordan Meredith stalled the drive.

He led a long scoring drive in the third quarter that ended with a touchdown throw to tight end Harrison Bryant. At the moment, it appeared that O’Connell was about to take his starting job back.

But then he threw a pick-6 interception, giving the Cowboys a 20-12 advantage.

Coach Pierce expected to have answers at quarterback after this game, but he’s likely questioning both signal-callers after this effort.

Loser: OC Luke Getsy

Minshew wasn’t the only one to have an opportunity against Cowboys backups. Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy had a chance to build on his offense’s strong showing last week but his unit was a dud in this ballgame. He was without star WR Davante Adams and rookie tight end Brock Bowers, but that’s no excuse.

Loser: Reserve defensive lineman

The Raiders’ defensive starters played a lot in the first half. It went fairly well until defensive lineman Maxx Crosby, Christian Wilkins, and John Jenkins exited the game late in the second quarter.

As the rest of the Raiders starters remained in the game, Las Vegas’ reserve linemen were the weak link on a 14-play drive that ended with a touchdown toss by Cowboys QB Trey Lance. Raiders starting cornerback Jack Jones was beat on the play in one-on-one coverage.

Loser: DL Tyree Wilson

Former top-10 draft pick defensive lineman Tyree Wilson again flew under the radar in this game. He was most noticeable as he lost Lance in space on the edge near the goalline. Though he did assist DE Elerson Smith on a nice tackle on a shovel pass.

As it’s often said: this is just the preseason. But the Raiders need answers at quarterback and time is running out before the regular season. O’Connell looked better than Minshew in this game, but that’s not saying much.

It stands to reason that Pierce will hold off on naming a starter, but he may feel it’s too close to the regular season to leave his team in QB limbo and name a starter anyway.

Either way, this was not the performance the Raiders needed. The only thing left to do is have a good week of practice and try again in Week 3 of the preseason against the 49ers on Friday.

Gardner Minshew gets start for Raiders, can’t find end zone vs Cowboys backups

Gardner Minshew got five drives vs Cowboys backups and couldn’t punch it in.

Just as head coach Antonio Pierce said would happen, Gardner Minshew got the start for the Raiders Saturday night. Aidan O’Connell had gotten the start for the preseason opener in Minnesota and Minshew came in for the second quarter. So, they switched out this time and Minshew took the field first.

Minshew played well into the second quarter, which had him play five drives. And despite the Cowboys not fielding any of their starters, the Raiders offense didn’t put it in the end zone in that time.

The first drive, he made it to midfield and the Raiders opted to go for it on fourth and three. Minshews short pass was nearly picked off to turn it over on downs.

The Cowboys took the short field and drove into field goal range to take a 3-0 lead.

Minshew would answer with a 48-yard deep shot to Tre Tucker, but couldn’t finish it off with a touchdown, settling for a game tying field goal.

From there it was two drives that ended in a punt and another drive that ended with a turnover on downs.

Minshew had a very good game in the preseason opener, scoring on each of four drives, including two for touchdowns. This was not a great encore.

Raiders have among NFL’s fewest $10 million per season contracts

Raiders have among NFL’s fewest $10 million per season contracts

If you have been thinking that perhaps the Raiders don’t have a lot of super stars on their roster, you’d be right about that.

The team has been relatively frugal of late. Nothing wrong with that. The best teams are often careful about not throwing big money at a handful of players at the expense of the ability to build the rest of the team.

One team that has not been real careful about that is the Cleveland Browns, who, today became the NFL’s leader in players with contracts that average $10 million per season.

Their 13 $10M+ contracts is more than TWICE that of the Raiders (6).

In fact, only eight teams in the NFL have fewer $10M+ APY contracts than the Raiders.

Not bad to be in the same range as the Chiefs. Although they have Patrick Mahomes and that means they have to sink as much in other star players as much as some teams do.

The Raiders have no such super star quarterback to make sense of their low big money contract numbers.

The six players the Raiders pay at least $10 million per year on average are:

Davante Adams – $28M
Christian Wilkins – $27.5M
Maxx Crosby – $23.5M
Kolton Miller – $18M
Gardner Minshew – $12.5M
Jakobi Meyers – $11M

Currently the Raiders have some $34.5 million in cap space, which is fifth most in the NFL.

Former Saints backup QB Nathan Peterman re-signs with Las Vegas Raiders

Former Saints backup quarterback Nathan Peterman re-signed with the Las Vegas Raiders, reuniting with one of his old coaches:

Nathan Peterman is going back to the Las Vegas Raiders. The former New Orleans Saints backup landed on his feet by re-signing with one of his old teams, reuniting with offensive coordinator Luke Getsy — who coached him on the Chicago Bears last year. Peterman was pushed to the bottom of the Saints depth chart when Spencer Rattler fell to them in April’s NFL draft.

The Raiders must have wanted another arm for the rest of their preseason with Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell still on top of the depth chart, though rookie quarterbacks Anthony Brown Jr. and Carter Bradley are still on the roster.

Good luck to him. Peterman only appeared in two games with the Raiders as Derek Carr’s backup from 2020 to 2021, completed 3 of 5 passes for a gain of 25 yards. He’s totaled 13 interceptions against just 4 touchdown passes on 160 career attempts in 15 games with three different teams. We’ll have to wait and see if he’s still wearing silver and black when the Saints host Las Vegas at the Caesars Superdome on Dec. 29.

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