Considering the Raiders quarterback options, the team will go into the 2024 NFL season, we can guess, with an offense attempting to learn the same simple directive as medical students across the world: Do no harm.
Actually, we probably do not have to guess. All the signals are there. The Raiders quarterbacks are second-year quarterback Aidan O’Connell, kept on to compete for the starting job this season, and journeyman free-agent Gardner Minshew. The expectation was that at least one other realistic option would be brought in, either in the draft (Michael Penix?) or perhaps in a trade (Justin Fields?), to give the competition some juice.
But the draft board went haywire on incoming QBs, and the Raiders could find no added free agents they liked. So, the front office shrugged and left the lead job as a Minshew-O’Connell affair.
That could be good enough, if they can avoid mistakes, to get the Raiders into the 9- or 10-win range and perhaps into the postseason. But it’s not going to make this team a contender. Obviously, that will have to wait a year.
And the Raiders could be in especially good standing to pursue what will potentially be the biggest free agent on the market next winter: Cowboys star quarterback Dak Prescott, a three-time Pro Bowler whose $160 million contract is up at the end of this season.
