When the Raiders selected Aidan O’Connell in the fourth round of the 2023 NFL Draft, no one expected that he would play as a rookie. The expectation was that he would sit behind Jimmy Garoppolo and Brian Hoyer as the No. 3 QB.
But as luck would have it, O’Connell got on the field quicker than anyone could have imagined. And by Week 9, he was named the full-time starter. It was an up-and-down year for O’Connell, but he survived and finished the season with a record of 5-5 as a starter.
But what is the ceiling for O’Connell in the NFL? Pro Football Focus tried to answer that question earlier this week and compared him to NFL journeyman Ryan Fitzpatrick. Here is a snippet of their thoughts on the former Purdue star:
O’Connell could potentially become the next Ryan Fitzpatrick — a quarterback on the borderline of being an NFL starter yet one capable of catching fire and going on a run of high-level play. When that player catches the low end of his variance, he gets relegated back to backup status and often bumped from the roster entirely, forced to move on to a new team to begin the cycle anew.
Fitzpatrick played 17 years in the NFL and appeared in 166 games. Not bad for a former seventh-round pick. If O’Connell’s career could be anything similar to that, it would be a major win for him and the Raiders.
The Raiders are hoping they can get adequate production from O’Connell this year. And if they can’t, they will turn to Gardner Minshew to help steer the ship. But expecting O’Connell to be anything more than a stopgap quarterback seems ambitious.
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