Las Vegas Raiders fans entered the off-season with a buffet of questions. Would Antonio Pierce be retained as the team’s head coach? Would the Raiders get a new quarterback? If they did get a new quarterback, would it come from the market or the draft? With the regular season towering over the last preseason game, all of these questions have been answered. However, now questions surround Gardner Minshew.
Will Minshew Mania return to the 2024 season for the quarterback out of Washington State University?
Here are three bold predictions for Minshew in Las Vegas.
Gadner Minshew will have a slow start
Put simply, after a mid-season surge with the Colts last year, expectations are reasonably elevated for Minshew this season. While some quarterback transplants might be met with a multitude of varying prophecies, there is likely only one real outcome for Minshew. By the end of September, the Raiders will be facing the cliff.
With bankruptcy clouds looming over Pierce’s wife and effectively himself, the new coach finds his attention split. Other head coaches don’t face the financial woes and take advantage of the edge, winning games early against the Raiders. By the end of September, the Raiders are 1-3.
Midseason resurgence
Just when all hope seems lost, that is when Minshew’s team clicks. After taking plenty of criticism, detractors find themselves stunned as Minshew leads the team on a run back to within a game of .500 by Week 12.
During the run, fans revive the Minshew Mania moniker and find themselves rooting for the quarterback once again. For a few weeks, if feels like the Colts might have made a mistake letting Minshew out the door.
Aiden O’Connell supplants Gardner Minshew as the starter
However, with a few games left to go, Minshew hits a wall. Defenses have adjusted and the Raiders are out of tricks with the quarterback. As such, a clearer-minded Pierce flips the pressure on Aiden O’Connell in December, tasking him to pull off a miracle.
At that point, Minshew’s season ends due to benching. While he ultimately didn’t get the Raiders to the playoffs, he gave the fans a season fun enough to watch. As far as seasons go, they can be worse than what Minshew gave the Raiders.
The stock built by the year catapults Minshew’s career forward and extends it by four years.
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