The Las Vegas Raiders are going into preseason Week 2 with the biggest secret in the NFL -- who will be the starting quarterback for Week 1 of the 2024 regular season? The two of them, Aidan O'Connell and Gardner Minshew, have battled all offseason, whether it be training camp or even OTAs, and carried that battle over to the first preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings.
Now, it's hard to say who won the battle in the first game because they both played so well, and they both played so differently. O'Connell didn't make many mistakes, if any, but he did what he was supposed to do, drove the ball down the field with some chunk plays and great reads, but ultimately ended the drive with a field goal due to a sack.
As for Minshew, he came in right away with big yardage plays and flashes. He used his feet to get a third-down conversion and just played really well overall. But, neither of them played well enough to say that the player won, and neither played badly enough to say the other won.
"Yeah, just like I said last night, Aidan [O'Connell] had nine attempts there," head coach Antonio Pierce said on Sunday. "Gardner [Minshew] had 12. Obviously, you like the numbers to be equal, but they weren't. But I thought both guys were efficient. I thought there were some opportunities that [Gardner] Minshew made down the field that were really good.
"But I thought both quarterbacks – obviously when it's a clean pocket, man, you can see what this offense could be with both guys. But I thought they really did a good job of the operations. We did have one delay of the game with Gardner [Minshew] that we need to clean up. But I thought Aidan [O'Connell] did a really good job from being backed up down in the red zone and Gardner [Minshew] in the two-minute drill. Everything we wanted to get out of preseason one, we got."
Now, if I had to base it off of one game, and luckily it's not based on one game, I'd say Minshew won because he did have a touchdown drive, and he used his legs to extend drives. However, we still have to wait and see.
And, it's the biggest secret surrounding this team -- who will Antonio Pierce pick as his starting quarterback? Well, we may very well know this time next week.
“The goal would be to hopefully make a decision after this game this Saturday," Pierce said. "We got to get ready to play football. We got enough film and we'll have two games here to evaluate both quarterbacks to see how they'll play. And we haven't really made a decision on who's going to start or not. But either way, both with play a quarter."
On Saturday, the Las Vegas Raiders will play the Dallas Cowboys in the second preseason game . Depending on what the Cowboys' plans are in terms of playing defensive starters, and how much they play, this could be a great opportunity to see who is the better quarterback, against one of the better defenses in the league.
If you're Minshew or O'Connell in this one, it's for all the marbles. Each of them has had dreams since they were a kid to play in the NFL as a starting quarterback, and be that guy for a team -- now their chance.
Related: Risers and fallers after the Las Vegas Raiders' first preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings
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