ESPN insider reveals that Gardner Minshew is blowing the Las Vegas Raiders away this offseason

The Las Vegas Raiders are one of the few teams that have a legit quarterback battle happening as we approach training camp. Aidan O'Connell, the rookie who took over last season when Josh McDaniels was fired and Jimmy Garoppolo was benched, has the slight advantage of playing last season with the team.

Antonio Pierce, the coach who promoted O'Connell to the starter, has said that O'Connell at least deserves to get first-team reps this offseason. But, he hasn't ruled out O'Connell being the backup by the time Week 1 comes. And, that is largely because of Gardner Minshew, whom they signed this offseason.

He has a ton of experience, and nearly took the Indianapolis Colts to the playoffs last year on an offense that really wasn't that great roster-wise. So, he will have a shot to prove to the coaching staff that he deserves to start. And, so far, it seems like he is blowing people away this offseason.

We know that O'Connell has impressed with the jump he has made, but it seems like Minshew can't be counted out either.

"I'm told Gardner Minshew has also made quite the impression," ESPN's Jeremy Fowler said. "He has a lot of Moxy, he's going off script, he's changing plays in the huddle already, and he has learned the offense that quickly. This could very well be a situation in July and August where they split preseason games. Maybe O'Connell starts the first one, maybe Minshew starts the second one, or they flip-flop. That very well could be the scenario. This is a true battle and will play out. We don't see a lot of these in training camp, it's usually pretty open."

The Raiders will have a tough decision to make. Since they were not able to get the rookie quarterback they wanted, they went ahead and added a ton of pieces on the offense to help the two quarterbacks they do have. They signed guys like Jalen Guyton , and Michael Gallup , and then drafted Brock Bowers . They want weapons around the two guys they have to settle with to make their jobs as easy as possible.

And, when a guy like Minshew has these weapons, who knows what he can do? I'm not sure he has ever been on a team with as good weapons as the Raiders have. Who knows, maybe he wins the job outright and we are talking about No. 10 in Week 1.

Related: Raiders are doing everything they can to make life easier for Gardner Minshew and Aidan O'Connell