Las Vegas Raiders announce Gardner Minshew as starting QB for Week 1

The Las Vegas Raiders have finally made their decision for who will start at the quarterback position between Gardner Minshew and Aidan O'Connell.

According to The Athletic's Tashan Reed , the Raiders are rolling with Minshew for Week 1 of the 2024 season, with O'Connell set to serve as his backup. Pierce added that O'Connell has tremendous upside and believes he will be a starter at some point in his career.

"Experience, the operation, processing... a lot of it showed up in games... based off where we want to go in the first 1/4 of the season we feel like Gardner gives us the best opportunity," Pierce said of Minshew .

"His personality is infectious, his energy is infectious, his leadership is infectious," Pierce added.

The decision comes on the heels of the Raiders losing their preseason Week 2 contest against the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday night. Both quarterbacks struggled, but O'Connell was the only one to get the Raiders in the end zone. However, he threw a pick-six on the very next drive to sour his night.

The week prior, both quarterbacks played much better, but it was Minshew who led the offense on a pair of touchdown drives. The preseason was just a microcosm of how the entire offseason went, as neither signal-caller was able to really grab a stranglehold on the job.

While Minshew will get the keys to the car to start the season, he is anything but a sure thing to last the entire campaign in that role. O'Connell will be waiting in the wings if the veteran falters.