LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – On Sunday, following a 27-12 preseason home loss to the Dallas Cowboys, Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce announced that Gardner Minshew beat out Aidan O’Connell and will start for the Raiders week one of the regular season against the LA Chargers.
“Gardner Minshew is going to be the starting quarterback this 2024 season, said Pierce. “Myself, Tom Telesco, and Luke Getsy discussed it this morning. A lot of things went into it. It wasn’t based off the last night. There’s a lot of factors, so we feel like Gardner gives us the best opportunity to get off to a fast start, and that’s what we’re going with. We support him, our teams behind it, our staff behind it, organizations behind it.”
The 28-year-old is entering his sixth season in the NFL, but this will be the first one where he enters the year as the starter. Minshew, who signed a two-year, $25 million contract this past March had a completion percentage under 50% in two preseason games, throwing for 212 yards and a touchdown.
“Experience, the operation, the processing. The same thing we saw in practice, some of it showed up in the games,” explained Pierce. “A lot of stuff we can get better at. I don’t think anything here is a finished product but based off the first quarter of the season, we feel like Gardner Minshew gives us the best opportunity.”
“Yeah, well, one, his personality is affectionate, his image is affectionate, his leadership is affectionate. Things of improvement, footwork in the pocket, staying on script. There’s some magic about him when he does break the pocket and does his thing, but there’s a lot of times where if the first or second read is there, we got to let it rip. So, he understands that, and more importantly taking care of the football.”
Minshew has started 37 games in his NFL career, 13 coming last season where he led the Colts to a 7-6 record. O’Connell, who started 10 games for the Raiders in 2023 during his rookie season, will now backup Minshew.
“Those two gentlemen are professionals. The way they’ve handled this competition has really resonated throughout our building, especially our staff and our team. They’ve cheered each other on, they’ve been good teammates. They brought out the best version of each other in practices and I think in the games. They both took it on the chin like a champ. And I told them, just both be ready. It’s the National Football League, you never know. But Aidan O’Connell is a young player that has a tremendous upside that I think will still be a starter some point here in this league, if it’s this year or next year. But he will play in games, and I think Gardner’s Minshew done a good job of being that older presence you know, because he’s played a couple years in league and he’s been through some adversities, so that’s been good for Aidan.”
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