Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce has flirted with the possibility of a quarterback change for weeks now. And ahead of the team’s Week 6 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the move was finally made.
Last week, Pierce decided to bench starting quarterback Gardner Minshew, which is something that had happened on numerous occasions now during games this year.
Coming into the season, Minshew and second-year quarterback Aidan O’Connell were seemingly in a very competitive battle for the starting job.
Minshew has largely struggled to impress much this season, averaging just over 200 passing yards per game this year with more interceptions than passing touchdowns.
With this in mind, Pierce has finally decided to give O’Connell his first starting opportunity of the year, naming him their starter in Week 6.
“It was a quarterback battle early on. Minshew started five games, and at this point, I think it’s best to go with Aidan (O’Connell) going forward,” Pierce said during a press conference on Wednesday.
As for why Pierce has ultimately made the move now, he went on to say that he believes O’Connell has grown in confidence since his rookie year.
“Confidence,” Pierce said. “Out of that shell, not looking like a rookie no more. Not acting like a rookie no more. He has a certain presence about himself. And it’s not so outgoing where you’ll just notice it. But if you’ve been around him enough, he’s definitely speaking up a lot more. I love how he walks around the building. Really, what I respected the most is when we named Gardner the starter, he said, alright, I’m going to be the best scout-team quarterback possible. And he was lighting our a** up. And every day he gave us the best look. And he walked around with a smile on his face. And if you remember the Baltimore game, he and Jackson Powers were sitting there rallying the troops and pumping them up and he was just a great teammate. So, all those things factor into the decisions.”
It will be interesting to see whether O’Connell can potentially help the Raiders turn their season around, sitting at just a 2-3 record heading into their matchup with Pittsburgh in Week 6.
