Last season, the Las Vegas Raiders alternated their starting quarterback between Gardner Minshew and Aidan O'Connell, with the former winning the starting position at training camp, but the latter finishing the season off as their starter.
However, neither of them could orchestrate a successful Raiders offense, and they played a huge part in the Raiders' only winning four games. Now, Minshew is the backup for their divisional rivals, the Kansas City Chiefs, and O'Connell is the backup to Geno Smith, someone they believe can elevate this offense and a quarterback they traded for from the Seattle Seahawks.
Smith will be reuniting with Pete Carroll in Las Vegas, and they're hoping for more than four games in the win column next year. O'Connell was drafted in the fourth round two years ago, and the previous regime for the Raiders drafted him.
Now, O'Connell's future with the team looks to be in jeopardy as none of the coaching staff or upper management has any ties that would keep him on the team. If they trusted him to be their franchise quarterback, they wouldn't have traded for Smith. Worse than that, he's been given plenty of opportunities to prove to the Raiders organization that he's a player worth keeping around, and he's never delivered on any of them.
The NFL Draft is here, and it's looking more likely than not that the Raiders will try again in their pursuit of a franchise quarterback in this year's draft. With that being said, should the Raiders trade O'Connell away to any team that may be interested?
O'Connell has one year left on his rookie deal and will become a free agent next offseason. Last year, he played nine games for the Raiders and threw for 1,612 yards with eight touchdowns and four interceptions, while also being sacked ten times.
His draft value can't be too much, as the most the Raiders can expect in return for O'Connell is a fourth or fifth-round pick. However, they already have nine picks in the draft, and adding one more will just give them another chance at drafting a player that actually benefits them, something O'Connell doesn't do. If he has any value on the trade market at all, the Raiders should capitalize on it, as he'd likely walk in free agency next offseason anyway.
-1745334430-q80.webp "New York Yankees Already Found New Ace With Former Cy Young Winner Sidelined")
