Raiders QB Decision: Aidan O'Connell or Gardner Minshew?
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00:00The Raiders have a quarterback question to answer this offseason.
00:09Will it be the second year pro that was thrust into the starting role to end out last year,
00:14Aiden O'Connell out of Purdue or the new offseason acquisition, the veteran who has
00:20been around a time or two, that being Gardner Minshew.
00:24One of the great things, Donny, as we started these debates a couple of days ago, I was
00:28asking you about rookie quarterbacks and how many would start by week number one.
00:32I didn't even know that on the New Jersey side of the FanDuel Sportsbook, Joe Lisi was
00:37the one to tip me off to it.
00:39They had actual match bets for various NFL teams of who would be the week one starter.
00:45We shared it for the Pittsburgh Steelers, now to Vegas.
00:49And surprisingly, at least to me, Aiden O'Connell's the front runner, minus 140 against Gardner
00:55Minshew.
00:57I like to see that, to be honest, and I'm going to tell you why.
00:59Gardner Minshew, to me, just might be the best backup in the sport, because to be honest,
01:03if you have a decent football team and you need to have a quarterback or two for like
01:07a week or two scramble, he is fantastic.
01:10He'll come in and give you his best effort, quite frankly, win those games, as opposed
01:13to just keep you in those games.
01:15But if we are being honest about what the health of a franchise should be, and sometimes
01:19it's hard to sell a brand new head coach who knows he needs to win over the locker room,
01:24keep the locker room, and win football games to keep his job.
01:27Same thing with the general manager.
01:28How many times do you see general managers and coaches go in the self-preservation modes?
01:32What's going to win me the most football games?
01:34It just might be going with Gardner Minshew, but I have to be honest, I don't have big
01:39plans for the Raiders this year.
01:41The one thing you do have to find is who your quarterback of the future is going to be.
01:45Come on, it's not going to be Gardner Minshew.
01:47That's not the guy that's going to lead you to a Super Bowl.
01:49I love Gardner Minshew, and I just told you, he is so valuable as a backup quarterback.
01:54He's going to be the best backup quarterback in the NFL, but that's not the guy to get
01:57you to the next step.
01:58That's not the guy that's going to be your future quarterback.
02:00I'm not even saying O'Connell is even the right guy for the job, but I do think you
02:05owe it to the franchise to say, what happens if O'Connell can play?
02:08Hey, look, we might not have to go into the free agent market or back into the draft and
02:12get a quarterback.
02:13I trust this kid.
02:14Or if he can't play, then you have finality at the end of the season.
02:17Okay, Gardner Minshew's here, he's a solid quarterback, but we need our quarterback of
02:21the future.
02:22If we're just playing the Raiders out, which again, I say this, you can't fault management
02:26and a coach for saying, my job is to win football games.
02:30Let me put the best player out on the field who I think is going to win an extra game
02:33or two.
02:34I don't have any issues with that.
02:35But the overall health of the franchise, I really think you have to let O'Connell play
02:38to be honest, man.