After rolling with veteran Gardner Minshew II for the first five weeks of the season, the Las Vegas Raiders are making a QB change ahead of their Week 6 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce spoke to the media Wednesday afternoon and named second-year pro Aidan O’Connell the starting quarterback against Pittsburgh.
“I mean, it was a quarterback battle early on. [Minshew] started five games, and at this point I think it’s best to go with Aidan going forward,” Pierce said, according to video via the Raiders’ YouTube page.
The Raiders did hold a quarterback competition during the offseason, through training camp and the preseason, and the veteran Minshew was able to easily beat out O’Connell. He started the season relatively strong, too, including leading the Raiders to a key road win over the Baltimore Ravens in Week 2.
Since then, though, he’s struggled. Now, there’s a change.
O’Connell split time with Minshew the last two weeks as the Raiders tried to find some consistency on offense. In his first two games of the season, O’Connell has completed 19-of-32 passes for 176 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He was 9-of-12 for 82 yards and a touchdown in Week 5 against the Denver Broncos in a blowout loss.
O’Connell started 10 games as a rookie for the Raiders, appearing in 11 total in 2023. He completed 213-of-343 passes for 2,218 yards, 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions, going 5-5 as the Raiders’ starter.
Las Vegas chose O’Connell in the fourth round of the 2023 NFL Draft coming out of Purdue, where he was a standout quarterback in 2021 and 2022.
Coming out of the Week 5 loss to the Broncos, Pierce said he didn’t know who was going to be the starting quarterback in Week 6 against Pittsburgh, opening the door for a change. He stepped through that door on Wednesday, throwing the Raiders further into turmoil offensively as star receiver Davante Adams remains out with a hamstring injury and has requested a trade.
The Steelers and Raiders will kick off at 4:05 PM/EST on Sunday inside Allegiant Stadium. The game will be broadcast on CBS and feature the crew of Ian Eagle, Charles Davis and Evan Washburn, but will be broadcast in limited markets in the late window.
